HIV/AIDS Inequality: Structural Barriers to Prevention, Treatment, and Care in Communities of Color
Why We Need A Holistic Approach to Eliminate Racial Disparities in HIV/AIDS
By Russell Robinson and Aisha C. Moodie-Mills | July 27, 2012
For the first time in more than two decades the International AIDS Conference returns to the United States and this week more than 20,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Washington D.C. discussing a wide array of HIV/AIDS related issues, including the troubling racial disparities of our domestic HIV epidemic, specifically:
- African Americans, who make up only 14 percent of the U.S. population, make up 44 percent of the HIV-positive population.
- Latinos face three times the HIV infection rates as whites.
- Men who have sex with men represent 2 percent of the U.S. population but account for 61 percent of all new HIV infections.
While the Obama administration has taken steps toward the elimination of these dis- parities through the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and Implementation Plan, there is still much work to be done. This brief highlights underexplored explanations for these disparities and outlines possible solutions to begin addressing them.