HIV / AIDS Information
About HIV/AIDS
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) that gradually destroys your immune system, leaving you unable to fight off common infections. While there are now drug treatments that can help control HIV, there's still no cure.
In America, the epidemic is especially affecting communities of color, men who have sex with men, and injection drug users. But anyone, from any walk of life, can contract HIV. The virus does not discriminate. Current figures from the CDC state that almost 60,000 Americans contract HIV every single year.
Prevention
Fortunately, you can prevent the spread of HIV. You can choose safer sex. You can choose to have fewer sexual partners. Know your status: take the test. Most importantly, use a condom, every time!
Hearts & Voices performer Grace Garland demonstrates the proper way to use a condom in this YouTube video:
For more information about HIV/AIDS and how to protect yourself, visit LIFEbeat.org.
HIV/AIDS in New York
New York has been especially hard-hid by the AIDS epidemic. Some startling statistics in New York alone:
Approximately 1 in 70 New Yorkers is infected with HIV, but the proportion of people in different groups who are infected varies widely:
- 1 in 40 African Americans.
- 1 in 25 men living in Manhattan.
- 1 in 12 black men age 40-49 years.
- 1 in 10 men who have sex with men.
- 1 in 8 injection drug users.
- 1 in 5 black men age 40-49 in Manhattan.
- 1 in 4 men who have sex with men in Chelsea.
The epidemic is increasingly affecting women, who now constitute a third of new AIDS cases - up from 1 in 10 at the start of the epidemic. More than 80% of new AIDS diagnoses and deaths are among African Americans and Hispanics. Black men in New York City are 6 times more likely to die of AIDS than white men; black women are 9 times more likely to die of AIDS than white women. Hispanic men and women are 4 times more likely to die of AIDS than white men and women.
Source- NYC Department of Health.