Following is a statement of Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases National Institutes of Health on National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, March 20, 2010:
On National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH, joins American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians in remembering those who have succumbed to HIV/AIDS. We at NIAID reaffirm our commitment on this occasion to the goal of controlling and ultimately ending this devastating pandemic.
An estimated 3,500 American Indians and Alaska Natives have been diagnosed with AIDS;1 more than 1,790 already have died. Tragically, the proportion of American Indians and Alaska Natives who survive after an AIDS diagnosis is smaller than that of any other U.S. racial or ethnic group. Compared with white people in the United States, American Indians and Alaska Natives suffer a higher rate of HIV infection: 14.6 cases versus 11.5 cases per 100,000 in 2006, the most recent year for which nationwide HIV incidence data are available. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders represented 13 percent of all Hawaiians with AIDS at the end of 2008, although they composed only 9.1 percent of the Hawaiian population.
Stigmatization of homosexuality in native communities poses a formidable challenge to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment efforts, as it likely discourages many men from getting an HIV test and, if needed, seeking counseling and treatment. Male-to-male sexual contact, with and without concomitant injection drug use, accounted for more than three quarters of the AIDS cases among male American Indians and Alaska Natives in 2007. Delaying HIV testing and treatment places infected individuals at greater risk for becoming extremely ill and spreading the virus further. Fostering the social acceptance of all people in native communities, including men who have sex with men, likely would help curb the spread of HIV.