ISSUES: In AIDS Battle, US Victims Take Back Seat!

This year has seen big advancements in the battle against AIDS, and the US has made “great progress” fighting the disease abroad, as George W. Bush noted in a World AIDS Day op-ed. But “why aren’t we more committed to end AIDS at home?” asks Cornelius Baker in the Boston Globe, particularly when it comes to prevention among African Americans, “who comprise nearly half of all new HIV infections?”

Some 1.1 million US residents have HIV, and more than 56,000 new cases appear here each year. It’s time to “fully commit” to the White House’s National HIV/AIDS strategy, and that requires adequate funding for “research and programs,” including demonstrations of new preventive drugs in the 12 hardest-hit cities. Then, we need to focus on the hardest-hit populations, “most notably African Americans, Latinos, and "Some" gay men.”