Sense of Urgency About HIV Grows Among African Americans in Georgia

Minorities are Disproportionately Affected by HIV/AIDS in Georgia

Nearly Half of All Georgians Say the U.S. Is Losing Ground on HIV/AIDS

Atlanta – New reports released today show the disproportionate impact HIV is having on minorities in Georgia, and important differences in how minorities view HIV/AIDS compared to whites.

Three-quarters of African Americans living in Georgia (74%) say AIDS is a more urgent problem for Georgia than it was a few years ago compared to four in ten (39%) whites, according to new state-wide survey by the National Center for Primary Care (NCPC) at the Morehouse School of Medicine and the Kaiser Family Foundation. African Americans in Georgia are also more pessimistic about U.S. progress on HIV/AIDS than their white counterparts; 62% of African Americans say the U.S. is losing ground compared to 39% of whites.

The NCPC also released a report on Minority Health & Health Disparities that finds minorities are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. The Georgia Minority Health and Health Disparities Report on HIV/AIDS is the third in a series of 12 reports between the National Center for Primary Care and the Georgia Office of Minority Health in the Department of Community Health. The report describes the extent to which the epidemic affects minority, rural and elderly populations throughout the state. The report highlights the increase of morbidity and mortality in the various groups discussed and provides recommendations for improving HIV/AIDS care, limiting the spread of the virus, and increasing access to a stigma-free environment for testing.

"Perhaps no area demonstrates the nature and magnitude of disparities in health more than the HIV/AIDS epidemic," said David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the National Center for Primary Care. "And, as demonstrated in the Report which we are releasing today, no state more dramatically reflects disparities in HIV/AIDS than the state of Georgia. We are indeed facing a crisis."

"The survey shows the concern African Americans in Georgia have that more should be done to fight HIV/AIDS," said Drew E. Altman, Ph. D., President and CEO, Kaiser Family Foundation.

The reports were released at the NCPC briefing which featured presentations by Dr. Satcher, a former U.S. Surgeon General and current Kaiser Trustee, Dr. George Rust, Deputy Director, the NCPC, Dr. Yolanda Wimberly, Assistant Professor, Clinical Pediatrics Morehouse School of Medicine, Mollyann Brodie, Ph.D. Director of Public Opinion and Media Research at Kaiser, and James Couch, Deputy Commissioner Georgia Department of Community Health.

Overall, Georgians rank HIV/AIDS second, behind cancer, as the most urgent health problem facing the nation, but HIV/AIDS ranks first among African Americans. More than four in 10 African Americans (44%) compared to 15% of whites say that HIV/AIDS is the most urgent health problem facing the nation. Most people in Georgia say that a variety of groups are not doing enough when it comes to solving the problem of AIDS in Georgia, including Georgia business leaders (61%), local governments in Georgia (57%), the Georgia General Assembly (55%), the federal government (53%), public schools in Georgia (52%), and Gov. Sonny Perdue and his administration (51%).

African Americans in Georgia are also far more likely to have greater personal concern and experience with HIV/AIDS, compared to whites. More than eight in 10 African Americans (83%) with children under the age of 21 say they are very or somewhat concerned about their son or daughter becoming infected with HIV, while 66% of white parents share this concern. Nearly half of all Georgians (48%) say they personally know someone who currently has or has died from HIV or AIDS. Again, African Americans (60%) are more likely than whites (43%) to say they know such a person.

State vs. Local Community
• While about half of Georgians (49%) say AIDS is a more urgent problem for the state of Georgia, when asked about the problem of AIDS in their local community, about a quarter (27%) think that AIDS is a more urgent problem for their community than it was a few years ago, eight percent think the problem is less urgent, another quarter (26%) think it is about the same, and three in ten (30%) say AIDS has never been a problem in their local community. African Americans are more likely than whites, and younger Georgians are more likely than their older counterparts, to say that the problem is more urgent for their local community today.

U.S Spending on Domestic HIV/AIDS
• About six in ten adults in Georgia (61%) say the federal government spends too little money on HIV/AIDS, while a quarter (26%) believe it spends the right amount, and just 6% say it spends too much.
• A majority of Georgians (57%) believe that spending more money on HIV/AIDS prevention in the U.S. will lead to meaningful progress in slowing the epidemic, while about a third (35%) think that spending money won’t make much difference.

Knowledge and Misconceptions about HIV/AIDS
• Georgia residents are well-informed about certain aspects of the HIV epidemic, but just over half know that a pregnant woman with HIV can take drugs to reduce the risk of her baby being born infected (55%), and about four in 10 know that having other sexually transmitted diseases increases a person’s risk for HIV (44%).
• Significant percentages say that it is possible (or they don’t know if it’s possible) to transmit HIV through various forms of casual contact, including kissing (40%), sharing a drinking glass (25%), and touching a toilet seat (18%).

HIV Testing
• More than half of Georgians (55%) say they have ever been tested for HIV, including 25% who say they have been tested sometime in the last year. More than three-quarters (77%) of African Americans say they have ever been tested (including 43% in the last year), compared with fewer than half (46%) of whites who have ever been tested (17% in the last year). Younger individuals are also much more likely to say they’ve been tested for HIV, both ever and in the past year.
• Misconceptions about HIV testing exist among the public in Georgia. Among the 55% who say they’ve ever been tested for HIV, nearly three in 10 (29%) say they had the impression their test was done as a routine part of an exam.

The new reports can be viewed at http://www.kff.org/hivaids/pomr113004pkg.cfm .

National Center for Primary Care at the Morehouse School of Medicine
The National Center for Primary Care (NCPC) has the unique distinction of being the only congressionally sanctioned center in the country dedicated to promoting optimal health care for all, with a special focus on serving underserved communities. Headquartered at the Morehouse School of Medicine, the NCPC is committed to the pursuit of a healthier nation.

The Kaiser Family Foundation
The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit, private operating foundation dedicated to providing information and analysis on health care issues to policymakers, the media, the health care community, and the general public. The foundation is not associated with Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Industries.