(New York, NY) - The National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (NBLCA) hosted its inaugural commemoration at City Hall on Thursday, Feb 5, as a precursor to the nationwide celebrations of Feb 7, National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

Rev. Alfonso Wyatt

Close to 200 people gathered in City Hall's Council Chambers for a program on the State of HIV/AIDS in Black America which was presented by NBLCA, and which included State Senator Bill Perkins (D-30th Senate District), Council Members Inez Dickens (D-Council District 9), Robert Jackson (D-Council District 7), and Alan Gerson (D-Council District 1).

The program's master of ceremonies was Rev. Alfonso Wyatt, chair, NBLCA-NYC, who introduced Dickens and Jackson, each of whom made remarks. As the co-chair of the Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, Jackson, drawing a comparison to the tuberculosis test he had as a child, he said that everyone needs to know their HIV status. Continuing along the vein of personal commitment to his community, he said since he has been making blood donations annually, now he gives platelets and is a registered organ and bone marrow donor. As the Majority Whip in the City Council, Dickens spoke of the representation of change with a new president, but said that despite the complications, HIV must be a priority.

C. Virginia Fields

To set the stage for the keynote address, there was a showing of an excerpt from the ABC News documentary, Out of Control - AIDS in Black America which was aired on Aug 24, 2006.
C. Virginia Fields presented the key note address. After acknowledging and recognizing various people in the audience, including the NBCLA staff, she said that almost three years and three decades later Black people nationwide are still facing some of the same issues; the HIV crisis is far from over. She quoted statistics from the U.S. Center for Diseases Control and from the National Medical Association (NMA) report, Addressing the HIV/AIDS Crisis in the African American Community: Fact, Fiction and Policy.

Drawing comparisons between the numbers of Blacks in America who are HIV positive, Fields said that it was greater than the populations of Ethiopia, Botswana, Haiti and Guyana, combined.

She pointed out that Black communities are the hardest hit by HIV infections, where in 2006, of the 56,300 new infections in the U.S., more than 25 percent were African-Americans."Most of the community is infected and don't even know it, and as such leads to three-quarters more new infections," she said.

Referring to the HIV/AIDS Report, Fields said that AIDS is the leading cause of death for women between 25 and 44, and men 35 to 44 years old, which has been going on for the past 11 years.
The NMA, the largest association nationwide representing physicians of African descent, Fields said, reported that HIV, as a crisis in the Black community, is the equivalent to a national emergency. She spoke of the story of a woman who was infected by the virus by her boyfriend, became ill and when she was taken to the hospital's emergency room, she was diagnosed with HIV. The woman faced rejection and marginalization from family and friends, even her mother told others that her daughter had cancer, to hide the scourge of HIV infection. This woman said Fields, has written books on her experience and is the face of HIV/AIDS in the Black community.

"Why is there no sense of outrage?" Fields asked.

Many people believe the disease has been cured because there are no more front page stories, she said. The media is not carrying the face of HIV/AIDS.

"It is past time to address the stigma and discrimination against people with HIV. We need to fight the ingrained stigma. We must find ways to instill the message to the Black clergy," said Fields.
She called for new policies and means to address a key source of infection, the nation's prison system. Inmates, she added, in the nation's prisons have quadrupled and has become an incubator for HIV transmission. Fields cited the lack of condom availability and distribution, absence of counseling, and no mental health services for the men incarcerated, those being released back into society, and to following those who have been released focusing on transmission to their partners.

"It is incomprehensible that this country doesn't have an AIDS strategy and in the absence of a national AIDS strategy, there is a disjointed effort. We cannot, we must not let this moment pass. We must do all we can to ensure that all the policies are passed and we must press for actions and results," she said.
Outlining three courses of action, Fields said she is urging President Obama to move in his commitment for a HIV plan to combat the virus here at home, a declaration of HIV/AIDS as an emergency in the Black community; second, to do a much more effective job of reaching African-Americans with early HIV testing and referred to the CDC recommendations that all health facilities make HIV testing routine. The NBCLA believes that the CDC should make it and implement this testing at the state and local law level.

"We must urge Congress to pass Maxine Waters' sponsored legislation to test all those entering and leaving prisons and following them for support," Fields said.

The third course of action, she said, was establishing comprehensive health education in schools by strengthening this type of education for the children who should be provided with information about HIV/AIDS.

The face of the epidemic has changed and the economic status of its victims has also changed, she said. Today, HIV is transmitted primarily through sex instead of drug use.

"Together let us work to lift the veil of ignorance, let us promote dignity, respect and compassion for all people," she concluded.

Former NBCLA president, Debra Frazier-Howe, vice president, OraSure Technologies, offered closing remarks to the program.