epidemic

Aleehia Abdullah
Academic Issues
The Epidemic


AIDS is an occurring epidemic in the African American race. Even though the AIDS percentage is steadily rising amongst us we still hear very little about it. The national statistics show that African American teens between the ages of 13 – 19 accounted for 55% of the leading HIV cases today. It is also the 4th leading cause of African American deaths in the youth today.http://www.idph.state.il.us/public/respect/african_american_fs.htm.

Many think that they cannot be affected because of the queations that they ask and answers they receive. When saying these things no one ever thinks of the consequences that follow up with these actions. African Americans account for more than half of all the HIV/AIDS cases; it is the leading cause of death for African American women between the ages of 25 – 34. Incarcerated as well as men and women in the gay community are affect by the epidemic doubled that of your ordinary person. Many things contribute to why the black community can’t get help with AIDS. Many African Americans dont know that they are affected with AIDS because they dont have the proper health care to find out.Therefore other innocent people are contracting the disease and don’t know it because their partner is unaware.http://www.thebody.com/content/art6863.html





This is the age group listing of people infected with HIV/AIDS in the year of 2004. There was an estimate of 2,174 teens who were diagnosed with HIV and of this group 234 died.

One of the reasons to why STDs are being transmitted so rapidly throughout that of teens in the African American community is because so many of the youth are becoming sexually active at an early age.

High school students reporting ever having had sexual intercourse, 2003

High school students reporting sexual intercourse for the first time before age 13, 2003

Young minority women are at a higher risk of contracting the disease through heterosexual contact. The rate of HIV prevalence among young women aged between 16–21 which was 50% higher than the rate among young men in that age group. African American women were 7 times as likely as white women and 8 times as likely as Hispanic women to be HIV-positive. Young women are at risk for sexually transmitted HIV for several reasons, including biologic vulnerability, lack of recognition of their partners’ risk factors, inequality in relationships, and having sex with older men who are more likely to be infected with HIV.

The statistics for homosexuals such as men who have sex with other men are a little more different though. There is a 55% rate of young gay men ranging in ages 15 – 22 that don’t let anyone know of their sexual preference. Statistics show that men who don’t disclose their sexual orientation are more prevented from getting HIV a little more than those who do. The reason that some men don’t disclose their sexual orientation is because they may possibly have 1 or more female sex partners. There is still a very high risk factor because women are contracting the disease from these men as well as other men contracting the disease.

The presence of an STD greatly increases a person’s likelihood of acquiring or transmitting HIV. Some of the highest STD rates in the country are those among young people, especially young people of minority races and ethnicity’s. The only real way to prevent from catching this disease is to be smart, If young people have sex they need to have protected sex. People have to be honest with others if they epidemic before they get involved with them so that they can be aware of what’s going on. AIDS/HIV is not a joke so to be safe is to be smart and to be smart is to help prevent this epidemic from killing anymore of our young African American teens because we can defeat it if we try.http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/PUBLICATIONS/frtp/youngaawomen.htm