HIV and African American Teens
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Nancy L. Brown, PhD
It is not often you hear adults saying that teen girls need to talk more, but in fact, they need to talk more about HIV/AIDS, and adults need to talk with them! A recent op-ed by Janice Armstrong encouraged young black girls to stop having unprotected sex in the name of love - it is killing them!AIDS is a preventable disease and the leading cause of death for African American females between the ages of 25 and 34. Nearly 70% of all new HIV infections in the United States between 2001 and 2004 were in black females, most of whom got it from their male partners. Black women are 19 times more likely to be infected with HIV than white women and 13 times more likely to die from the disease.
When we are talking to our friends and our daughters, it is important to remember that the things we are not saying, can kill us! Talk about condoms, HIV, and protection during sex - all types of sex - oral, anal, and vaginal. When talking about love, talk about protection!
Photo credit: Shavar
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Labels: HIV
3 Comments:
At Tue Oct 23, 02:25:00 PM 2007,
Rhonda said…
I feel that what your saying about African Amerian women being more likely to catch HIV/AIDS than a white women is not right. Your making it seem like HIV/AIDS is designed for African Americans. How do you think we (me being African American) should feel. I hope you can have an answer on why that is so.
At Wed Oct 24, 08:05:00 AM 2007,
Nancy L. Brown, PhD said…
I am so sorry - I was not suggesting HIV/AIDS is designed for African Americans. However, many of the new cases are in African American women, suggesting they are getting the disease more than white women - and one reason may be that they are not using condoms to protect themselves, if they choose to be sexually active. I was encouraging women to talk about the risks and encourage self-protection.
At Wed Apr 30, 04:20:00 PM 2008,
meka1986 said…
I see where you are coming from. As an African American Women I truelly know. Within the past 6 years I have had many friend s that were diagnosed with AIDS. Not only was they diagnosed with it there children and partners where as well. The child and her father have passed but my friend is still living. About two weeks ago she was in the hospitol and the Dr. told here that she had less than a month to live. She is trying to live her live to the fullest. She will leave behind 3 children and is only 21 years old. So really I just understand because every other week someone in my city dies of this disease.
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