The injection-related AIDS epidemic now: African Americans

	More than 156,000 African Americans were living with injection-related AIDS or had already died from it by the end of 2000.  Many thousands more were infected with the HIV virus.(1)
	African American accounted for 55 percent of new injection-related AIDS cases in 2000 although they represented only about 12 percent of the population.(1), (2)
	Among those who inject drugs, African Americans are five times as likely as whites to get AIDS.(3)
	Although AIDS deaths are down because of the new drugs, in 1999, AIDS was still among the top three leading causes of death for African Americans aged 25-54 years.(4)  More than half of AIDS deaths among African Americans were related to infection caused by contaminated needles.(5)
	A survey done in 2000 reveals that the majority of African Americans favor improving needle access to prevent HIV among people who inject drugs.  The majority support needle exchange programs, over-the-counter sales of syringes at pharmacies and physician prescription of syringes.(6)

Footnotes

(1) The number of drug-related AIDS cases includes three exposure groups: "people who inject drugs," "men who have sex with men and inject drugs," and "heterosexual partners of injecting drug users."  Injecting drug users includes people who are currently injecting drugs as well as people who have injected drugs at some time in the past but who no longer do so. The data are adjusted to reduce cases with unknown exposure. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2000. HIV/AIDS surveillance report. vol. 13, no.1. Tables 19-20.

(2) The population data are from the Census Bureau and are for persons age 14 to 64, the age group most affected by the injection-related HIV/AIDS epidemic.

(3) Dawn Day  and Reuben Cohen. 1996. “Race and the spread of HIV/AIDS related to injection drug use.” April 5. 11 pages. Report from the Dogwood Center.

(4) As a cause of death among African Americans (non-Hispanic) in 1999, AIDS was:
third for those aged 25-34
second for those aged 35-44
third for those aged 45-54.
See National Vital Statistics Reports. 2001. “Deaths: Leading Causes for 1999,”  Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, by Robert N. Anderson, vol. 49, no. 11, October 12. Table 2. Available in Adobe Acrobat.

(5) The assumption is that the proportion of cumulative AIDS cases that are drug-related and the proportion of AIDS deaths that are drug-related are roughly the same.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2000. HIV/AIDS surveillance report. vol. 13, no.1; Tables 19-20.  

For a startling table comparing death rates for blacks and whites for major diseases, including drug-related AIDS, click here.

(6) Kaiser Family Foundation. 2001. "African Americans' views of the HIV/AIDS epidemic at 20 years: findings from a national survey." Menlo Park, CA. page 15.

For a list of other materials used on this website, see References.