Blacks and Testing

Blacks are more likely than other racial/ethnic groups to have reported having been tested for HIV. In 2009, 52 percent of Black people surveyed reported having taken an HIV test, compared to 38 percent of Hispanics and 34 percent of whites.

But with HIV infection levels many times higher than for the country as a whole, Blacks actually need to be tested at much higher rates to ensure prompt diagnosis. Nationwide, well over 100,000 Black Americans are currently unaware that they are living with HIV. In Washington, D.C., nearly half of all Blacks surveyed said they had never taken the test. In a multi-city survey of young gay and bisexual men, two-thirds of Black men who tested HIV-positive had previously been unaware they were infected.

The high prevalence of undiagnosed HIV infection is a key reason why the epidemic is so much worse in Black America than in other parts of the U.S. Up to 70 percent of all new infections in Black America are the result of risky behavior among people who do not know they are infected. And because Black people are more likely to be diagnosed late in the course of infection, they are also more likely to die.

Although the AIDS crisis in Black America demands significantly greater testing uptake, evidence suggests that testing rates have flattened or may even be on the decline among Black people. Surveys by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that the percentage of Black people under age 65 who reported recent testing remained stable between October 1997 (39 percent) and March 2009 (40 percent). A separate analysis of results from CDC-sponsored behavioral surveys suggests that testing rates among Blacks actually declined between 1999 and 2007.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Get tested. Every Black American should take the test. Knowing your HIV status is a right and responsibility. Knowing your partner’s HIV status can save your life. Today, there is no excuse for not knowing the status of your status.

Talk about AIDS. Black Americans from all walks of life must wake up to the continuing threat posed to their communities by the epidemic. Black people should engage each other in discussions about the importance of getting tested and the need for a stronger community response to the crisis.

Build community-testing coalitions. In collaboration with traditional Black institutions and their local health departments, community members should join together to plan community-driven initiatives to encourage Black people to be tested for HIV. Making innovative use of local media, opinion leaders and faith-based organizations, these community coalitions should work to establish knowledge of HIV status as a social norm in Black communities.

Leaders must lead. Many national Black institutions have developed strategic action plans to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic. (Organizations which do not have AIDS strategic action plans should develop one).

Source: Black AIDS Institute 2009 State of AIDS Report Passing the Testing