Newspapers Cover Local National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Events, AIDS Awareness Efforts

Monday marked the fifth annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, which was sponsored by the Community Capacity Building Coalition, a consortium of national minority-focused groups supported by CDC through the National Minority AIDS Initiative. The CCBC includes: Concerned Black Men, the Health Watch Information and Promotion Service, the Jackson State University-Mississippi Urban Research Center, the National Black Alcoholism and Addictions Council and the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. The goal of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is to urge African Americans to "get educated, get tested and get involved" with HIV/AIDS activities in their communities. Special events on the day included no-cost HIV testing, prayer breakfasts, town hall meetings and memorial services. Events are being held in cities across the country, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 2/7). Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a statement on Monday that while National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is only "part of a critical effort encouraging individuals to get tested, educated and involved in HIV research activities," it is "an opportunity to educate our communities about research progress in the areas of prevention, care and treatment options and the importance of research to find new treatment regimens, microbicides and vaccines" (NIH release, 2/7). Several newspapers around the country have published articles covering events that took place to mark National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Links to some of the articles appear below:

• Austin American-Statesman: "HIV Test Results Now Available in 20 Minutes" (Roser, Austin American-Statesman, 2/8).
  


• Kansas City Star: "Black Awareness Day Provides HIV Testing" (Bavley, Kansas City Star, 2/8).
  


• Long Island Newsday: "Focusing on AIDS Awareness: Advocates Use Black History Month as Opportunity To Educate Community About Deadly Virus" (Evans, Long Island Newsday, 2/8).
  


• Omaha World-Herald: "Caring Needed in AIDS Fight, Chambers Says" (Kuiper, Omaha World-Herald, 2/6).
  


• Raleigh News & Observer: "Battle Against AIDS Hits Streets" (Avery, Raleigh News & Observer, 2/8).
  


• St. Paul Pioneer Press: "Funding Increase Urged To Fight AIDS" (Coleman, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 2/8).
  

Media Coverage

• NPR's "All Things Considered": The segment includes an interview with Phill Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, about the impact of HIV/AIDS in the African-American community and efforts to control the epidemic (Norris, "All Things Considered," NPR, 2/7). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
  


• NPR's "All Things Considered": "Conspiracies can make a serious public health problem worse" when they move from discussion to "behaviors that accelerate morbidity" and "shackle" HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, Joe Davidson, editor of Focus magazine at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, says in a commentary on the program. According to Davidson, given the "grave nature" of the epidemic in African-American communities, the fight against HIV/AIDS must "overcome decades of distrust" to be successful (Davidson, "All Things Considered," NPR, 2/7). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
  


• NPR's "News & Notes With Ed Gordon": The segment profiles an African-American woman in Los Angeles who is training for the AIDS/LifeCycle ride in June to raise money for HIV/AIDS research and prevention (Martin, "News & Notes With Ed Gordon," NPR, 2/7). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
  


• Washingtonpost.com: Barbara Chinn, director of the Max Robinson Center at the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, D.C., answered questions about the increasing rates of HIV/AIDS among African-American women in a washingtonpost.com online chat on Monday (Washingtonpost.com, 2/7). A transcript of the chat is available online.