The black community is disproportionately affected by HIV /AIDs despite forming about 13% of the US population. The community accounts for over 40% of all HIV infections. Data from the US government also indicates that the African American community leads to new HIV infections. The statistics have led to the designation that HIV is a disease for blacks. The lack of early intervention for African Americans has made the disease endemic in the community. The disease continues to ravage the community more than any other racial group in the United States. The question is what predisposes the community to HIV/AIDS and the roles of stakeholders such as healthcare professionals and media.
The historical medical apartheid that the black community had been exposed to affected how they perceived HIV and proposed medical intervention. African American neighborhoods received insufficient education and testing for HV/AIDs from health workers. Apart from perceived discrimination, there existed mistrust preceded by intervention in previous pandemics.[1] The black community lost trust in the government’s role in healthcare and its interest in the health of the black community. The main reference point for this mistrust is the Tuskegee Syphilis test. The tests were conducted in the black community to find a cure or reaction to education rather than treat them. The African Americans responded dismally to the health education and interventions proposed by the Healthcare workers. The implication was that there was insufficient information about HIV in the community, which led to uncontrolled transmission.
The media played a significant role in insinuating that HIV/AIDs was a disease for the black community. Notably, the diseases had been discovered in a white man and spread in the white communities. However, media reports, education, and medical interventions ameliorated the problems quickly, and they shifted to the black community. As the disease ravaged the south black communities, newspapers and media coverage portrayed African Americans as having predisposing factors to HIV. This led to the stigmatization of the black community, low health-seeking behavior, and poor access to HIV/AIDS information and mitigating efforts.[2] The overly reporting about HIV and blacks, and associating blacks with the disease created a grim picture that all blacks were a risk factor, contributing to added racial discrimination and health disparities. Thus, the African Americans distrust the media and health workers when it comes to HIV/AIDS.
In summary, HIV continues to ravage the black community in the United States. There is insufficient knowledge about the disease owing to the missteps by the stakeholders at the early stages of the pandemic. The governments, healthcare workers, and the media appeared to conspire to disadvantage the black community regarding testing, education, and reporting. The effect was that the black community was disproportionately affected. Current statistics show that the black community has never received adequate support regarding HIV/AIDS. Data indicate that blacks are ten times more likely to acquire HIV/AIDS than their white counterparts. The data is depressing and an excellent illustration of medical apartheid.
Bibliography
Frazier, C. (2020). It’s more than just news: Print media, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Collective Memory among African Americans. Journal of Historical Sociology, 33(3), 280-296. https://doi.org/10.1111/johs.12281
Washington, Harriet A. Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Broadway Books, 2008.
[1] Harriet A. Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present (Washington: National Geographic Books, 2008), 138.
[2] Cleothia Frazier, “It’s more than just news: Print media, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Collective Memory among African Americans,” Journal of Historical Sociology 33, no. 3 (2020): 280-296. doi:10.1111/johs.12281.
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