According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), African Americans are 44 percent of all new diagnoses of HIV cases in the United States, yet we comprise only 12% of the population. It is estimated that 41 percent of those living with HIV nation wide are African American and about 14 percent don’t even know they are infected.
Equally alarming is the high death rate among African Americans. A whopping 54 percent of all AIDS-related deaths are African American. For sure this is connected to the care and treatment, or lack thereof, of African Americans rather than medical ability to control the virus. Lets’ be clear, the advances around the treatment of HIV in the last 36 years since the first cases of AIDS are nothing short of remarkable.
When I was diagnosed in March of 1987, there was nothing to treat HIV. Then, AZT came and other antiretroviral medications slowly trickled in. Today, there are 39 HIV medications in six different drug classes that attack HIV differently. When I say no one has to die from AIDS-related death, I don’t want to make it sound that simple, but it really is that simple.
So why are we dying at a much higher rates then everyone else?
The CDC estimates that 79 percent of newly diagnosed African Americans are linked to medical care within 3 months of their diagnosis. Sounds great, right? The problem is only 51 percent remain in care. Only 37 percent of African Americans are prescribed antiretroviral theory (ART) and only 29 percent achieved viral suppression. Let me break it down.
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When we find out our status, we get connected to care, but we don’t stay in care. While in care, we are not receiving the vital medications that can expand our life expectancy and or we are not taking our medication consistently to reach viral suppression.
Now, I’m not a social scientist, but I understand that some of these statics are rooted in poverty, homelessness, distrust of the medical community, mental illness, rural vs. city living and if I asked you, I bet we could add to this list all day.
Yet, I also understand that some of these statistics are rooted in plain old,…
… “when it comes to our health, whether rich or poor, it lags behind everything else in our lives.” When, in fact, addressing your health will nourish the overall quality of life helping to make your everyday life better.
On the other side of the coin, not staying in care is rooted in some half brain denial dipped in a lack of understanding of how HIV works. People tell me all the time, “I didn’t feel sick until they started the medication,” and “I’ve never taken medication, and I’m doing just fine” I’ve even heard, ‘I don’t believe in medication.”
The fact is, if you are infected with HIV it is inside of your body destroying your immune system. There are no HIV symptoms those first 8-10 years, but HIV is in your blood, it has infected all of your organs, including your freakin brain and most importantly and deadly the virus is multiplying in your body. The more HIV multiplies, the sicker you will become. Viral suppression is the only key to longevity with HIV. There is only one sure way to beat this disease: get in care and stay in care.
I marvel when people, with and without HIV, tell me that I’m a miracle. Yeah, there is always a God factor, but I’ve also been in care. I take my medication and do what the heck I’m supposed to do to ensure that I am living and breathing on this planet Earth. Then, I look at those same people crazy, when in the same breath they ask me, “So how does Magic Johnson do it?’ So, in two breaths, you think that I’m a miracle, and that Magic got some, “magic potion,” that’s keeping him alive.
What’s keeping Magic alive is the same thing that’s keeping me alive: a combination of HIV antiretroviral medications. There is no perfect world when you are infected with HIV, but there is a better world living with HIV in 2017 than in 1981. We can change these statistics in the African-American community by changing our approach to HIV.
If we get into treatment and care, and stay in treatment and care we can stop HIV in its tracks through viral suppression, and when your viral load is suppressed the chances that you will infect someone with HIV is less than 1 percent. That’s a win, win. Not only do we live with HIV, but we help to reduce new cases of those infected with HIV.
In my next post I will dive deep into the ABC’s of viral suppression. In the meantime, call your doctor and have a honest conversation about HIV treatment. If you don’t have a doctor, there is always an HIV clinic in every town. If you are not infected, but have a friend or family member who is infected, pull up a chair, have a cup of tea and ask them how the heck their treatment is going. No one should have to live with HIV in isolation, for we are surly our brother’s and sister’s keepers!
Rae Lewis-Thornton is an Emmy Award-winning AIDS Activist. She is the first African-American woman to tell her story of living with AIDS on a national magazine cover story, Essence December 1994. She has been featured on countess other tv shows and magazines. NIghtline, Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, Huffington Post Live, HLN News, O’ Magazine, Woman’s Day, Ebony, Jet, HIV Plus, POZ, Heart and Soul, Glamour and the list goes on and on. For over 20 years, she has traveled worldwide challenging stereotypes and myths around HIV/AIDS. Rae is a blogger and uses social media heavily to educate around HIV. She is the author of two books and is currently completing her memoir, Unprotected. Rae is an ordained minster, jewelry and knit accessory desinger of her namesake line RLT Collection. She has been living with HIV for 34 years and AIDS for 26 years. Follower her on Instagram and Twitter @raelt.
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