Pride News Canada's Leader In African Canadian & Caribbean News, Views & Lifestyle
By Allan Bucka Jones
PRIDE Health Columnist
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the virus, which can enter your body and can ultimately lead to the development of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
AIDS is a disease in which there is a severe loss of the body’s cellular immunity, greatly lowering the resistance to infection and malignancy.
Each year, February 7th is the day designated to intensify HIV awareness in the Black Community. The day has been observed since 1999 in the US, but was celebrated for the first time in Canada last year.
This year, the day falls on a Sunday and the agencies championing HIV / AIDS awareness in our community, like Black Cap at 416-977-9955 and AIDS Committee of Durham, toll free 1-877-361-8750 and Peel HIV/AIDS Network 905-361-0523, are encouraging community members to talk to their friends and family about HIV. Leaders of the faith community are encouraged to talk to their congregations about HIV.
In Canada, the Black community is disproportionately affected by HIV. Statistics indicate that 1 in 7 people living with HIV in Canada are from the Black Community. Many factors contribute individually and collectively to create this situation.
For instance, many of us think that HIV is not personally relevant to us, though we engage in unprotected sexual relations with partners whose HIV statuses we do not know. Within the community the most significant route by which HIV is transmitted is unprotected heterosexual contact.
Other routes that transmit HIV are contaminated blood transfusions; hypodermic needles; mother to child transmission, via pregnancy, during delivery or through breastfeeding.
Eighty percent of Black people living with HIV in Ontario are heterosexual. AIDS is caused by infection with HIV. A person may experience a brief period with flu-like symptoms, before a long period with no symptoms.
HIV infection makes you susceptible to infections like tuberculosis and certain cancers. In the final stages of AIDS, lung infections and a type of cancer known as Kaposi’s sarcoma are common.
To observe the day on February 7th members of the community are encouraged to (1) Start a conversation about HIV (2) Get tested for HIV and (3) Use condoms at all times.
In Peel, at 10am on February 7th the Peel HIV / AIDS Network and the Redeemed Christian Church of God are holding a forum at the church at 1 Lowry Drive in Brampton.
The theme of the forum is “Making our Health Matter: HIV Awareness and Testing”. This event will provide an excellent opportunity for members of the Black Community, including those in the faith community, to engage in focused discussions about HIV.
Information will be shared on the HIV situation in Peel, new prevention approaches and, also a look at ways the faith community can increase their involvement in HIV stigma reduction in Peel and elsewhere.
There are still some serious questions to be asked and answered, like: Why, despite the progress made in treating HIV/AIDS, it is spreading quickly in Toronto’s Black communities?
Why are Black and Caribbean people today accounting for more than 20% of all new HIV infections in Toronto, when back in the early nineties, Black and Caribbean people were only 10% of new HIV infections?
Are we taking more sexual risks, like not wearing condoms? Do we feel that HIV / AIDS cannot be transmitted by females? Do we still think it is a gay disease? Are we guided by how someone looks to decide if they may be HIV positive?
Is there adequate HIV / AIDS awareness in the Black community? Is the information on safe sex and needle sharing, reaching the Black community?
To date, there are an estimated 35.3 million people living with HIV. Between 1981 and 2012, AIDS killed 36 million people worldwide.
A simple blood test can reveal your HIV status. Talk to your family doctor, or one of the HIV / AIDS agencies in our community, if you are interested in doing the AIDS test.
Use February 7th as a starting point to talk the talk about HIV / AIDS…start the chat at home; start the chat in your worship place; start the chat in the workplace; and continue the chat all over…Let us do it !
Allan Bucka Jones is a Health Promoter and Broadcaster. You can contact Allan Bucka Jones at allan@jonesandjones.ca.
