Men who have sex with men (MSM) bear a greater burden of HIV than any other group in the U.S. We account for an estimated 45 percent of people living with HIV, compared to 27 percent infected through heterosexual contact, and 22 percent infected through injection drug use.
In June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a study showing a stunning 46% -- nearly half -- of the Black homosexual and bisexual men surveyed in five major cities were already HIV-positive (more than twice the infection rate among men of other races).
To make matters worse, more than two thirds of the HIV-infected Black men in the study were unaware of their infection. That's right. Half of us may be infected and, of that half, two thirds don't know it and so almost certainly aren't doing anything about it...
Appalling, yes.
And there is ... context, let's call it.
Black Americans still get far fewer operations, tests, medications and other life-saving treatments than whites, despite years of efforts to erase racial disparities in health care and help African Americans live equally long and healthy lives, according to three major studies being published today.
Blacks' health care has started to catch up to whites' in some ways, but blacks remain much less likely to undergo heart bypasses, appendectomies and other common procedures. They receive fewer mammograms and basic tests and drugs for heart disease and diabetes, and they have fallen even further behind whites in controlling those two major killers, according to the first attempts to measure the last decade's efforts to improve equality of care. [...] The cause of the persistent disparities has been the focus of intense research and debate. Blacks and other minorities tend to be poorer and less educated, which accounts for some of the differences. Some experts argue that blacks also tend to live in places where doctors and hospitals provide inferior care. Others suspect that cultural, or even biological, differences may also play a role. The most intense debate has centered on whether subtle racism pervades the health care system. [...] The only hint of a cause offered by the new studies was the finding that gains tended to occur for the simplest care -- such as prescribing drugs -- and gaps tended to widen for more complex treatment....
So you have an immediate social context in which declaring either that you are gay -- or, to put it more mildly, that you have relationships with other men -- or that you're HIV-positive is strongly discouraged. You have a broader social context in which getting more involved health care is surprisingly difficult. That the infection rate is higher is sad, but not at all surprising.
But still. Nearly 50 percent of all gay black men are HIV positive. And, to be quite honest, the shocking part of that is the 30% rise in HIV incidence in only five years. How in hell, in this day and age, does that happen? This is a largely preventable disease; all you have to do is wear condoms! People know this disease is out there. How brain-dead do you have to be to let this happen?
Posted by iain at August 18, 2005 12:46 PM
