HIV/AIDS Still Ravaging Black Community

From the Gary Post [HERE]It's been 14 years since Gloria Manamela learned she was HIV-positive. It was a shocking discovery that left her angry, scared and depressed.

Living in Pittsburgh at the time, Manamela contracted HIV in 1994 after having unprotected sex with a man she dated for six months after separating from her husband. When she found out she'd been infected, Manamela was devastated.

"I never used drugs. I wasn't promiscuous. I didn't fit the stereotype of AIDS," said Manamela, who moved to Northwest Indiana six years ago and has since become an outspoken AIDS education advocate.

While Manamela's story is sobering, it is not rare.

Nationally, an estimated 56,300 people are infected each year by the virus that causes AIDS. In Indiana, 8,851 people are living with HIV/AIDS, 15 percent of whom live in Northwest Indiana. In Lake County, half of the people living with HIV/AIDS are in Gary. Overall, the AIDS epidemic is ravaging the black community at a disproportionate rate, with African-American men and woman accounting for almost half of the new cases reported across the country and in Indiana.

It is a gloomy reality, health officials say.

"When you have a population that accounts for only 8 percent of the state's population, but accounts for 50 percent of the HIV/AIDS population, that's absolutely alarming," said Andrea Perez, communities of color program manager for the Indiana Department of Health.

In the black community, the infection rate is growing fastest among black females, health officials say. Black women are 15 times more likely to contract AIDS than their white peers, according the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The disease is the leading cause of death among black women age 25 to 34, the CDC says, and the third leading cause of death among black women age 35 to 44.

Perez said the No. 1 mode of transmission among black women is heterosexual sex, sometimes with men who are considered to be "on the down low" -- meaning secretly having sex with men and women. But that doesn't tell the whole story, she said.

"We can't discount the 'down low' phenomena," she said, "but at the same time we can't say why the rate among black women is so much higher.

Manamela, who now lives in Valparaiso with her 13-year-old son, said she speaks freely about her HIV infection because she wants to keep others from exposing themselves to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, a preventable disease.

"You can't tell who has HIV just from looking at them. The best way to find out if your sexual partner is HIV-positive is to talk to them about it and then get tested," Manamela tells her audiences.

AIDS activist Tammy Morris said the continued social stigma attached to HIV/AIDS -- combined with a lack of information and inadequate access to health care -- cause many women to forgo testing and treatment.

"Those who know their status are adhering to their medications. Those who don't know end up getting sicker," said Morris, executive director of Aliveness Project of Northwest Indiana -- a Merrillville-based organization provides services to people infected with HIV/AIDS throughout Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties.

Tony Gillespie, executive director of Brothers Uplifting Brothers, said the AIDS statistics are bleak and speak for themselves.

He said he fears that AIDS education and prevention efforts may lose ground because of state funding.

"There's been no funding level increases even though we've seen an increase in cases," said Gillespie, whose Merrillville organization targets black men for counseling, safe housing, HIV/AIDS education and other services.

Still, he says, there is reason for hope.

Gillespie, said many area churches and other faith-based organizations are partnering with HIV service providers to help educate the community and prevent the spread of AIDS.

"There have been some great strides in terms of expanding our partnerships with nontraditional sources," Gillespie said. "In the past, we would have never been allowed in a church."

Rosie Thomas, director of the Lake County Minority Health Coalition, said she believes AIDS statistics are soaring among young people in part because -- feeling invincible -- they often engage in risky behavior.

Manamela agrees, adding that the increasing survival rate among those infected with HIV makes some young people think they can't get sick, even if they contract the disease.

"Because people with HIV are living longer, some younger people say, 'I'll just take medications,' " Manamela said.

"I wish I had that choice," Manamela. But, "for the rest of my life, I'll be on medications."