Today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Following are statistics about African Americans with HIV?AIDS taken from the Center for Disease Control (CDC):

When we look at HIV/AIDS by race and ethnicity, we see that African Americans have

  • More illness. Even though blacks (including African Americans) account for about 13% of the US population, they account for about half (49%) of the people who get HIV and AIDS.
  • Shorter survival times. Blacks with AIDS often don’t live as long as people of other races and ethnic groups with AIDS. This is due to the barriers mentioned above.
  • More deaths. For African Americans and other blacks, HIV/AIDS is a leading cause of death.

African Americans with HIV

Read more here: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/aa/index.htm

Credits: the chart was borrowed from the CDC site