Moria Dailey
Published: February 8, 2006
On the annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day, Feb. 7, PJC, along with the Florida Department of Health, offered human immunodeficiency virus and AIDS testing, as well as syphilis screening, in the student center on the Pensacola campus. Drug and alcohol counselors were also available, as well as information packets and free condoms.
According to statistics from the Center for Disease Control, in 2004 there were 20,965 cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) among black, non-Hispanic American, which brings the total number of blacks with AIDS to 379,278 since 1985.
CDC statistics show that there are more cases of AIDS found in blacks than in people of any other ethnicity, and center spokeswoman Jennifer Ruth said, “The reality of the lives of some African Americans illustrate why the rate is so high.”
She noted that there is a higher rate of poverty among blacks in America; this economic disparity can lead to behaviors which can put a person at risk for contracting HIV, she explained, citing trading sex for money, food, shelter or even drugs.
According to recently released statistics from the CDC, 82 percent of all HIV/AIDS contraction comes from unprotected sexual encounters.
Nursing students from Capps Medical were on hand to take vital signs. It was all volunteer run, and student Aisha Lowe said she and her fellow students were there because they had a “passion to help others.”
“If we didn’t, we’d be in the wrong profession,” Lowe laughed.
Debra Dublin, of the health department’s STD Division was responsible for drawing blood required for syphilis screening, and explained that syphilis has been identified as one of the co-factors of HIV/AIDS and increases the risk of contracting HIV.
As Dublin looked out at the students who were sitting at tables in the Student Center, she said, “I wish they were over here. They don’t know how important it is, but they don’t want to get stuck. I don’t blame them.”
Maurice Moody, a member of the health department who was at the college to do HIV/AIDS screening, said that he feels AIDS has “slipped off the radar” as an issue, but is still a very serious one.