Strategies for Awareness & Prevention of Hiv/Aids Among African-Americans: A Hand Book

By Dr. R akesh K. Mehta

This handbook has been developed to support health educators, community workers, teachers and parents in their efforts to protect the African American people from the scrouge of HIV/AIDS. The primary target of the hand book are teenagers/youth and other African American persons who are the less fortunate components of our society, because it is this population that is most susceptible to this scourge. However suggestions included here in apply virtually to all populations especially culturally different people such as Hispanic etc. Prevention of HIV/AIDS among adults helps to maintain an enlightened parent population prevents AIDS transmitted from the older to the younger generation as in some communities, the elder people are involved in sexual relationships with young adolescents.

The authors commend organizations and individuals such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Honble U.S.President Barack Obama and former US president they funded billions of dollars to offer treatment of HIV/AIDS infected people and for education of people most susceptible to HIV infection.

This hand book titled Strategies for Awareness and its Prevention of HIV/AIDS Among African American (Mehta and Kalra) compliments these efforts with the hope that its contents when followed may reduce the spending required to arrest the HIV/AIDS cases and make the funds available for educational projects that impact lifestyle so that spread is stopped and menace of HIV/ AIDS epidemic among African American is reversed.

Some of the suggestions have been adapted from Prof. Kalra and Prof. Sutman book titled WORLD PERSPECTIVE ON HIV /AIDS for the less fortunate with their due permission.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469182124

Dr. R akesh K. Mehta

Rakesh K Mehta MD; FRCPC ;FACP ;FACIP. Clinical Associate Professor New York Medical College Valhalla NY Program Manager and Section Chief, Medical Specialties HVHCS, New York ] Rajinder M Kalra Professor Emeritus International Institute of Adult and Life Long Education,Delhi Former Adjunct Professor,Simon Fraser University Burnaby,B.C.Canada and Senior Academic Consultant of Progressive Intercultural Community Services (PICS) of HIV/AIDS Projects British Columbia,Canada

Book preview

Dr. R akesh K. Mehta

&

Pr o f . R a j i n d e r M . K a l r a

Copyright © 2012 by Dr. Rakesh K. Mehta & Prof. Rajinder M.Kalra.

ISBN:      Softcover   978-1-4691-8211-7

                Ebook      978-1-4691-8212-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgement

Preface

Introduction

I Essence of being African-American: A Challenge for Survival

II HIV/AIDS: African-Americans at a Greater Risk

III AIDS and Out of School African-American Adolescents/Youth

IV HIV/AIDS and Its Prevention

V HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health

VI Inculcation of Values Among African-American Adolescents and Youth

VII Psychic Drugs, Alcohol, AIDS and African-American Adolescents/Youth

VIII Community Awareness Drive in Education and Prevention of HIV /AIDS

IX Framework of Basic Certificate Course in Family Education and HIV/AIDS Awareness and Prevention

X Hands on Culturally Relevant HIV/AIDS Awareness/Preventive Strategies for African-American Adolescents/Youth

Epilogue

Suggested Readings

ENDNOTES

Rakesh K Mehta

MB; MD; FRCPC; FACP; FACIP

Program Manager specialties

Chief, Hematology Oncology VA Hudson Valley

Clinical Associate Professor

New York Medical College Valhalla and

Rajinder M Kalra

M.S (Master of Science U.B.C Canada) Curriculum Consultant Masters College/ Univ.of Western Washington Bellingham

Doctor of Education (Curriculum and Instruction Science Education) Temple University Philadelphia U.S.A.

Professor Emeritus International Instiute of Adult and Life long Education Delhi. Former Adjunct Professor Faculty of Health Sciences Simon Fraser University Burnaby B.C.Canada

Foreword by

Cynthia Livingstone Gibert, MD, MSc, FACP, FIDSA

Senior Medical Advisor

Clinical Public Health

Office of Public Health

Department of Veterans Affairs

Director of Special Projects

Medical Service

VA Medical Center Washington DC

Professor of Medicine

George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Image11018.JPG

This book is in loving memory of my parents,

Late Dr Parkash Chander Mehta

MSc. MBBS, Silver and Bronze medalist

and

my beloved and respected mother

Late Mrs Sheela Mehta on her first death anniversary

July 16, 2012

Who taught me to "help the poor and the needy’’

HOPING FOR CURE FOR HIV/AIDS IN FUTURE.

RAKESH K MEHTA

MD; FRCPC; FACP.

Foreword

‘Strategies for awareness and prevention of HIV/AIDS among African Americans’ by Dr Rakesh K Mehta and Prof R. M. Kalra, provides a practical, thoughtful and provocative overview of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency virus (AIDS) epidemic among African Americans in the United States (U.S.). Changing the course of this epidemic requires more than an understanding of the appropriate medical care following HIV infection; it demands an appreciation of why in the U.S. this epidemic now disproportionately impacts the African American community. Meeting the need for a comprehensive study of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among African Americans, this book will serve as a guide for educators, students, school administrators, and social activists, as it describes the essence of being African American, the epidemiology of HIV among African Americans, community awareness about HIV, the need to educate young African Americans about HIV-associated risk behaviors, the prevention of HIV infection, and the impact of HIV on sexual behavior.

On June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported five cases of Pneumocystis pneumonia in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. These were the first recognized cases of AIDS in the United States. It is now more than 30 years since that report. Estimates from UNAIDS are that 60 million people have been infected with HIV and more than 25 million have died of AIDS; in 2009, worldwide 33.3 million adults and children are living with HIV and 2.6 million were newly infected in that year alone. The burden of HIV disease remains greatest in sub-Saharan Africa where in 2009 there were over 22.5 million adults and children living with HIV infection and 1.8 million infected during that year. In the United States, CDC estimates are that over 1.2 million are now living with HIV, more than ever before, and that at least 56,000 acquire HIV infection each year. In 2012, African American communities in the U.S. are being devastated by an HIV epidemic not unlike that in many sub Saharan cities and towns. Current estimates are that during their lifetimes, one in 16 black men and one in 32 black women in the U.S. will be living with HIV infection.

On July 13, 2010, the White House released President Barak Obama’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS). The Strategy has three major goals for 2015:

•   Reducing new HIV infections by 25%—from 56,300 to 42,225 per year.

•   Increasing access to care and improving health outcomes for people living with HIV—including linkage to clinical care, retention in care; increasing the number of Ryan White clients with permanent housing.

•   Reducing HIV-related health disparities—improving access to prevention and care services; increasing by 20% the proportion of people diagnosed with HIV with undetectable HIV viral load.

The NHAS provides a basic framework for implementation of this strategy. Achievement of these goals demands a more coordinated national response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Success will require engagement of those living and working in the most affected communities as well as ongoing leadership and funding from the federal government. Commitment from state and local governments, schools, religious organization, philanthropists, educational and outreach groups, research and medical institutions—particularly in African America communities will have to be sustained. Most importantly, those at risk for HIV infection and those living with HIV infection must participate at all levels in these efforts.

Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic the highest rates of HIV infection in the U.S. have been in men. Over the past 30 years, however, the epidemiology has changed dramatically. In the 1980s the epidemic was primarily confined to young, white, middle-class, men who have sex with men (MSM) living for the most part in larger cities on the East and West coasts—New York, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Current CDC estimates are that gay and bisexual men remain the most impacted by HIV/AIDS. In 2009, MSM were 2% of the U.S. population but accounted for 61% of all new HIV infections. The only risk group to have a significant increase in new infections that year was young, black MSM. In addition, in 2009, 23% of new infections were in women with one quarter of those living with HIV in the U.S. being women. Of the estimated 11,200 new infections in women, 57% occurred in black women. For these women the risks for HIV infection were high-risk heterosexual contact and injection drug use.

The most recent CDC data on the epidemic serve to confirm the dramatic impact of HIV/AIDS on African American adults and adolescents. African Americans make up 14% of the U.S. population yet 46% of those living with HIV/AIDS are African American. In 2009, there were approximately 54,000 people newly infected with HIV—one person every nine-and-a-half minutes—44% were African American, an incidence rate seven times that of whites. Overall among African American men the diagnosis rate on new HIV infection was six times that for white men. Over 60% of the new infections were in men who have sex with men (MSM) and bisexual men, with 35% of the cases reported in African American MSM. For younger MSM, ages 13 to 29, the number of new cases of HIV in African Americans was twice that of white MSM. In the United States, African American and Hispanics are disproportionately impacted by the HIV epidemic. This disparity is most dramatic among women. The prevalence of HIV infection among women in the United States has increased since the 1980s. CDC estimates from 2006 were that 278,400 women were living with HIV/AIDS infection—two-thirds being African American. Between 1985 and 2007, the percentage of AIDS cases in female adults and adolescent increased from 7% to 27 percent. For these females the rate was 20 times that of white females and four times that of Latina females.

Those living with HIV infection and those at greatest risk of infection are poor, minority racial/ethnic groups, and women. Many are unemployed or underemployed, lack educational opportunities, poorly housed or homeless, and marginalized