The Facts About Rahway
The truth about AIDS is prevalent in many cities across the nation. Myriad factors contribute to the spread of AIDS, afflicting everyone who obstructs its path6. The disease is mainly concentrated in inner cities, ravishing through African-American communities, and leaving behind scars with irreplaceable damages. Not only is AIDS taking numerous amounts of people by storm, but also particularly, it is terrorizing African-American females. Black women are becoming infected at frightening rates, to which they account for half of new infections every year, acquired through heterosexual sex. African-American women are 23 times more likely to be infected with AIDS than a white woman!(1) By comparison, 1 in every 160 black women, opposed to 1 in 3,000 white women are infected with the virus.(2)
One of the most unimaginable events that reflect my hometown, Rahway, New Jersey is the rising rate of HIV/AIDS. Rahway is a little, suburban town located in the northeast part of the state in Union county. This kinship city is concerned with providing the children of the city a good education and places to take part in recreational activities. It is also known for generating athletes in our local high school that have gone off the top athletic university. Currently, Rahway is undergoing gentrification in its downtown area and public schools. Even though this small town may be going towards in the right direction of providing citizens of the town with better services and leisure, some of the negative social aspects among the people are the growing number of HIV/AIDS infections. I believe some of these issues are placed on the back burner facing the city.
My first perceptions of the disease in my own hometown were not as conventional as the numbers and rates were that displayed figures exceeding the national average for the cumulative AIDS rate. Rahway has a population of about 26,500, but disappointingly has a rate of more than four times the national average of people living with AIDS, which are 200. When I was asked to estimate the rates of Rahway, I overestimated the numbers because I did not fully comprehend what the “cumulative cases” were and its relevance to the rates of HIV/AID. I thought this meant the number of people with HIV/AIDS. I guessed 960 cases, which was extremely high because Rahway’s cumulative cases are 217 cases.
However, when I was asked the question of how many other cities in the county did I expect to have more AIDS cases than Rahway, I was pleased to say that I guessed Elizabeth (having 1472 cases), Plainfield (having 230 cases), Linden (having 231 cases), then Roselle (having 226 cases), which was the exact number of cities, four, in the correct order from the greatest to least number of cumulative rates for HIV/AIDS rate before Rahway. Ranking number five in the county for such a small town, statistics are rapidly increasing as time goes on, exponentially. After looking at the statistics of the disease, for the male, female, and their rates, my eyes are now widen of the defects of the town and the destructive path it’s headed for. I found out that Rahway’s cumulative rate average for HIV/AIDS was higher than the national average of 2 per 1,000 people. Rahway’s rate was 8.5 of 1,000 people living with HIV/AIDS a year.
In the African-American population of Rahway, 96 of 7,058 people are currently living with AIDS. This measures out to a rate of 1,361, opposed to the Hispanic rate of a mere 545. In the White population, there are 21 cases of people living with AIDS, which culminates to a rate of 149 people. The rates were calculated by multiplying the PLWA number and 100,000, then dividing that number by the total population in that particular group. Compared to a county level, the rates of these particular groups living with HIV/AIDS are in close proximity individually to the rates of Rahway. On the other hand, the rate for Whites in relevance to New Jersey as a whole was very similar to the rates of the Whites in Union county, but shockingly, Rahway’s rates for the Whites and Other were higher than those of the state. (PLWA Tables)
In New Jersey, intravenous drug users, has stimulated the epidemic more; not homosexual sex, as many thought.(3) Controversial to this fact, both Union county and Rahway’s rate do not support this fact. Rahway and Union county has a higher percentage of transmission through heterosexual contact is more prevalent rather than injection drug users. Heterosexual contact is more prevalent in Rahway, with 60 people living with HIV/AIDS, opposed to drug use with 40 people living with HIV/AIDS. Both types of these transmissions are more common among women than men. Just as Rahway, Union county’s rates through the transmission of heterosexual contact is 1,105 persons living with HIV/AIDS, opposed to the injection drug users of 603 and the homosexual contact of 476 people living with HIV/AIDS. On a state level, drug users have culminated to 9,173 people living with HIV/AIDS, but the heterosexual contact surpasses this rate, culminating to 13,520 persons living with HIV/AIDS.
The way the media portrays the HIV/AIDS epidemic on television, makes it seem very prevalent only among particular groups of people in certain areas. Messages from commercials for BET’s “Rap it Up” Campaign reveals that this infectious disease is in our community and that we all should be aware it. It is their efforts in trying to reduce the number of new cases of HIV/AIDS among the black communities in many populated areas. Their commercials usually have inner city characteristics, like trains/subways, buses, and crowded sidewalks, implementing the setting almost like NYC or city near you. This is done to show relation and connection to its viewers. However, shows like Desperate Housewives, makes it seem like it is okay to have unprotected sex, with no effects or consequences after. Scenes having women throw themselves and having random sex with different men, illustrates that HIV/AIDS is not real, nor prevalent, which only exists as a hype among the medical community.
On the other hand, in my area, the war on HIV/AIDS is seen differently through the eyes of media. Newspapers, news reports, advertisements, and public service announcements depict a different message for this disease, and the disastrous effects as it taking down our communities by storm. The local newspaper of New Jersey, the Star Ledger, prioritizes and reports many HIV/AIDS articles, with statistics and facts as advisory’s and warning to the people in New Jersey. In 2005, an article, titled, “AIDS Epidemic Surges in African-Americans,” reported that the infection rates among this particular group of people has risen and doubled over the past decade, but still lingers steadily in the white population.(3) African-Americans make up half the population of HIV/AIDS infection in the United States, but yet only makes up thirteen percent of the United State’s population as a whole. Another interesting fact that I found in an article titled “No Rest in the AIDS Battle” from the Star Ledger, was the fact that New Jersey “has the highest proportion of infected women and third-highest number of children with HIV.”(4) For such a small state, I was astonished to read about this, but the way the newspaper published this article made it seem quite prevalent in our communities. One article that really hit home for me was an article published in August of 2006, which was an in depth analysis done in Newark, which explored the number of African-Americans living with HIV/AIDS; culminating in one of every 31.(5)
The HIV/AIDS is profound particularly in densely populated urban area, evaluating that minorities have been hit harder with this infectious disease4. With Newark being the largest and most populated city, followed by Jersey City, the AIDS virus is exceedingly increasing among the African-American community. When you come in contact, personally, with people living with HIV/AIDS, it gives you a greater appreciation for the many alerts and cautionary of this horrific pandemic going on in the nation. By them sharing their stories with us, it is advising and warning people of the dangers of this disease. This helps them become more confident in sharing their stories with other people and finding support. AIDS has become a widespread outbreak in many communities around the world. With sources like the Star Ledger and The New York Times, prevention and awareness is anticipated to stop the spread of this virus. Even though AIDS has become a public outcry on route for destruction, society has become blind in the face of danger and to a brighter future.