CDC, Mo. orgs stress education after HIV survey findings
Groups also advocate consistent HIV testing.
Published Sept. 23, 2008
A survey has found that, because of a new surveying method, the rate of new HIV cases increased more than expected, despite on-going efforts of health care workers to educate the public about the disease.
The survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and released earlier this month, found detailed reports about groups running the risk of contracting the disease. The survey stated that gay males are still the largest at-risk demographic, but other groups increasingly in danger include black and Hispanic people.
For Hispanic people, who make up 19 percent of those infected, the disease has become the fourth leading cause of death. Black people constitute 45 percent of those newly infected by the disease, and new cases of the disease are twice as likely to occur among black men who have sex with men than with white people and Hispanics.
Through a new data-gathering technology, the CDC was able to better understand the accrued data than in past years. For instance, the CDC's new technology discovered the previous figure of 40,000 in 2004 of Americans annually newly infected is actually closer to 56,000.
The CDC encourages routine HIV screening to help prevent the disease, which, according to 2006 figures, infects nearly 11,000 Missourians.
The Boone County Health Center in Columbia offers testing through both appointments and walk-ins on Thursdays.
"It's an interesting, but not earth-shattering development," said Bill Monroe, Boone County HIV counseling and testing coordinator, about the newly released figures. "The number of issues every year is consistently the same despite our prevention efforts."
Student organizations at MU, including the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning Resource Center and Sexual Health Advocates Peer Education, provide free male and female condoms and sponsor educational events like AIDS Awareness Week in December.
Jake Hammel, president and founder of the Missouri AIDS Awareness Coalition, said education about the disease is not enough alone to encourage prevention, as the disease commonly affects more impoverished communities where education is not as easily obtained.
"It gets very difficult to educate people that are not conducive to being educated," Hammel said.
He said more testing would help increase prevention for disease, but that inaccurate cultural stigmas about who contracts the disease might lead some to believe they don't need to be tested.
"There's a huge stigma, that it's a 'gay cancer,' when its not," Hammel said. "AIDS does not care about your sexual orientation, your race or your gender. All it knows is that you're a living, breathing human being."
According to the CDC survey, the disproportionate incidence of the disease among black people could be due to factors such as poverty, education, a higher rate of sexually transmitted diseases compared to other groups and limited access to health care.
The survey stated the same factors might be driving up the rate of the disease among Hispanic people, but other confounding factors might be worsening the situation, such as languages barriers faced by new immigrants to the country and cultural values among Hispanic men that discourage the acknowledgement of risk-taking behaviors.
Monroe said he works to fight against the disease around the mid-Missouri area by providing education, prevention techniques and testing.
Monroe recently traveled to an event in Lincoln hosted by Black Entertainment Television where he tested 132 people for the disease. He also set up a free clinic in Columbia on June 27.
Monroe works in close conjunction with MU students and organizations to raise awareness. His department had a booth at Fall Fest, a community service event hosted by minority student organizations.
"We promote the idea of abstinence and the use of condoms," Monroe said.
On Dec. 1, Monroe's department, in conjunction with the MU Women's Center, will hold free walk-in testing as part of the World AIDS Day observance.
The emphasis on testing will make people more aware of the danger the disease presents, Monroe said.
"People only change habits if they know they're positive," he said