Report Finds Black Gay Males in US Worst Hit by HIV-AIDS

HIV-AIDS is affecting black gay men in the United States on a scale unseen among any other group in the developed world, said a report issued Wednesday ahead of the International AIDS Conference.

So grave is the crisis that in some US cities, one in two black men who have sex with other men are HIV positive, according to the report from the Black AIDS Institute, the only national HIV-AIDS think tank focusing on African Americans.

“AIDS in America is a black disease, no matter how you look at it,” its president and chief executive Phill Wilson, who is himself HIV positive, said ahead of Sunday’s opening of the six-day global conference.

“The best lens through which to figure out what AIDS looks like in America is to look at AIDS in black America,” he said in an interview, adding that it was time to “jump-start a new conversation . . .  and build a robust response” to the crisis.

The 74-page report, “Back of the Line: The State of AIDS Among Black Gay Men in America,” says black gay and bisexual men make up one in 500 Americans overall, but account for one in four new HIV infections in the United States.

HIV prevalence among such men is twice as high than among their white counterparts. {snip}

What’s more, black gay and bisexual men are seven times more likely than non-black counterparts to have undiagnosed HIV.

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Citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it [the NAACP] said African Americans represent 13 percent of the total population, yet account for more than half of all new HIV diagnoses.

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