Growing up in the AIDS epidemic

My First impression

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Cumulative and People Living with HIV/AIDS Statistics

        I first learned about HIV/AIDS through soap-operas such as CW 11’s Gossip Girls, One Tree Hill, shown on television. During high school, I started to learn about it in depth in health classes and workshops. My health class taught us how AIDS can be contracted and the prevention and treatments of AIDS. On a more interactive learning aspect, every year the HEART Club, a school club that helps spread awareness of the disease, sets up an annual AIDS Quilt at the first week of December, coinciding with World AIDS day on December 1^st. Guest speakers who are infected with HIV or AIDS from an organization would come in and share their story with us. Typically, these speakers were women, but are mostly African American descent. Panels of names, pictures, and words from friends and family are displayed on multicolor quilts would be presented around the room, in honoring the loved ones who passed away. These quilts own by the AIDS Quilt organization combined are large enough to cover 2 football fields but only a few of the quilts are displayed in the workshop. A classmate’s uncle was a frequent and active speaker in my high school at that time of the year. He, unfortunately, has lost the battle against AIDS a few years before I entered the school.
            Last year’s AIDS Quilt, I vividly remembered the speaker. He was not a victim of AIDS, but he was speaking on behalf of his beloved girlfriend and fiancé. His perspective was different from a victim’s perspective, he was there to witness how AIDS has overtaken her body and tell us how he felt every step of the way. He carried a picture of her and allowed us to look at the picture that he enlarged and told us a moving story about how they met and her encounter with HIV.
            During the AIDS Quilt, there were statistics of the people infected with AIDS locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. We were informed of the high numbers of Brooklyn AIDS cases. Although I do not remember those exact numbers, I remember I was shocked about the AIDS cases in Brooklyn. Growing up as an Asian American, my parents kept me from knowing the things I don’t need to know. Asian families are very traditional. Children are expected to marry in a normal, heterosexual marriage. I knew my parents do not hold any bias against homosexuals, but my mom told me once that she would disown me if I told her that I was a lesbian or a bisexual. Asian parents expects their children to have a straight sexual orientation, and there is usually no talk of sex simply because there is no need to. It is expected that no child should be dating until their educational career is over, thus abstinence was taken as a given. I was the only child, and my parents always kept me occupied with schoolwork, and never had the need to explore outside from what I needed to know for school. Throughout my life, I have never met anyone that is infected with HIV therefore I have never been up-close and personal with the disease. The media has bombarded me with numerous AIDS. This explains why I guessed high for the number of cumulative AIDS cases in Brooklyn. I guessed 4,200 cumulative AIDS cases since 1980 in my zip code (11206), when only 2264 cases were reported. Subsequently, I guessed that there are 18,000 cumulative AIDS cases while 23,423 AIDS cases have been reported.
            Through the media such as New York Times, Daily News, New York Post, and the New York Magazine, I was able to find articles that pertained to HIV and AIDS. The two New York Magazine articles I found helped to raise money through the Hollywood stars and through a designer sample sale in fighting against HIV/AIDS in Africa (1 & 2). This showed to the public that the celebrities are giving a helping hand to a good cause. Also, there has been an article from the New York Post regarding Madonna, Sharon Stone and Harvey Weinstein auctioning many personal things in helping to raise money for the “battle against HIV/AIDS.” (3) In addition, there was a Vienna Life Ball that gave in lots of publicity in showing the overly inappropriate acts of the stars that participated in this event and collected $1.2 million for HIV research (4). This past June, the New York Magazine published an article on different victims who suffer from HIV and later progressed into AIDS. In this article, it discusses about how AIDS came about in the late 1980s, and how people were affected by this horrible disease, however the new medicine HAART has been seemingly powerful in helping to stop the AIDS patients from dying. During 1995 to 1997, the AIDS deaths of New York City have dropped from 8,309 to 3,426, and the number of death has been reported to be decreasing (5).
            HIV/AIDS is portrayed as a very prominent issue, as shown in the distribution of condoms in New York City in the article written in February of 2007. This was in hope to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. There were numerous advertisements put onto the subway lines in promoting the free distribution of condoms and telephone numbers that people may reach to for HIV/AIDS testing (6). This way, people can somehow receive the message of that the rates of AIDS is a concern in the community. The media also shows a study of the usage of condoms and the relative diseases one may get. A Daily News article shows percentages of New Yorkers who are sexually active use condoms, where 40% of New Yorkers who were sexually active and have different partners did not use a condom during sexual intercourse (11). There is an 11% of New Yorkers have had more than one partner. Since there is a relatively high percentage of New Yorkers that are not using condoms, it led me to believe that there are higher chances that STDs and HIV can be contracted easier.
            Additionally, there were two articles in the Daily News and New York Times that gave relevant in informing people the AIDS pandemic that New York City is currently going through. As of June 26, 2008, Brooklyn has been reported as having the third highest AIDS cases rate of 46 per 100,000 people, while Manhattan has the highest of 82 per 100,000 people (9). These numbers alert people about how AIDS cases are very prevalent within the community. The media also covers an AIDS Walk Caribbean, which is ultimately to raise awareness in AIDS (7). The newspaper also informs the public about a program for HIV testing all the residents in Bronx (8 & 13). It was put into effect in hoping to inform everyone in the Bronx to be aware of the AIDS statistics that has been on the rise. These tests will be carried out involuntarily, and it is in the city’s best interest that everyone will be tested in the near future. As of June 2008, 40% of the 830,000 people in the Bronx have been tested. In the near future, the city hopes to have the remaining population to be tested as well. If the program works out, the city may expand this city-wide.
            The newspapers also informed the public about the actions of the state government as well. The Senate is on the verge of passing a $50-billon bill that goings towards the Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS Relief, however the money that is spent on researching for a cure for AIDS increases, but yet it remains incurable. AIDS has been described as becoming a “multibillion-dollar industry (10 & 11).”
            As discussed in class, HIV/AIDS were predominantly the first group infected with the “mysterious, dark” disease. One news article from the New York Times mentions that the HIV/AIDS are now the highest among gays, blacks and Hispanics, and now with a new trend that is affecting the young population (14). This has remained true for the past 10 years. It also mentions about different drugs doses, which similarly has been talked about in two articles written in the New York Times, where there has been drug trials performed on foster children (15). Its ethicality is being questioned whether or not it is justified to perform these tests on the children without consent. In another Times article, it informs the public about the available treatments and education that is around the city.
            Brooklyn is place full of diversity, races ranging from African Americans, White, and Hispanic. It is divided into many zip codes. After calculating the cumulative AIDS rate of each zip code from January 1, 1981 to December 31, 2006, I discovered that the zip code of 11237 has the rate of 9769 per 100,000 people, which is 28.6 times higher than the cumulative rate for the US. This zip code is in the area of Bushwick, and it is composed of 68% male and 32% female. Within that zip code, the Hispanic and Latino race makes up the majority of the population, and has an AIDS rate of 1886, which tremendously exceeds the national cumulative rate by 5.5 times. However, the African Americans make up the second largest population of having an alarming rate of 5254. This rate exceeds the number nearly 15.4 times the national rate. In the White population in this area, the rate is 2833, which exceeds the national rate by 8.3 times.
            Within my research, the second highest cumulative AIDS rate in Brooklyn is the zip code of 11238, in which this area is Crown Heights. Among the population of this area, the African American cumulative AIDS rate is 4273, the Hispanic rate is 3496, and the White rate is 2282. These are all very concerning numbers that says that AIDS has been a big issue in Brooklyn, New York since 1981. There is a dense general population of people in Crown Heights, therefore contributing to the high AIDS cases of blacks in the area. In contrast, the lowest cumulative rate of 343 is in the zip code of 11228, this area is Bay Ridge. This rate is almost the same as the national cumulative rate, and this rate is the lowest rate out of all the zip codes.
            However, looking at the data of people living with HIV/AIDS today, the rate of Blacks has decreased from 1933 to 1646 per 100,000 people, however the rate exceeds the state Black cumulative rate of AIDS by 69%, and also exceed the national cumulative rate of 70% (Tables 6, 2, 3). In the Hispanic population, there has been a significant drop rate of people living with AIDS, where it has had a cumulative rate of 2005, and now a rate of 1161 per 100,000 people living with AIDS (Tables 7, 2, 3). This rate exceeds the state rate by 70%, and the national rate by 54%. This pattern of decrease in the AIDS rate is experienced in the white population as well, where it has decreased from the rate of 582 to 270. Although there is a drop in the AIDS rate in the white population, it still exceeds the state rate white cumulative rate of AIDS by 43%, furthermore, exceeding the national rate by 73% (Tables 8, 2, 3).
            Interestingly, my neighborhood, Williamsburg has a 6^th highest cumulative AIDS cases since 1981 in Brooklyn, with a 66% male, 34% female population. This shows the homosexuality rate tends to be higher due to the higher percentage of males that resides in that specific area. Statistically, 16% of people living with AIDS in Williamsburg have contracted the disease through men having sex with other men. Furthermore, 87% of the people living with AIDS have contracted the disease from drug injections and needle exchange, and 79% contracted AIDS from heterosexual sex. These rates alarmingly surpass the state and national rate by almost 50%. The highest transmission rate of men having sex with men is 51% in the zip code of 11201, which is located in downtown Brooklyn, while 84% has contracted AIDS from drug injections in the zip code 11224, and 85% of the zip code 11201 has contracted AIDS through heterosexual intercourse.
            HIV/AIDS was not a topic that played a great role in my everyday life. However, after researching about different statistics of my neighborhood, I was able to understand and recognize that it is a big issue within my community, because all the rates exceeded the state and national levels. However, the information given to the public about improving the public’s knowledge in fighting against HIV/AIDS is not enough in stopping the epidemic that we are facing today. Further plans must be device in order to improve these conditions today.