This sixth segment, with a focus on HIV/AIDS, is part of an eight-part series on health disparities in the Pittsburgh region. These segments are the result of a collaboration among the New Pittsburgh Courier, Community PARTners within the University of Pittsburgh’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI; http://www.ctsi.pitt.edu) and the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh. Pitt School of Medicine Assistant Professor Michael Yonas, DrPH, sat down with Esther Bush, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, to discuss this month’s focus on HIV/AIDS among African Americans in Allegheny County.

ESTHER BUSH

An African American woman learns that she is HIV-positive at the same time she learns that her sickly 2-year-old son has AIDS. Having accepted Christ a few years earlier, she fears her church family will find out and reject her. A young African American man shares how most of his mother’s friends stopped coming over to her house and no longer invited her to theirs once they learned that he had AIDS and had moved back home to get help with his care. “They acted as if she could give it [AIDS] to them just by my being in her house. They stayed away from her because of me.”

The mission of the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force (PATF) is to support and empower all individuals living with HIV/AIDS and prevent the spread of infection. In just four years, PATF has launched three unique prevention programs aimed primarily at African-Americans throughout the region. As a result, PATF has reached thousands of people and has received national acclaim for its efforts.

In December 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published these statistics about HIV/AIDS in America:

• 1.2 million people are living with HIV in the U.S.

• Nearly one in five people living with HIV (about 240,000) don’t know they are infected.

• In 2009, there were an estimated 48,100 new HIV infections, with most (61 percent) occurring in gay and bisexual men.