BEAUMONT, Texas — Multiple Southeast Texas health clinics are focusing on raising awareness about the access to HIV care, treatment and prevention within Black communities.
February 7 is National Black HIV and AIDS Awareness Day. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention released data that showed a disparaging difference in the number of Black people who are diagnosed with HIV.
According to health officials, HIV disproportionately affects the Black community. Due to this, area health officials highly encourage that members of minority communities learn their status.
“Disparity still exists when it comes to HIV, and so I'll just say nationwide, even though African Americans consists of about 13 percent of the population, our latest data from 2019 showed that 40 percent of new cases were with African American community members ,”Ashley Minkeu, Legacy Community Health director of public health, said. “So we really want to bring awareness to this.”
Health experts at the Legacy Community Health clinic said testing is quick and accurate thanks to advances in technology and modern medicine. Those wanting to learn their status can know in a matter of minutes.
In an effort to encourage testing, Legacy Health is providing free testing.
“So we really want to bring awareness to this, encourage people to know their status," Minkeu said. "And if they would like to link to any HIV prevention methods we have available then we can surely connect them in a timely fashion.”
Southeast Texas health departments are fighting to silence the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS.
“You know, once we gave a person a diagnosis, they had a year or so," Richard Gillord, Port Arthur Health Department disease intervention specialist, said. "Because of lack of medication that person got sick and could die within that time frame. But now we have people living forever, you know, cause they take their meds."
Health officials believe modern medicine brought a renowned hope to people diagnosed with HIV or AIDS. However, the road to preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS begins with one question
“Everyone has a status, and the only way to really help prevent the spread of HIV in our communities is to know what our status actually is," Minkeu said. "If I am living with HIV, then I can get treatment. I can come into a clinic like Legacy and be connected to the care that I need.
"On the other side, if I am not living with HIV, and I would like to use medication such as PrEP, or Truvada to help me stay not living with HIV, then I can do that as well."
Health officials hope that increasing awareness about and fighting the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS will encourage more people to get tested.