A report of the United Nations issued in advance of the 17th
International AIDS Conference, which begins this weekend in Mexico City, reveals that the number of
people dying from AIDS has decreased since its peak in the late 1990s partly
because of increasing access to treatment.
“In a surprisingly short period of time, there has been a
tripling of prevention efforts in some countries,” Paul De Lay, director of
evaluation for UNAIDS, said.
More exactly, the report read that the number of AIDS deaths
worldwide dropped 10 percent to 2 million in 2007, as did the number of new
infections in children from 410,000 to 370,000 from 2005 to 2007. There are
currently an estimated 33 million people living with HIV worldwide. Young
adults who account for almost half of new infections in adults are becoming
more aware of how to avoid AIDS, the report says.
This success was partly due to the Bush administration’s
program called the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to
deliver drugs and preventive measures to people in countries highly affected by
HIV. The program has pent about $19 billion overseas in the past five years.
“A six-fold increase in financing for HIV programs in low-
and middle-income countries (from) 2001-2007 is beginning to bear fruit, as
gains in lowering the number of AIDS deaths and preventing new infections are
apparent in many countries,” the report read. However, the report adds that
progress remains uneven and the epidemic’s future is still uncertain.
However promising the situation is looking overseas, a 55-page
new report by the Black AIDS Institute dubbed “Left Behind! Black America: A neglected Priority in the Global AIDS
Epidemic” provides startling evidence that there is a growing epidemic among
African Americans within the US’
borders.
The report makes a parallel between African American HIV
rates in Detroit, New Orleans and Washington D.C. and countries such as South
Africa, Haiti and Tanzania and draws a worrisome conclusion, namely: if Black
America existed outside the borders of the US, it would be a prime candidate
for US aid in the fight with AIDS. More exactly, their nation would rank 16th
in people living with HIV, 105th in life expectancy and 88th in infant
mortality worldwide, according to the report.
“When we give aid to foreign countries, we demand that they
have a national AIDS plan, but we don’t have a plan in the United States. Were
Black America a separate country, it would elicit major concern and extensive assistance
from the US
government. Instead, the national response to aids among Black Americans has
been lethargic and often neglectful,” Phill Wilson, founder and CEO of the
Black AIDS Institute, said criticizing the Bush administration’s program
dealing with AIDS.
More than half a million African Americans are HIV-positive,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s estimates, their
number being more numerous than in seven of the 15 “target countries” in the
Bush administration’s global AIDS initiative.
Also, they are eight times more likely than white Americans
to contract HIV and they fare more poorly infected due to late diagnoses and
lack of health services. One more thing: although AIDS treatment offers people
with quality health care a chance to a nearly-normal life, a previous study
found that HIV-positive blacks are 2.5 more likely to die than HIV-positive
whites.
In these conditions, Wilson
is asking the Bush administration to head part of its efforts and money towards
African Americans within the borders of the US.
