Question

After watching Frontline’s Endgame: AIDS in Black America, answer the following questions in a separate Word document and attach it below. Be sure to include very obvious headers for each question answered.

What was your knowledge of the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the African American community prior to watching this film?

Answer 1

HIV is human immunodeficiency virus. It attacks our immune system and destroy the white blood cells which fight infection. When white blood cells are destoryed the person is at a risk for serious infections. AIDS is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. It is the final stage of infection with HIV.

African -American commuinty in USA is about 13% of it's population, HIV affects this community more than any racial community. According to  2006 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) around 50.5% African-American are affected by AIDS , it is the leading cause of death of African -american women at the age of 25-34,  annual HIV/AIDS diagnosis rate among black males was 124.8 per 100,000 population and 60.2 per 100,000 in black females.African-American infants and children are also affected by this.  In 2005, it is found that 91 out of 141 infants ( around 65%) perinatally infected with HIV were black.

The reason behind getting the infection is high use of intravenous (IV) drug and high-risk of heterosexual contact, around 48% of infection among Black male adult and adolescents is transmitted by MSM (Men who have sex with Men). In females it is due to infection from men infected with AIDS as well by the use of IV drug. In 2001-2005 the data studied found decline of AIDS transmission among females due to use of IV drugs, and increased in both females and males exposed to high-risk heterosexual contact.among females lack of knowledge of sexual partners, having unprotected sex with multiple partners.

Having certain Sexually transmitted diseases also increases the risk factor for acquiring AIDS. Illicit drug use is an important primary risk factor for HIV/AIDS infection among African Americans, it is the second leading cause of HIV infection for both black men and black women. It is seen that 1 in 15 persons of African -American is in jail due to socio-economical issues, and long time of confinement in prison leads to unprotected sex transmitting the disease, reluctance of employers to hire the individuals having criminal records leads to economic instability and they indulge in survival sex and use illicit drugs leading to exposure to risk of transmission by the virus.

Limited access to high-quality healthcare, housing and HIV/AIDS prevention and education programs directly and indirectly increases the risk factors for HIV infection. Access to healthcare is highly influenced by race and ethnicity: It is seen that blacks mostly postpone medical care due to lack of transportation, also usually they are not insured and are too sick to go to the physician, poverty is the main reason of African Americans, they do not have adequate access to the health education, prevention plans and treatments available.

According to a study in 2007 it is found that the rate of HIV infection declined to a small proportion among the African-American community.