|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 Roots to Rap
Rahiel Tesfamariam
Columnist Page
Friday, March 18, 2005; Page 21
The Plague That Continues to Spread
An estimated 5 million new cases of HIV developed last year, bringing the total number of people living with the virus around the world to 40 million. Last year alone three million people died due to HIV/AIDS as reported by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.
According to the website of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, a non-profit community-based health organization in the District of Columbia, someone under the age of 25 is infected with HIV every 30 minutes in the United Sates. It's estimated that as many as 25-30 percent of those who are infected are unaware that they are HIV-positive.
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) issued a statement at the end of last year, declaring: "Every day about 14,000 people are infected with HIV- nearly half are women. In sub-Saharan Africa, women account for nearly 60 percent of all adult HIV infections."
In the United States, African American and Hispanic women represent only 25 percent of the female population, according to ICRW. However, those women make up 80 percent of female AIDS cases. AIDS leads as the cause of death among African American women between the ages of 25 and 34.
Locally, an estimated one in every 20 adults living in D.C. is infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and up to one-third of those individuals are not aware that they are HIV positive. Minorities, women and youth are most affected by this deadly virus that leads to AIDS, as 79 percent of all AIDS cases in the District are among African Americans. Additionally, new AIDS cases among women in the District occur at 10 times the national average.
ICRW believes that more international attention, resources and action needs to go towards supporting women and girls in their fight against the virus because HIV infection is spreading fastest among them.
Sub-Saharan countries engaged in war or internal strife pose a tremendous threat to the global fight as women and girls are often raped as a “weapon of war.” World Health Organization recently reported that tens of thousands of rapes were taking place in the Congo, with 40,000 documented rapes. Cases go unreported daily and many others are ignored. This brutal circumstance of war helps to explain why sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s highest rates of HIV/AIDS with an estimated 25 million cases. There are, on average, 13 HIV-positive women for ever 10 HIV-positive men- up from 12 infected women for every 10 men in 2002. Women now make up half of the HIV/AIDS cases worldwide. In America alone, one in 10 of new AIDS patients was a woman a generation ago; now, it’s now one in four.
While America continues to debate over sex education and condom distribution in schools versus abstinence until marriage, the death toll is steadily rising. Our community doesn’t have a minute to spare; we must protect ourselves and our loved by becoming informed and acting on what we know.
For more information, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Services at Whitman-Walker Clinic can be accessed by calling 202-939-7859 or emailing education@wwc.org. To schedule an HIV test, call 202-483-TEST. Visit www.unaids.org for more information about the global fights against HIV/AIDS.
For more information, visit www.ncobra.org and www.tulsareparations.org.
For Rahiel Tesfamariam send email to rahielt@washingtoninformer.com. |
|
|
|