Awareness and education are keys to reducing the spread of HIV and AIDS among African-Americans and the impetus for a program held Saturday at the Decatur Masonic Temple, said Lisa Jones, AIDS coordinator for the program's sponsor, Youth With A Positive Direction.
"A Night to Remember" offered local residents an opportunity to be screened to determine if they were HIV positive. Screening by representatives of the Springfield Community Federation began mid-afternoon, followed at 6 p.m. by a hair and style show. That was followed by a choral showcase featuring three college choirs as well as the Youth With A Positive Direction Choir.
"We're hoping to test 125 people today," said Jones as the event was about to kick off. "We've found using cultural arts is the best way to reach African-American people. Knocking on doors isn't enough. We're using dance, a drum line and choirs to bring people out. Getting tested is the key, whether you're positive or not."
The event was targeting teenagers and young adults into their 30s, Jones said. It was funded by a grant from the Illinois Department of Public Health's Center for Minority Health Services.
The scope of the HIV and AIDS problem in the United States was outlined in "Making Real Change," the 2009 report of the Black AIDS Institute, which was issued Saturday.
Institute Executive Director Phillip Wilson said in the report that while there are many reasons to welcome the inauguration of President Obama, a major one is that his administration has an enormous potential to reinvigorate the national fight against HIV and AIDS that has been allowed to flag.
"AIDS clearly has affected certain groups more than others," Phillips said. "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported (for 2008) that the domestic epidemic is 40 percent larger than we have long believed. Even more troubling, the CDC learned, the epidemic is growing at a faster pace than we have understood. Black Americans are vastly overrepresented among the new infections in every population -- men, women, youth, you name it."
The HIV epidemic is growing between 55,000 and 58,000 infections a year, the institute's report stated. The nation has never logged fewer than 50,000 new infections a year, contrary to prior belief that infections had reached a plateau of 40,000 a year in the mid-1990s.
The report stated an estimated 56,300 people were newly infected with HIV in 2006, the last year for which data is available, of which about 45 percent were African-Americans compared with 35 percent Caucasians, 17 percent Latinos and 3 percent other ethnicities.
Main Street Church of the Living God has received grants for three years, this year being $20,000, to provide a computer on which anyone is welcome to look up information about HIV and health services, said Jones, who is the administrator for the church and its Youth With A Positive Direction program.
The grant from Project Live Knowledge 4 Life was written for an AIDS and prostate and breast cancer education effort, Jones said. Anyone wanting information is welcome to contact her at 875-1633.
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