PRESS ROOM

African African Americans and HIV/AIDS 2008

Please see recent articles that have been published in the Journal of the National Medical Association. This collection of articles combines years of research and expertise in the field of HIV/AIDS, while at the same time bringing much needed focus and attention to this dilemma that is devastating the African American community.

JUN 23, 2009

Emergency Town Hall Meeting Targets Buffalo AIDS Crisis

The Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (BLCA) of Buffalo held an important Town Hall meeting at the Frank E. Merriweather, Jr. Library on June 23 to raise public awareness of the problem and help provide solutions to the growing epidemic. A host of community leaders, including Urban League CEO Brenda McDuffie, and the Rev. William Gillison of Mount Olive Baptist Church, spoke about the devastating effect of AIDS on the Black community. The Hon. C. Virginia Fields, former two-term Manhattan Borough President, and new President/CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, Inc. served as Town Hall Moderator. Pictured above prior to the meeting (left to right): Donna Chapman, Regional Director BLCA, Rev. James Lewis, Affiliate Chair of BLCA, Rev. Kahli C. Mootoo, Director of NYS Affiliate Services BLCA, Ms. Fields, and Rev. Wiggins.

JUN 23, 2009

Big Brands Aim to Bolster U.S. AIDS Efforts

$1 Million Contribution from Pfizer Supports GBC Initiative; National Campaigns and Initial Efforts in Three Hard-Hit Cities: Washington, D.C., Oakland and New York

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In response to near-epidemic levels of HIV/AIDS, particularly among minorities in some urban areas of the U.S., the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC) and some of America’s best known companies today announced a campaign to fill specific gaps in national and municipal HIV/AIDS programs that are hampering prevention and testing efforts.

GBC’s innovative campaign, the U.S. HIV Initiative, combines the private sector’s unique skills, expertise and resources with national HIV/AIDS efforts, as well as those run by local governments and non-profits. The campaigns will educate millions of at-risk Americans about the disease to help prevent its further spread, and encourage them to get tested and learn their HIV status and seek appropriate care. The effort also will help to strengthen local health systems.

Read the Full Article

FEB 4, 2009

Black AIDS group in NY to Obama: Address disease

NEW YORK -- The head of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS

plans to call on President Barack Obama to develop a strategy to reverse

disproportionate infection rates among blacks.

Read the Full Article

DEC 5, 2008

Congressional Black Caucus' 2nd Annual Conference on Health Disparities
University of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix, USVI

BY C. VIRGINIA FIELDS

When it comes to health disparities, it can be difficult to determine where to focus one's attention. Minorities suffer disproportionately from health problems from cradle to grave.

So it is entirely appropriate - and very necessary - that policymakers, Members of Congress, public officials, health advocates and community organizers gather at the National Minority Health Conference, which has taken place Dec. 4-7 in St. Croix. I am proud to be a part of this conference, and I applaud Rep. Donna Christensen for her leadership in helping to organize this conference.

Read the Full Article

DEC 4, 2008

World AIDS Day refocus

BY C. VIRGINIA FIELDS
Special to the Atlanta Voice

Barack Obama’s victory was a defining moment in our nation’s history, one in which we all can rejoice, particularly African Americans. But the election was just the beginning. Now, it’s time to follow through on the promise to bring change to America. December 1, World AIDS Day, is an excellent place to start on fulfilling one important pledge – to make America a global leader in the fight against AIDS, which has become a crisis in Black America.

Read the Full Article

OCT 28, 2008

MarketWatch: Town Hall Meeting on Inequities in Clinical Trials Documents Ongoing 'Tuskegee Effect' When Recruiting Minorities for Research Studies

According to C. Virginia Fields, president and CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (NBLCA) and a former Manhattan borough president, death rates in New York City's Central Harlem health district

-- where the vast majority of residents are African American and many live below the poverty line -- are more than double that of U.S. whites and 50 percent higher than that of U.S. blacks.

"I understand the lessons of Tuskegee but until we open our minds to the benefits of taking part in clinical trials, communities of color will continue to develop and die from AIDS, cancer and other diseases at higher rates than other Americans, " said Ms. Fields. "Without the involvement of African Americans and other minorities in these research studies, we will continue to pay the price and I say it is time we get involved."

Read the Full Article

OCT 15, 2008

CBS Evening News: America's Forgotten Epidemic

Washington has spent nearly $10 billion annually to fight HIV/AIDS, but the epidemic has now been mostly forgotten by the mainstream. Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports on the presidential candidates' stances.

Read the Full Article

OCT 11, 2008

The paradox of HIV/AIDS in Genesee County: As disease becomes easier to treat, cases of AIDS and HIV continue to increase
by Elizabeth Shaw | The Flint Journal

Saturday October 11, 2008, 4:30 AM

GENESEE COUNTY, Michigan -- No one wants to open the door when Le'Sha' Tanimowo knocks. Too often, the Genesee County public health nurse is bringing news that no one wants to hear: "You may be infected with HIV/AIDS."

Read the Full Article

OCT 9, 2008

Harlem United and Partners Form Uptown Health Link with a Grant from the New York State Department of Health to Fight AIDS in Upper Manhattan

New York, NY (October 9, 2008) – Yesterday, the New York State Department of Health – AIDS Institute announced $1,057,780 in funding for an HIV/AIDS Community Services Center in Upper Manhattan, which was awarded to Harlem United Community AIDS Center as lead agency for a unique consortium of organizations. These include the Dominican Women Development Center, Washington Heights CORNER Project and the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.

Read the Full Announcement

Edge:Black Churches Get a New Vision-To Fight AIDS
by Scott Stiffler

Black churches, long resistant to acknowledging the ravages of AIDS in their community, are moving to the forefront of fighting the disease.

Read the Full Article

The Black AIDS Institute: C. Virginia Fields Uses Political Strategy to Combat HIV/AIDS Infections
By Jerry Thomas PR

Growing up in Birmingham, Ala., C. Virginia Fields marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., standing up with him to fire hoses and police dogs. Later, as a social worker in New York City, she worked with prisoners and foster children.

A desire to bring about change led to a career in politics that included eight years as Manhattan Borough president and a run for the city's highest office.

September 17 - 21, 2008

at the

Greater Fort Lauderdale/
Broward County Convention Center
Fort Lauderdale, FL

National Black Leadership
Commission on AIDS, Inc. (NBLCA)

- Presents a workshop entitled -

"The Leadership Mobilization Model"

Session 5
Saturday, September 20, 2008
4:00 - 6:00 PM
3rd Floor - Room 304

Visit us in the Exhibit Hall at
Booth # 531

Congressional Hearing- Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 10:00 am EDT

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing titled, "The Domestic Epidemic is Worse than We Thought: A Wake-Up Call for HIV Prevention". The hearing will assess the impact of HIV prevention programs, research, and policy in the United States and explore what changes need to be made to turn the tide of infection. Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director of CDC and Dr. Kevin Fenton, Director of

Health in the Community | U.S. News & World Report Examines HIV/AIDS Rate Among Black Women

U.S. News & World Report recently looked at how "black women continue to be struck particularly hard" by HIV/AIDS (Payne, U.S. News & World Report, 9/12). According to the latest available figures reported by CDC, blacks in 2006 had the highest HIV/AIDS incidence rate of any racial and ethnic group in the U.S. The research was a follow-up to a CDC study released last month that found there were about 56,300 new HIV infections in 2006, the most recent year for which data are available.

The AIDS virus weighs heavily on African-American females, in addition to gay men

Kaiser Health Disparities Report: A Weekly Look At Race, Ethnicity And Health

Opinion | U.S. Needs National HIV/AIDS Plan, Should Focus Resources on Epidemic's Trends, Opinion Piece Says

The recent CDC report on new HIV infections "underscore[s] ... the inexorable movement of the HIV/AIDS epidemic into black and other minority communities and the failure of government at all levels to respond to that change," C. Virginia Fields, president and CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, writes in a New York Daily News opinion piece (Fields, New York Daily News, 8/31).

BY C. Virginia Fields

The stunning new data released recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention underscore, in the most dramatic terms possible, the inexorable movement of the HIV/AIDS epidemic into black and other minority communities and the failure of government at all levels to respond to that change.

AIDS Crisis in Communities of Color Prompts Demand for National Plan to Fight HIV/AIDS

Public Health Advocates Deliver Demand During the Democratic National Convention Calling on Senators Barack Obama and John McCain to Support a Comprehensive National AIDS Strategy.

(New York, NY, August 3, 2008) C. Virginia Fields, President/CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (NBLCA), made the following comments in response to the release of the new CDC HIV/AIDS surveillance data in JAMA today.

Report Detailing Dramatically Higher Rates of HIV/AIDS in Black Communities

NBLCA Calls on Presidential Candidates to Address the Issue and Vow to Prioritize the AIDS Epidemic in Black

America

in Their First 100 Days

A new collection of articles has been published in the Journal of the National Medical Association. Collaboratively, these four articles examine HIV/AIDS within the African American community across varying circumstances.

Read full article

Public high schools ordered 254,000 condoms last year, handing them out to lusty high-school students to encourage safe sex, The Post has learned.

A convenient, easy to use, and rapid alternative to blood-based HIV testing may become the new standard for field testing according to a new MUHC study.

Black men in the United States are nearly seven times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than their white counterparts, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report released on Thursday.

On March 2, New York City’s HIV Bureau reported that in a 2004 cross-sectional survey of adult residents, of the 18 percent reporting unsafe sex or drug-use behavior, 92 percent still believed they had no HIV risk. Expanding from those results, one in six city residents, about 1 million New Yorkers, would indeed be at risk for HIV, whether they believed it or not.

Emergency Town Hall Meeting Targets Buffalo AIDS Crisis

Big Brands Aim to Bolster U.S. AIDS Efforts

MarketWatch: Town Hall Meeting on Inequities in Clinical Trials Documents Ongoing 'Tuskegee Effect' When Recruiting Minorities for Research Studies

CBS Evening News: America's Forgotten Epidemic

The paradox of HIV/AIDS in Genesee County: As disease becomes easier to treat, cases of AIDS and HIV continue to increase by Elizabeth Shaw | The Flint Journal

The paradox of HIV/AIDS in Genesee County: As disease becomes easier to treat, cases of AIDS and HIV continue to increase
by Elizabeth Shaw | The Flint Journal