AIDS Rates Surge Among African-American Men  | News | Advocate.com

||  News  ||
03/15/08-03/17/08
AIDS Rates Surge Among African-American Men

The rates of HIV among young African-American men who have sex with men have skyrocketed, reported the Centers for Disease Control on Thursday.

The CDC's report showed that in the 33 states where data was collected, the number of HIV or AIDS cases increased among all adult and adolescent MSM in all age groups from 2001 through 2005. The largest increase came with African-American MSM ages 13-24, with a staggering 80% increase.

"This dramatic increase in HIV rates is yet another in a series of clarion calls to Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services that young people need culturally relevant and realistic sex education to protect their health and save their lives," said Debra Hauser, executive vice president of Advocates for Youth, in a release.

The CDC's news follows recent reports that one in four teen girls has a sexually transmitted disease and teen birth rates increased for the first time in more than a decade.

"We will never be able to adequately address the sexual health needs of young people when our government insists upon funding abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that censor vital information about contraception and condoms and demonize homosexuality. All young people have the right to honest sexual health information," said Hauser.  (The Advocate)

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Be the first to comment on this story.

Back to top

Submit a comment for this story:

*Type your comment here (Required, 1000 characters max.):

*Name (Required): 

*Hometown (Required): 

*E-mail address: (Required, but will not be displayed)

Is this comment for publication? 
Yes   No

Daytime phone number: (Required for print publication only and will not be displayed)

If you would like to submit a comment for posting, please fill out the form above. 

All comments submitted via this form are subject to posting or publication. (To send a private letter to an Advocate editor or writer, please use the e-mail button at the top of the page, or use snail mail.) If you would like your comment considered for publication in The Advocate magazine, please include your full name, your city of residence, and a phone number where you can be reached during business hours so that we can confirm your identity. Your e-mail address and telephone number are strictly confidential and will not be shared or used for any purpose other than to contact you about your comment.

Comments that do not concern specific articles in The Advocate or on Advocate.com will not be posted or published. See the Contact page for sending comments for reasons other than responding to Advocate editorial and news stories.

Please note that comments sent by fax or snail mail are unlikely to be posted, although they will be considered for publication along with all letters received via e-mail or via this Web page. Comments that chiefly concern Advocate.com content will be considered for posting only on the Web site. The Advocate reserves the right to edit submitted comments for grammar, spelling, obscenities, or libel; we will, however, do our best to preserve the original comment's style and intent. Comments considered for publication in The Advocate magazine may also be edited for length.