August 03, 2012

Magic Johnson “The Announcement”

In ESPN Films: ‘The Announcement”, filmmaker Nelson George teamed up with NBA Entertainment to chronicle former NBA superstar Earvin “Magic” Johnson personal journey nearly two decades after his sudden retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers.

It was on Thursday, November 7, 1991, that “Magic” Johnson’s press conference would change the landscape of the AIDS epidemic in America as it was widely seen as a death sentence. Despite the tragic news, Magic went on to defy the odds, not just surviving, but truly living and prospering.

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August 03, 2012

ENDGAME: AIDs in Black America

Word Cloud/Map Produced July 17, 2012
Generated by Dr. Fay Cobb Payton for myhealthimpactnetwork.org 
ENDGAME Comments & Meaning For Students by Students

• PBS recently aired a FRONTLINE episode called “ENDGAME: AIDs in Black America”, a two-hour special about how AIDs has affected black people in America, and also what is being done to combat the growing popularity of the disease. Here are some key takeaways from the broadcast:
• AIDs began to spread through crack related sex work in the 80's. Also, jail inmates have were having unprotected sex & going back to the community, making jails a place for the disease to spread through homosexual behavior
• The number of new HIV cases around the world has dropped year by year, but recently in America the number is rising
• Today, 45 percent of all new cases in US are in the South
• When Magic Johnson contracted HIV, men and women in America began to realize that it was a real disease
• During his presidency, George W. Bush funded 15 billion dollars over 5 years to Africa & the Caribbean (the largest investment into a single health issue at the time), but not for America
• Women often think "I'm selective w/ the men I date. I'm clean. It won't happen to me." But it does. And these stories show how it can.
• Many high schools have sex-education, but they only advocate abstinence and not condom use or safe sex. ENDGAME quotes a teacher saying, "For students who are already sexually active, abstinence only education has nothing to offer."
• If Black America were a country, it would be 16th worst in the world with AIDs," a quote from Dr. Phill Wilson, Founder and Executive Director of the Black AIDS Institute and member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS,

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May 31, 2012

My Health Impact Network

Did You Know?

Did you know that the estimated rate of new HIV infections among African-American women was 15 times that of white women and over three times that of Latina women? Shocking right? Did you know that HIV/AIDs is rapidly spreading amongst African-American college women? When I heard this, I was astounded!

It was these alarming facts that made me want to become apart of this research project. It is important to me because it impacts African-American college women. HIV/AIDs is spreading amongst our community and those who are being affected are not informed. I am excited to be able to use knowledge gained through coursework and experience to contribute to this project.

Our Goals

Our goal is to use social media to attract african-american college women and provide them with information about HIV/AIDS prevention. As black women, we have to take control of our bodies. We can start by becoming informed about the diseases that are common for our population and spread the information.

I hope that through this blog, we can communicate to college women all over the country and provide insight about what is going on in our community. Please do not hesitate to comment with any feedback or questions that you have about the project.

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