My familiarity with the word AIDS was veiled by the shame with which my family paired the disease. I was 10 years old when I discovered that a distant cousin of mine was diagnosed with AIDS. However, when I asked my aunt what it meant, I can remember the exact words that she said to me, “it is a punishment from God to those people who have sinned before him.” Being raised in an extremely religious family, those words brought nothing but dread into my mind. Therefore, I remained completely ignorant of the disease until I came to high school.
A mandatory health class during my sophomore year in high school shed some light into my perception of AIDS. Nevertheless, the facts that were presented to me in class left me in utter confusion with regards to what my aunt had said when I was younger. It was only when I discovered that AIDS was first acquired during a sexual intercourse between two men did I realize what my aunt meant. Being a Roman Catholic, being gay or having sexual relationship with the same gender was against the teachings of the church. However, her words lacked human logic. Her words contained only of ignorance and refusal to stop the spread of the disease. From then on, I saw the spread of AIDS more as a cause of people’s denial, ignorance, and lack of knowledge about the disease.
My high school curriculum dedicated a whole day to AIDS awareness in addition to the health class that we had to pass. The Health class was more concentrated on the physical aspect of the disease, how people acquire it, and the science behind it. The AIDS awareness day, on the other hand, gave the students the chance to meet a person who was actually diagnosed with AIDS and interact with him/her personally. We were also given addresses where we can get tested or obtain counseling regarding AIDS. Although my parents were religious, they did not opt me out of this program since they knew I was old enough to know the truth about AIDS. In addition to this, lectures on safe sex were given as well as free condoms. Students had a choice whether they wanted to obtain condoms, however, they need not consent their parents regarding their decision nor do their parents have to know about it. However, the only problem rests in the idea that the school was promoting sex within the students. In this case, tensions arise between morality and practicality.
Throughout my four years in high school, the only speaker who has volunteered to speak with us was a woman. Therefore, when asked to guess the percentage of women affected with AIDS in my hometown, Woodside, Queens, I guessed 46% when statistics indicate that the actual percentage for cumulative AIDS cases for women in Woodside was 13%. I overestimated the number of women diagnosed with AIDS by about 3.5 times the actual number since my exposure to the disease was particularly with women. Furthermore, when I researched for articles written about AIDS in Woodside, Queens, I only found articles on HIV and nothing about AIDS in particular. The articles discussed how HIV develops into AIDS but no articles were found particularly on AIDS. I used Lexis Nexis to search for these articles and found several written about AIDS in various places. The Daily News wrote an article about Latinas and getting their voices heard on issues regarding HIV. This article was written in October 13, 2006 and was written on Woodside, Queens (1). According to the article, “the percentage of women and young people contracting the disease through heterosexual sex continues to skyrocket, making women one of the most at-risk groups for HIV infection” (1). Although this article was written about HIV, not AIDS, since HIV soon develops into AIDS, it gave me the perception that if the HIV cases were skyrocketing, then the AIDS cases should somewhat be affected as well, since HIV leads to AIDS. This is also one of the reasons why I thought the AIDS cases were higher in women. Two out of the 46 articles that I researched about AIDS talked about women and HIV. One article written in December 15, 1993 discusses women using condoms to protect themselves against HIV. Although the article is primarily concerned with HIV, in the middle of the article, it states, “AIDS cases among women are growing at a faster rate than among men, mostly as a result of heterosexual sex” (2). Only one article was written about AIDS/HIV in Woodside, Queens, zip code 11377, and it is particularly concerned with women and HIV not AIDS. Along with the fact that only a woman has spoken about AIDS in my high school, the articles that I researched mostly talked about HIV/AIDS in women. It is therefore not a surprise that my estimate was more than the actual percentage. The media coverage in my area concentrated on women in particular. However, the media portrayal of women as having a higher risk for HIV is not accurate because according to data, the prevalence rate for female living with HIV is 265 (Table 6D). On the other hand, the prevalence rate for male living with HIV is 553 which is about twice the rate for HIV in women (Table 6A). Thus media portrayal is incongruent with statistical data.
Due to the wide coverage of AIDS worldwide, my perception of the occurrence of AIDS was erroneous. Approximately 20% of the articles written describes of the alarmingly increasing rates of AIDS in either New York City or the United States. For instance, in an article written in May 18, 2008, it indicates that, “the number of people ages 13 to 19 infected with the AIDS virus rose 29% between 2004 and 2006, despite efforts to curb the spread” (3). Another article by the New York Times written in November 2007 claims that Washington, D.C. “has the highest rate of AIDS infection of any city in the country… about 1 in 50- are living with AIDS or HIV, the virus that causes AIDS” (9). Moreover, the New York Times once again wrote that, Westchester, New York, “had the second-highest number of people living with AIDS of any county in the state” (10). With so many articles written about the alarming increase of AIDS in the United States, this explains why people such as myself guessed higher than the actual statistics. With regards to worldwide coverage, of the articles I found concerning the increasing rate of AIDS, two of them dealt with AIDS in Africa and human trafficking and its effect on AIDS (12, 13).
When I was asked how many cumulative AIDS cases has been reported in my zip code, 11377, Woodside since 1980, my estimated guess was 2,000 cases. This guess was, however, made without prior knowledge of the total population of New York City, let alone, Queens. I once again overestimated the number of cases by about 1713 cases. The actual number of cumulative cases that have been reported in Woodside, zip code 11377 was 287 (Table 1). In terms of people living with AIDS, the PLWA rate for Woodside, 11377 is 474 per 100,000. This means that about 474 out of 100,000 people living in Woodside currently have AIDS. Compared to Woodside, the rate of occurrence for AIDS in Queens is 382 per 100,000 people (Table 2 and Table 22A). The rate in Woodside for people living with AIDS is a little higher than the PLWA rate for the entire Queens borough. The Woodside occurrence rate is about 1.2 times the occurrence rate in Queens. Meanwhile, the highest occurrence of AIDS is located in East Elmhurst, zip code 11370, with an alarming rate of 2640, meaning that about 2640 out of 100,000 people are infected with AIDS in this area (Table 1). This is about 7 times the average rate of occurrence in the entire borough of Queens. This was unexpected for me since I thought that Jamaica would have the highest occurrence of AIDS. This is based on a stereotypical idea that the Jamaican neighborhood is dangerous and full of drug addicts. This assumption, however, was only based on what people around me have said about the neighborhood. However, as data clearly show, Jamaica’s rate ranks only fourth of the highest, with a rate of 1143, almost 3 times the average rate of the occurrence in Queens. Long Island City ranks second with the rate of 1410, almost 4 times that of the average in Queens (Table 1 and Table 2). Based on an article recently published by the Daily News, April 6, 2008, the AIDS Center of Queens County in Long Island City has been distributing clean needles to IV drug users in able to stop the spread of AIDS. The “center treads carefully as it works to establish syringe exchange programs in Long Island City, Jamaica, Far Rockaway, and Corona” (14). It is disturbing how programs are being established in locations that are second in terms of the highest occurrence of PLWA, however, none of the articles that I researched mentioned any programs or measures to stop the spread of AIDS in East Elmhurst which has an alarming rate. The same article states, “We know that when they bring syringes back to us it means the syringes are not being disposed of improperly….it also means they are not being shared” (14). There is no guarantee that the needles that were being borrowed were not being shared. How would they be able to tell if the needle was not shared? This is one aspect that was, however, unclear about the article.
In terms of the cumulative AIDS cases in the entire borough of Queens, when I was asked to guess how many AIDS cases has been reported since 1980, I guessed 5,000 cases, underestimating the actual number by about 15,390 cases. The actual total Cumulative AIDS cases was 20,390. 75% of the people diagnosed with AIDS in Queens are male or 15263 and 25% of are females or 5127. With so various organizations trying to prevent the spread of AIDS, it made me think that the number of cases diagnosed with AIDS would be less, but then again, this estimate was done without prior knowledge of the entire population of Queens. An even more recent article written in May 2008 discusses “The Divas, one of the many support groups organized through Iris House, an AIDS service center in Harlem, is more than anything about rebuilding self-esteem” (31). The media portrays various stories about the establishment of certain programs to help stop the spread of AIDS, however, actual statistics show that AIDS cases are still up by the high.
When asked to estimate the percentage of the cumulative AIDS cases that resulted from heterosexual transmission, I guessed 70% which was far higher than the actual statistic which shows heterosexual transmission as only 5%. My guess was accompanied by my lack of knowledge regarding how prevalent MSM (men having sex with men) and IDU (injection drug use) transmissions were in AIDS. One article published in December 1993 by the New York Times states that, “AIDS cases among women are growing at a faster rate than among men, mostly as a result of heterosexual sex” (2). In addition, although we talked about IDU and MSM transmission in my high school health class, my teacher always stressed on having one’s partner checked first before having sex and by partner, she did not refer to gay people but rather to straight men and women. This explains why my estimate regarding heterosexual transmission was higher than the actual percentage.
Cumulative AIDS for each race also show that African American people have the highest rate of occurrence of AIDS with a rate 2062 per 100,000 people. This is followed by the Hispanic race with the rate of 1112. Third is the White race having a rate of 657 and finally, the Asians with the lowest rate of 104. Currently, the PLWA rate for black people is 1181 suggesting that for every 100,000 black people we see, 1181 of them have AIDS. The Hispanic, White, and Asian rates are 852, 337, and 105 respectively. This data is supported by a recent article indicating that the cases for HIV and AIDS have risen among African Men, “The increase in diagnoses was specially high among males between the ages of 13 and 24… the annual increase was still higher among young African-American men who have sex with men, nearly 15 percent” (34). This claim is also supported by the HIV case diagnoses in the New York City level. According to the chart in all HIV diagnoses, the rate for black people is still the highest with 90 per 100,000 black people. This is followed by the Hispanic race with a rate of 47, which is then followed by the White and Asian race with rates, 20 and 6 respectively. Thus, whether it is cumulative AIDS, PLWA, or HIV rates, the Black population still ranks the highest out of all the races. There is a big gap between the rates of different races and data may show correlations between economic status and the prevalence of AIDS.
This research has broadened my perspective on AIDS beyond religious teachings. It allowed me to explore my own neighborhood and to see how badly certain locations are affected with AIDS. It also gave me a sense of how the media can alter the perception of the people from reality. This is a factor that needs to be addressed since it affects the actions that people will take in the future.