Minority Youths Bearing Biggest Impact of HIV
Andrea Sears, Public News Service – NY
NEW YORK – Wednesday was National Youth HIV and AIDS Awareness Day,
and this year the focus is on HIV-related health disparities and
barriers to achieving viral suppression.
In 2017, about 87% of the young adult clients in the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program were from racial or ethnic minority groups, and more than 70% lived at or below poverty level.
But according to Dr. Laura Cheever, physician and associate
administrator for the HIV/AIDS Bureau at the U.S. Health Resources and
Services Administration, about half of all young people living with HIV
in the United States don’t know they’re infected.
She points out there are two critical reasons for young people to get tested.
“People living with HIV need to get onto medication because they can
live a near-normal lifespan if they know they have the HIV infection,
and second, once they’re on those medications, they have effectively no
risk of transmitting HIV to someone else,” says Cheever.
The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program funds grants to states, cities and
community-based organizations to provide HIV care and support services
to low-income people.
Cheever notes that there’s been success in reducing the rate of HIV
infections among youths in general and especially among young women. But
there still are wide disparities in infection rates in minority
communities.
“Eighty-one percent of new diagnoses among young people are among men
who have sex with men,” says Cheever. “About half of those are among
African Americans and about a quarter of those are among Hispanic gay
men.”
She attributes those disparities to limited access to medical care and
stigmas associated with HIV, being gay, bisexual or transgender in many
minority communities.
Though New York has more cases of HIV than any other state, Cheever says
strong political and public-health support for efforts to reduce the
spread of HIV have made the state a real success story and a model for
other states.
“About 86.5% of all clients that have had at least one visit in New York
in a Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program are virally suppressed, which means
they’re on treatment, they’re taking their medication and they’re doing
quite well,” says Cheever.
She adds that we have the tools we need to end the HIV epidemic in this
country but more resources are needed to achieve that goal.