Living With And Fighting AIDS in the African American Community
As the 19th International AIDS Conference convenes in Washington, D.C., the spotlight is on the African-American community, which has been hit hard by the AIDS epidemic. A recent study found that one in four gay or bisexual black men is infected with HIV by the age of 25. By age 40, 60 percent of black men who have sex with men (MSM) are living with the virus.
Another report found that among about 1,500 men in six major U.S. cities, the new infection rate for black MSM was almost 50 percent higher than for their white peers. Here, members of the HIV outreach group Sexy With a Goal meet at the AIDS Service Center of New York City’s Lower East Side Peer Outreach Center. Click through the gallery to see how African Americans are affected by the disease, and what’s being done for patients and the community.
Photo: Mike Segar/Reuters
Medication: A Daily Reality
AIDS patient Michael Campbell, 58, receives his daily dose of medication in May at Newark’s Broadway House for Continuing care, New Jersey’s only specialized nursing facility for people living with HIV/AIDS. Campbell is one of 78 HIV/AIDS patients living at Broadway House, which occupies a former high school building in Newark’s North Ward. New Jersey ranks fifth highest among U.S. states for total AIDS cases, and is one of a handful of northeastern states where new cases of HIV/AIDS among young African Americans is on the rise. Huge strides have been made in medication to treat HIV and AIDS, allowing people to live longer and with a better quality of life. Drugs that often must be taken daily, however, do have side effects.
Photo: Mike Segar/Reuters
The Bond Between Patient and Caregiver
AIDS patient Woodrow “Woody” Barron, 69, from Plainfield, New Jersey, poses with his certified nursing assistant Halema in May at the Broadway House for Continuing Care. Barron contracted AIDS in 1986 and started living at the facility, New Jersey’s only specialized nursing facility for people living with HIV/AIDS, in 1997.
Barron was infected with the virus after sharing a needle with a fellow drug user. When asked what advice he would give young African Americans who continue to be so hard hit by HIV/AIDS, he said that youth need to “find a better way to live their life” and “not to be afraid of seeking help, getting tested for HIV, and educating themselves about HIV to protect themselves...otherwise HIV will just keep killing us.”
Photo: Mike Segar/Reuters
Finding a Friend in the Fight
New Jersey residents Bobby Billingsly, 40 (left) and Woodrow “Woody” Barron, 69 (right), are two of 78 residents at the Broadway House for Continuing Care, New Jersey’s only dedicated nursing facility for people who have HIV and AIDS. The facility works with resident patients, providing medical, social and psychological support to help them adjust to the effects of the virus and eventually adapt to life back in the community.
Photo: Mike Segar/Reuters
A Walk to Health
With the help of a physical therapist, AIDS patient Steve Smith, 52, does walking exercises at Broadway House for Continuing Care, a specialized nursing facility for people living with HIV/AIDS in Newark, New Jersey. New data supported by the HIV Prevention Trials Network shows that some U.S cities, including Newark, Baltimore, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., have been particularly hit hard in recent years by the AIDS epidemic, especially in the African American community. Smith says he “hopes the day comes when they find some cure for this thing, so this place can close its doors.”
Photo: Mike Segar/Reuters
Peers Reach Out
Peer educator Pierre Lynch (right) and empowerment trainer Franklin Burns (left), members of the group Sexy with A Goal, socialize at the AIDS Service Center of New York City’s Lower East Side Peer Outreach Center in the East Village. SWAG mPowerment, ASC/NYC’s community empowerment initiative to end the stigma of HIV and AIDS and boost community awareness, was developed to initiate the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s evidence-based intervention. The group is made up of mostly HIV-positive men, age 19 to 29, who actively engage young gay men in their community to identify, educate, and support potentially at-risk people and others to stem HIV infection.
Photo: Mike Segar/Reuters
Knowledge and Power in an At-Home HIV Test
A staff member at the AIDS Service Center of New York City holds an OraQuick Advance Rapid HIV-1/2 Antibody test kit at the center’s lower Manhattan headquarters. The U.S Food and Drug Administration recently approved the over-the-counter sale of the OraQuick in-home test, which gives results in 20 to 40 minutes and is fairly accurate. Health experts hope the ease and privacy of the test will encourage people to check their HIV status, which in turn may help halt the spread of the virus.
