An official website of the United States government
National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day — February 7, 2018
Weekly / February 2, 2018 / 67(4);113
National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is observed each year on February 7 to emphasize the continuing disproportionate impact of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) on the U.S. black/African American (black) population.
In 2014, non-Hispanic blacks represented 12% of the U.S. population (1), and the estimated 471,500 blacks living with diagnosed and undiagnosed HIV infection accounted for 43% of all persons living with diagnosed and undiagnosed HIV (2). In 2016, blacks represented 12% of the U.S. population (1), and blacks with new HIV diagnoses accounted for 44% of all new HIV diagnoses (https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/library/reports/surveillance/cdc-hiv-surveillance-report-2016-vol-28.pdf).
In 2014, among blacks living with diagnosed HIV infection, in 38 jurisdictions with complete reporting of CD4 and viral load data, 69.8% received HIV medical care, and 51.5% were virally suppressed (viral load test of <200 copies of HIV RNA/mL) (2). A study reported in this issue of MMWR found racial and ethnic disparities in viral suppression and transmission risk (3).
CDC supports a range of efforts to reduce the risk for acquiring or transmitting HIV infection among blacks. Additional information is available at https://www.cdc.gov/features/BlackHIVAIDSAwareness.
References
- US Census Bureau. Population and Housing Unit Estimates Datasets 2016. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau; 2016. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/data/data-sets.2016.html
- CDC. Diagnosis of HIV infection in the United States and dependent areas, 2016. HIV surveillance report, 2016, vol. 28. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/library/reports/surveillance/cdc-hiv-surveillance-report-2016-vol-28.pdf
- Crepaz N, Dong X, Wang X, Hernandez AL, Hall HI. Racial and ethnic disparities in sustained viral suppression and transmission risk potential among persons receiving HIV care—United States, 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2018;67:113–8.
Suggested citation for this article: National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day — February 7, 2018. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2018;67:113. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6704a1.
MMWR and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report are service marks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.
References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are
provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply
endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content
of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of
the date of publication.
All HTML versions of MMWR articles are generated from final proofs through an automated process. This conversion might result in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users are referred to the electronic PDF version (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr) and/or the original MMWR paper copy for printable versions of official text, figures, and tables.
Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to [email protected].