Black Leaders Urge AIDS War

African-American leaders urged the Bush administration Friday to declare the HIV/AIDS epidemic a national state of emergency and to step up prevention efforts. Hundreds of black health, business, political and entertainment leaders met in Atlanta last week to develop a five-point AIDS action plan. The two-day conference, billed as the Meeting of the Millennium, was organized by the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS in partnership with the Congressional Black Caucus, the National Medical Association and the Surgeon General's Leadership Campaign on AIDS.

The plan unveiled on Friday calls for funding the caucus's minority HIV/AIDS initiative -- a proposed $540 million-a-year effort that would support minority-based AIDS organizations by paying for care and services. The plan also calls for another $330 million in federal funds for HIV-related housing and services, eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in the treatment of chronic diseases, providing support for families, and boosting international prevention, particularly in Africa. The commission's response comes one week after the CDC -- marking the 20th anniversary of AIDS -- released new data indicating a possible resurgence of HIV among young gay men, particularly African-American gay men between ages 23 and 29.

Coretta Scott King, widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King, received a standing ovation from the mostly black audience and said the African-American community must eliminate homophobia, which health experts say may discourage gay men from being tested for the virus. In response to the plan, Dr. Eric Goosby, director of HIV/AIDS policy for the US Department of Health and Human Services, called the commission's recommendations critical to expressing the outrage the African-American community feels over the continued disparities in treating and preventing HIV and other diseases. "I hope this is the end of the meeting but the beginning of the end of the epidemic in our community," Goosby said.

Back to other CDC news for June 11, 2001

Previous Updates | Search the CDC archive