myHIN Blog

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,