KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON - King County Executive Ron Sims has proclaimed February 7, 2007, as Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day. Local Black leaders and organizations are responding to the impact of HIV and AIDS in King County’s African American communities by encouraging residents to get educated, get involved, get tested and get treated.
“Let’s use February 7th as an opportunity to recognize that HIV and AIDS disproportionately affects the Black community, which is a crisis for African Americans and for all of us,” said King County Executive Ron Sims. “We must show our caring for our family and friends by insisting that they learn about HIV, including their HIV status.”
For information about HIV and testing call the HIV/STD Hotline at 206-205-7837
“In King County, African Americans and foreign-born Blacks make up 22% of new HIV cases, though they are only 6.5% of our county’s population,” said Dr. Bob Wood, HIV/AIDS Program Director for Public Health – Seattle & King County. “Nationally, the statistics are even more alarming -- African Americans make up approximately 12 percent of the population, yet almost half of all new AIDS cases reported in this country are among members of the Black community.”
Local events:
February 7th is also National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day and Seattle is one of more than 300 urban centers across the U.S. with events to call attention to the problem and seek solutions to halt the epidemic. In King County, the Black Leadership Council on HIV (BLC) has organized local events including:
- Street Outreach at high traffic intersections in Downtown (Pike and 3rd), the Central District (23rd and South Jackson), Southeast Seattle (Rainier Beach) and in Renton between South 2nd and South 3rd on Rainier. BLC members will be talking to people about the disproportionate impact HIV is having in Black communities and what they can do to prevent it. They will also distribute sexual safety kits and provide information for HIV testing and other HIV services.
- Video showing of “Out of Control: AIDS in Black America,” sponsored by the Madison Clinic Cultural Diversity Committee at Harborview Medical Center’s Research and Training Building Auditorium, 325 9th Avenue, Seattle, from noon to 1:20 PM.
To learn more:
Providing effective and innovative health and disease prevention services for over 1.8 million residents and visitors of King County, Public Health – Seattle & King County works for safer and healthier communities for everyone, every day.
|
