Recommendations

The evidence is clear: The AIDS crisis in Black America will not be effectively addressed without substantially stronger action to encourage Black people to be tested for HIV. To this end, the Black AIDS Institute makes the following recommendations to increase testing in Black America.

Recommendations for Black America

• Get tested. Every Black American should take the test. Knowing your HIV status is a right and responsibility. Knowing your partner's HIV status can save your life. Today, there is no excuse for not knowing the status of your status.
• Talk about AIDS. Black Americans from all walks of life must wake up to the continuing threat posed to their communities by the epidemic. Black people should engage each other in discussions about the importance of getting tested and the need for a stronger community response to the crisis.
• Build community-testing coalitions. In collaboration with traditional Black institutions and their local health departments, community members should join together to plan community-driven initiatives to encourage Black people to be tested for HIV. Making innovative use of local media, opinion leaders and faith-based organizations, these community coalitions should work to establish knowledge of HIV status as a social norm in Black communities.
• Leaders must lead. Many national Black institutions have developed strategic action plans to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic. (Organizations which do not have AIDS strategic action plans should develop and implement a plan immediately.) These plans should include annual testing goals for their membership and constituents, and commitments to offer HIV testing at their national and regional conferences and conventions. These organizations should implement their plans and fullfill their testing commitments. Organizations funded through the Act Against AIDS Leadership Initiative should use resources from the CDC to implement their plans. Black leaders and institutions should establish knowledge of HIV status as a cultural norm in Black America.

Recommendations for President Obama

NAACP executives Bruce Gordon, president and CEO; Roslyn Brock, vice chair; and Julian Bond, chair take an HIV test July 14, 2006 on the opening day of the organization's 97th annual national convention.

• Use the bully pulpit. President Obama should deliver a high-profile speech on the AIDS crisis in Black America, placing particular emphasis on the need for all Black Americans to know their HIV status. The President should use this speech as an opportunity to convene Black opinion leaders, Black media and traditional Black institutions to pledge their collective, meaningful engagement in a national drive to ensure that all Black Americans know their HIV status.
• Develop a national AIDS strategy. President Obama should follow through on his campaign pledge to develop and implement America's first national AIDS strategy. The national strategy should be developed in consultation with people living with HIV, affected communities, traditional Black institutions, state and local health departments, medical associations, private industry and relevant federal agencies. The national strategy should delineate and prioritize a comprehensive national plan to increase testing rates in Black America, with specific focus on community-driven testing campaigns, multi-sectoral engagement in testing promotion, and optimal coordination among diverse federal agencies.
• Fix reimbursement policies. President Obama should direct the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide adequate coverage for HIV testing services and linkage of patients who test HIV-positive to follow-up medical and supportive services.

Recommendations for Joint Action by Congress and the Obama Administration

• Fund a national testing campaign. The Obama administration and Congress should work together to provide targeted funding for a major, national, multi-year campaign to make knowledge of HIV status a social norm in Black America. This program should build on -- and give more vigorous life to -- CDC's recently announced Act Against AIDS Leadership Initiative. Under this program, CDC should be required to establish and adhere to specific, time-bound milestones to increase HIV testing among Black Americans. This new national initiative should include broad-based, state-of-the-art advertising efforts, as well as funding for locally tailored testing promotion campaigns in Black communities across the U.S. Funding for the initiative should provide for rigorous, independent evaluation and documentation of lessons learned.
• Swiftly pass legislative initiatives. Congress should expeditiously approve and send to President Obama pending legislation to strengthen HIV testing efforts in Black America. Proposed legislation that deserves swift passage includes the Routine HIV/AIDS Screening Coverage Act, the Stop AIDS in Prison Act, and the National Black Clergy for the Elimination of HIV/AIDS Act.
• Fully fund the Minority AIDS Initiative. Congress should appropriate at least $610 million in funding for the Minority AIDS Initiative in FY2010 and continue in subsequent years to ramp up funding for this program.

Recommendations for the CDC and State and Local Health Departments

• Target funding for testing promotion. The CDC should increase funding to Black-serving organizations, traditional Black institutions, and state and local health departments to increase utilization of HIV rapid-testing technologies.
• Build capacity for local testing coalitions. CDC should provide substantial, targeted financial and capacity-building support for the development, maintenance and support of community-driven HIV testing coalitions in Black communities across the U.S., with particular focus on the 25 cities with the largest number of Black people living with HIV.
• Launch anti-stigma campaigns. In furtherance of the objectives of the Act Against AIDS Leadership Initiative, the CDC should work with marketing experts, community-based organizations and traditional Black institutions to develop and implement a multi-component strategy to alleviate HIV stigma and discrimination in Black America. The strategy should build on international best practices in anti-stigma programming and include funding to support community-based cultivation of celebrity spokespeople to fight HIV stigma. The anti-stigma strategy should specifically address homophobia and encourage tolerance and acceptance of sexual diversity.
• Build HIV science literacy. The CDC should provide major new funding for capacity-building initiatives to build HIV literacy in Black communities.
• Implement CDC guidelines. All states should review their laws -- and where necessary, revise them -- to ensure their alignment with CDC's 2006 guidelines for HIV testing. All state legislative frameworks should require private insurers to reimburse medical providers for HIV testing services. State medical regulators should review their policies and practices to intensify uptake of routine HIV testing in medical settings, with particular attention to settings that serve large numbers of Black patients.
• Increase clinicians' ability to diagnose acute HIV infection. The U.S. Public Health Service should collaborate with state and local health departments and professional medical associations to develop and implement clinical guidance and training programs to improve clinicians' ability to diagnose acute HIV infection.
• Link HIV-positive individuals to care. The CDC should collaborate with state and local health departments and with its partners in the U.S. Public Health Service to improve the effectiveness of referral and linkage for all individuals who test HIV-positive. Demonstrated improvement in service linkage should be a meaningful criterion for HIV prevention and Ryan White funding for states and localities.

Recommendations for the Private Sector

• Promote HIV testing in the workplace. Companies and government agencies that employ large numbers of Black workers should energetically promote HIV testing and educate employees regarding venues where testing is available.
• Develop media campaigns. Diverse media outlets should collaborate in developing and implementing high-profile media campaigns that promote HIV testing in Black America. Experts on marketing products and services to Black consumers should be integral partners in the development and monitoring of these campaigns. Local media outlets should provide public service support for local HIV testing campaigns in Black communities.
• Endorse CDC's guidelines. All relevant professional medical associations should endorse CDC's 2006 testing guidelines and should incorporate testing promotion modules in their medical training programs.
• Pay providers for testing. All insurers should adequately reimburse medical providers for HIV testing services, including pooled RNA testing for antibody-negative specimens. Such policies would recognize CDC's finding that routine HIV testing is a fundamental component of proper medical care.

Previous | Next
Contents