NCJ Number
107895
Journal
Human Rights Volume: 14 Issue: 3 Dated: (Summer 1987) Pages: 34-37,52
Date Published
1987
Length
5 pages
Annotation
A disproportionate number of U.S. blacks and Hispanics have AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), but these minority groups are not receiving the level of preventive education and health care available to the other major high risk group -- white, middle-class gays.
Abstract
Most heterosexually infected persons with AIDS in the United States have been black or Hispanic women, and 91 percent of the fetal transmission of AIDS involves blacks or Hispanic children. Preventive education within these minority communities has been hampered by the reluctance of minority leaders to acknowledge the prevalence of deviant behaviors in minority communitites that occasion the transmission of AIDS. Educational efforts have also failed to include minority leaders in their planning and implementation. Health care of minority AIDS patients has also fallen short of that given nonminority persons with AIDS. This is due to less access to adequate health care, more unbalanced nutrition among minorities, and less effective or nonexistent health insurance among minorities. All institutions serving minorities should be sensitized to the AIDS health crisis and work together to improve preventive and health care efforts on their behalf.