Roanoke, Virginia NAACP Chapter to Begin Educating Minorities on HIV, AIDS

With blacks accounting for 51 percent of all HIV/AIDS cases in Roanoke, Va., the local chapter of the NAACP decided it needed to take action. On Monday, outside the Roanoke City Health Department, the organization declared a health state of emergency in the Roanoke Valley. For at least the next year, it will work with several area groups to solve the problem. "By this time next year . . . we want to see the numbers decrease by at least 20 percent," said Brenda Hale, president of the local NAACP chapter. "Of course, our ultimate goal would be eradication."

Nationally, blacks make up 13 percent of the population but 47 percent of all HIV/AIDS cases. Of particular concern are middle-aged black women, who account for an increasing number of new cases, and Latinos. "For some reason, people of color are not getting the message . . . of this dreadful pandemic," said Dale Anthony, a former Roanoker who has AIDS and travels around the country organizing AIDS-prevention programs. "I'm so glad the brothers and sisters of Roanoke are getting the message." Anthony, who lives in New York, provides these programs through Tough Talk, a nonprofit organization he founded to help educate people about HIV/AIDS. He plans to give two-hour presentations at five area black churches through Saturday.

Groups that will be working with the NAACP on the initiative include the Roanoke Health Department, the AIDS Coalition of Southwestern Virginia, Kuumba Health Center and Planned Parenthood.

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