Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day: Prevention is Priority

Nine years ago, five organizations collaborated with the Center for Disease Control to make February 7th of every year National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

The day exists to raise awareness about the impact of the disease in the Black Community, with a goal of mobilizing African Americans to get educated, get involved and tested, and if applicable, get treatment for HIV/AIDS. The disease is affecting our community at higher rates and more severely than any other ethnic group.

Snapshot of HIV/AIDS and Black America:

• African Americans are only 12 percent of the United States population, but account for almost half of all new HIV/AIDS infections. 

• Since the epidemic started, almost 590,000 people have died from related complications in the U.S. 40% of them were Black.

• Rate of AIDS diagnosis for Black women is approximately 23 times the rate for white women and 4 times the rate for Latina women

• Black teens (ages 13–19) represent only 15 percent of all teenagers in the United States but are 68% of new AIDS cases among teens 

In addition to this, it's been proven that Black people with HIV live shorter lives than people of other ethnic backgrounds who are infected.

For these reasons and countless more, it's important for us to stand strong against the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Black community. Prevention of the disease is priority, and efforts are affected by many factors:

• Poverty - A quarter of African Americans live at or below the poverty level. This causes a lack of access to good healthcare, which then puts people’s well-being at risk.

• Stigma - The stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS in the Black community prevents openness and drives people to keep their statuses under wraps. For others, stigma and fear keeps them from even getting tested.

• Sexually transmitted diseases – Already having certain STDs increases one’s susceptibility to contracting HIV. African Americans are 18 times more likely than whites to have gonorrhea.

• Drug use – The injection of drugs is the second leading cause of HIV infection in Black Americans. Also, being under the influence of drugs make people more likely to engage in risky behavior like unprotected sex.

The fight against HIV/AIDS in the Black community must continue. Not just on February 7th, but every day. As Phill Wilson of the Black AIDS Institute said, "Black Americans are greater than AIDS."

Get educated. Get tested. Get Involved. Get treated.

For more info: Visit the Center for Disease Control's website. Also, learn more about Black AIDS Day.

500 in 50 - We're Getting There

Two weeks ago, we launched our “500 in 50: Rock the Red Pump” campaign, our second annual effort to recruit over 500 bloggers to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS in the days leading up to National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD) on March 10th. We’re very excited that over 115 blogs have already signed up! If you haven’t, join us in "Rocking the Red Pump" badge on your blogs. And, if you have signed up, we ask that you continue to spread the word and ask your network to support the campaign as well! Together, we can get to 500 blogs!

There are some action items we'd like you to take:

* 'Rock the Red Pump' badge on the sidebar of your blogs in the 50 days leading up to March 10th. On NWGHAAD, dedicate your post to highlighting the issue of Women and HIV/AIDS. If you need HIV/AIDS statistics, we've created a post here for you to pull them from. They are CDC stats.

* Send us the links to your blogs - We are creating a list of Red Pump Rocking blogs, and keeping count. This will help us do so.

* Tweet and/or post messages on Facebook about the "500 in 50" campaign. Don't forget to include the hashtag #500in50.

* Learn more about NWGHAAD, and see how others are commemorating the day.

* Send this post to 5 bloggers who aren't already "Rocking the Red Pump"

To get the code for the Red Pump badges, send an email to rocktheredpump@theredpumpproject.com with your blog link(s). We will send you the code for both the vertical badge as you see on this post, or the regular badge at the top right hand corner of this page.

As always, we appreciate all your support of The Red Pump Project.

Team Red Pump

P.S. Don't hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have. You can also reach us on Twitter. Karyn (@thefabgiver), Luvvie (@LuvvieIG) or The Red Pump Project twitter page (@RedPumpProj)

HIV/AIDS and Women - Statistics to know

As National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS approach, we want people to realize that women are a big part of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and we ought to know how the disease is affecting us directly and indirectly. There are many reasons why it's important for women to know the facts when it comes to HIV. Biologically, we're more susceptible to infection during sex. We're also more likely to get infected through heterosexual sex.
Statistics used are from the Center for Disease Control's website. Although these stats are only taking the United States into account, globally, HIV/AIDS is no less of a problem, especially for women.

Key Snapshot of the U.S. Epidemic Today

• Number of new HIV infections, 2006: 56,300
• Number of people living with HIV/AIDS: 1.1 million, including more than 468,000 with AIDS
• Number of AIDS deaths since beginning of epidemic: 583,298, including 14,561 in 2007
• Percent of people infected with HIV who don’t know it: 21%

HIV/AIDS & Women in the United States
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• There are approximately 1.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. & almost 280,000 are women

• In 2006, there were 15,000 new HIV infections and 9,801 AIDS cases diagnosed among women

• There were 3,784 deaths among women with AIDS in 2006

• Among those who are HIV positive, 35% of women were tested for HIV late in their illness (diagnosed with AIDS within one year of testing positive)

• HIV is the 5th leading cause of death in women in the United States, ages 25-44

• High-risk heterosexual contact is the source of 80% of these newly diagnosed infections in women

• According to a CDC study of more than 19,500 patients with HIV in 10 US cities, women were slightly less likely than men to receive prescriptions for the most effective treatments for HIV infection

• Women with AIDS made up an increasing part of the epidemic. In 1992, women accounted for an estimated 14% of adults and adolescents living with AIDS in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. By the end of 2005, this proportion had grown to 23%

• From the beginning of the epidemic through 2005, almost 86,000 women have died of AIDS and AIDS-related complications.

• The largest number of HIV/AIDS diagnoses during recent years was for women aged 15–39
• New York has the highest number of women living with AIDS - 22,532
• Seven of the 10 states with the highest case rates among women are in the South. 
• The rate of women in D.C. infected with HIV/AIDS is nearly 12 times the national average

HIV/AIDS & Minority Women
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HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects minority women in the United States. According to the 2005 census, Black and Latina women represent 24% of all US women combined, but account for 82% of the estimated total of AIDS diagnoses for women in 2005.

HIV is the:

• Leading cause of death for Black women (including African American women) aged 25–34 years.

• 3rd leading cause of death for Black women aged 35–44 years.

• 4th leading cause of death for Black women aged 45–54 years.

• 4th leading cause of death for Latina women aged 35–44 years.

• The only diseases causing more deaths of women are cancer and heart disease

• The rate of AIDS diagnosis for Black women was approximately 23 times the rate for white women and 4 times the rate for Latina women

• In 2006, teen girls represented 39% of AIDS cases reported among 13–19 year-olds. Black teens represented 69% of cases reported among 13–19 year-olds; Latino teens represented 19%.

These statistics were pulled from The Center for Disease Control's website and the Kaiser Family Foundation's Fact Sheets (which cited the CDC). Get more information about the effect of the epidemic from these sites.

500 in 50 - Rock the Red Pump

Every year, the United States recognizes March 10th as National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. It's a nationwide initiative to raise awareness about the increasing impact of HIV/AIDS on women & girls and encourages ladies to take action. While progress has definitely been made in the areas of AIDS prevention and treatment, women still represent 27% of all new AIDS diagnoses, with African-American women accounting for 66% of that group. This year focuses on this statistic, "Every 35 minutes, a woman tests positive for HIV in the United States."

In observance of this day, The Red Pump Project is asking bloggers to participate in the second annual “Rock the Red Pump” campaign: 500 in 50. Last year, 135 of you took to Twitter, Facebook, and your blogs to help us "Rock the Red Pump" and this year, we're asking you to do it again! This time, we have a goal of getting 500 blogs to "Rock the Red Pump," and we have 50 days to do it.

Leading up to March 10th, we’re asking bloggers to “Rock the Red Pump” widget on their sidebars to represent the strength and courage of women fighting HIV/AIDS or affected by the disease both directly and indirectly. Then on NWGHAAD, we would like you to embed the Red Pump Widget within a post with a short snippet of its significance, including some statistics about HIV/AIDS and its effect on women and girls.

Besides, the Red Pump will add a touch of FIERCE to your already FABULOUS blogs! We want you to join The Red Pump Project and help spread awareness of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. To sign up to participate, please send an email to rocktheredpump@theredpumpproject.com. If you sign up, we will send you instructions, statistics and the HTML code for the widget.

Also, your blog will be linked on a post that will run on the following pages: The Red Pump homepage, Awesomely Luvvie and The Fabulous Giver on that day.

If you're interested in participating in the "Rock the Red Pump" campaign, please send an email to rocktheredpump@theredpumpproject.com. If you're already "Rocking the Red Pump" on your sidebar, please send us an email anyway. We've created a brand new widget for 2010!

Thank you for your support of The Red Pump Project and we look forward to rocking 500 strong on March 10, 2010!

Regards,

Team Red Pump

New Year, New Organization

Happy New Year! We've been flying off the radar this past month as we prepare for what 2010 holds for us. Emails have gone unanswered and the blog has gone updated. We are back though, and will be hitting the ground running.

We do have something to show for our hiatus though.

Introducing The Red Project CollectiveTM, the umbrella nonprofit organization of The Red Pump ProjectTM and The Red Tie ProjectTM. The Red Project Collective's mission is to raise awareness about the impact of HIV/AIDS on minority communities (women, people of color, LGBT). Using our initiatives, The The Red Pump Project and The Red Tie Project, RPC will be doing work online and on the ground to motivate action and encourage dialogue about the effects of the disease.

We're going to be unveiling our new website within the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

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2010 will be a GREAT year for us and we're excited for the work we're going to be doing.