The Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) is a virus that weakens the body's defense until it can no longer fight off illness such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, cancerous tumors and others. We are at a critical point in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the African American Community. With an estimated 1 in 50 Black men and 1 in 160 Black women living with HIV, the time to act is now. We must get HIV positive individuals into medical programs and work harder to prevent further spread of this disease. HIV/AIDS is preventable, but there are too many that are not educated and wait too long to do something about the disease, therefore wait too long to be tested, and seek treatment. Although more people are living longer with AIDS, there is still no cure. HIV is still on the rise and African Americans are still the hardest hit. .
The incidence of HIV, now a major problem in the African American community. Those hardest hit are young black men between the ages of 15-22. Black in this age bracket are hit the most and the hardest because of several reasons, such as they feel that it is not important to use condoms, they have several partners, or because their partners are bisexual, etc. Many occurrences that are in women in this age bracket as well as in others are that they find their partners are either a bisexual male and/or female. Most of the cases in black women recently are not from the most traditional reasons, though they are still common. Most cases involving young black men (BMSM) are running rampant in the community because they are not taking precautions against the disease. There are six major cities in the United States that have the highest ratio of AIDS cases, they are as follows: Baltimore, Maryland; Dallas, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; the San Francisco Bay Area, California; and Seattle, Washington. (Alden 87).
During a recent survey, in the above mention cities, it was recently discovered that BMSM were more prone to have intercourse with their partners and not be protective.