The Local Take talks National Black HIV AIDS Awareness Day and Week with the Black Women's Health Imperative (BWHI). Linda Blount, CEO of the Black Women's Health Imperative and ,Masonia Traylor, a HIV-positive mother of two and HIV awareness advocate, join us to talk about new tools and outreach to fight the spread of HIV.
Linda Blount shares the shocking statistics about HIV in the African American community among women, particularly. In the past, most of the outreach has been to men, BWHI is out to change this. Their outreach is specifically to and for women who are more likely to contract the virus during sexual intercourse than men.
Masonia Traylor was an HIV awareness advocate before she found out that she was HIV positive. Masonia speaks about the day she learned that she was HIV positive. She talks about the myths and stigma associated with living with HIV. Everyone who is sexually active is at risk for HIV in Atlanta for no other reason than we have a high concentration of HIV residents.
Here are of the statistics about African Americans and HIV from the Black Women's Health Initiative:
· Black and Hispanic women continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, compared with women of other races/ethnicities.
· Of the total number of estimated new HIV infections among women, 64% (6,100) were in Blacks, 18% (1,700) were in whites and 15% (1,400) were in Hispanic/Latina women.
· In 2011, the diagnosis rate for HIV cases in the United States was 15.8 per 100,000 population and 60.4 among Blacks. Of roughly 197,000 diagnoses of HIV-infection from 2008-2011, Blacks accounted for: 47% of the total, 64% of women, 66% of cases attributed to heterosexual contact, and 67% of cases in children under 13.
Among Black women, high-risk heterosexual contact was the most frequently cited mode of transmission, accounting for 89% of cases diagnosed in 2011.
Let's Talk About PrEP is an awareness campaign to educate black women about PrEP- pre exposure prophylaxis a new tool in the fight against HIV for women. It has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection by more than 90 percent. PrEP includes taking a daily medication, using condoms and taking charge of your sexual health to remain HIV-negative.
Click the following link for more information about PreP
Click the following link to learn more about the Black Women's Health Imperative
Click the following link to learn about National Black HIV AIDS Awareness Day and Week