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Notice to Readers: National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, February
7, 2006
The sixth annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is February 7, 2006. This observance is sponsored by
a coalition of nongovernment organizations, with support from CDC, to call attention to the disproportionate impact
of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) on the black population in
the United States.
In 2004, blacks accounted for 20,965 (49%) of the estimated number of AIDS cases diagnosed in the United
States, although they represented only 12.3% of the U.S. population
(1). HIV/AIDS was also among the top three causes of
death for black men aged 25--54 years and among the top four causes of death for black women aged 25--54 years in 2002,
the
most recent year for which those data are available
(2). HIV/AIDS was the leading cause of death for black women aged
25--34 years (2).
The 2004 rate of AIDS diagnoses for blacks was nearly
10 times the rate for whites and three times the rate for
Hispanics. The rate of AIDSdiagnoses for black women was 23 times the rate for white women. The rate of
AIDSdiagnoses for black men was eight times the rate for white men
(1). The primary mode of HIV transmission for both men and women was
sexual contact with men (1).
Race and ethnicity alone are not risk factors for HIV infection. However, blacks are more likely to face certain risk
factors for HIV infection and barriers to testing and treatment, including poverty and limited access to health care and
HIV prevention education (3--5). Testing, health-care, education, and prevention services remain critical to stopping the spread
of HIV in this community.
US Census Bureau. Poverty status of the population in 1999 by age, sex, and race and Hispanic origin. Washington, DC: US Census
Bureau; March 2000. Available at
http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-19.pdf.
Diaz T, Chu SY, Buehler JW, et al. Socioeconomic differences among people with AIDS: results from a multistate surveillance project. Am J Prev
Med 1994;10:217--22.
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