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February 7th marked National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

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This weekend (Sunday February 7th) saw the 16th annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day take place in the US to raise awareness of the condition and encourage increased uptake of testing.

In a blog for the website AIDS.gov, Dr Eugene McCray, director of the division for HIV/AIDS prevention at the National Center for HIV/AIDS, explained that there is a disparity in the US between the care offered to African Americans with the illness in comparison to patients of other ethnicities.

Statistics show that a disproportional number of gay and bisexual African Americans - particularly those aged between 13 and 24 - are diagnosed with HIV in comparison to males of other ethnicities, although there have been signs of stabilisation in recent years.

What's more, official figures indicate that some 60 per cent of African American gay and bisexual males who have been diagnosed with the disease in the past two years alone live in southern America, highlighting a regional disparity in diagnosis rates too.

However, there is no evidence to suggest that men in this demographic engage in any more risky sexual behaviours than other males, but previous research has shown that they are more likely to live in poverty and consequently have limited access to adequate healthcare services.

As a result, this lack of sufficient healthcare provision and lack of prevention can indirectly lead to the spread of HIV among African American communities.

Dr McCray stated: "To stop the HIV epidemic among African Americans, we must tackle the social inequities influencing HIV health outcomes and the disparities that persist at every stage of the continuum of HIV care, including identifying approaches to promote early linkage to and retention in care."

The overall aim of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day was to encourage more African American men to get tested for the condition, as this can help them to access the best treatment available and potentially prolong their life.ADNFCR-2094-ID-801812018-ADNFCR
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