World AIDS Day: CDC says HIV still disproportionately impacts Blacks, Latinos in the US

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds HIV rates dropped significantly for gay and bisexual white men over the past decade.

News 12 Staff

Dec 1, 2021, 3:46 PM

Updated 1,109 days ago

Share:

Today is World AIDS Day.
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds HIV rates dropped significantly for gay and bisexual white men over the past decade.
The infection rate only took a small dip for Black men and rose slightly for Hispanic and Latino men.
Among other factors, researchers say the disparity is likely due to a disparity in access to health care between whites and minorities.
The Biden administration in its new HIV/AIDS strategy calls racism “a public health threat” that must be fully recognized as the world looks to end the epidemic.
The strategy released Wednesday on the annual commemoration of World AIDS Day is meant to serve as a framework for how the administration intends to shape its policies, research, programs and planning over the next three years.
The new strategy asserts that over generations “structural inequities have resulted in racial and ethnic health disparities that are severe, far-reaching, and unacceptable.”
To reduce the disparities, the strategy includes calls for focusing on the needs of disproportionately affected populations, supporting racial justice, combating HIV-related stigma and discrimination and providing leadership and employment opportunities for people with or who experience risk for HIV.
More than 36 million people worldwide, including 700,000 in the U.S., have died from AIDS-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic more than 40 years ago. Nearly 38 million people are living with HIV, including 1.2 million in the U.S.
AP wire services contributed to this report.