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Black Americans make up 14 percent of the U.S. population, but nearly half of the more than 1 million people believed to be living with HIV/AIDS and nearly half of the new HIV infections each year.

But there’s good news out there.

Recent scientific breakthroughs and declines in the number of new infections among African-Americans suggest there is an opportunity to slow the growth of HIV infections in the black community.

“There’s stability in many parts of the epidemic, and that’s good news,” said Kevin Fenton, M.D., director of the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention. “We’re not seeing the increases that we saw at the beginning of the epidemic, but we really want to work toward reducing the numbers and reducing the health disparities.”

The CDC has declared Feb. 7 National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day to highlight the toll the disease takes on the community and what can be done to help end the epidemic.

It has been 30 years since the first case of AIDS was reported in the United States. Researchers and advocates say National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is another opportunity to heighten the call for a vaccine to end the crisis.

“In their lifetime, one in 16 African-American men and one in 32 African-American women will be infected with HIV,” says Dr. Robert McNally, president and CEO of GeoVax Labs, an Atlanta-based biotechnology company that creates, develops and tests innovative HIV/AIDS vaccines.

Recent reports continue to show the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among African-Americans.

African-Americans face the most severe burden of HIV in the United States, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the end of 2007, blacks accounted for almost half – 46 percent – of people living with a diagnosis of HIV infection in the 37 states and five U.S.-dependent areas with long-term, confidential, name-based HIV reporting.

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article courtesy of BlackAmericaWeb.com

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