Tampa Bay religious leaders join effort to address HIV/AIDS among the black community

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Mar 30 2009

The New York-based National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS -- which raises HIV/AIDS awareness in cities with high rates of the virus -- on Thursday established an affiliate in Tampa Bay, a "'badly needed'" effort, according to organizers, a St. Petersburg Times editorial states.

According to the editorial, the "statistics are sobering" among blacks in Florida. The Florida Department of Health reports that blacks represent 15% of the adult population but make up 54% of AIDS cases and 45% of HIV cases reported in 2007.

The editorial notes that the Rev. W. James Favorite, pastor of Beulah Baptist Institutional Church, will chair the effort and "push for an increase in public funding for organizations that offer prevention, care and treatment services to people with AIDS." He also will "discuss an action plan and a legislative proposal that will be taken to" the state capital, according to the Times. Favorite said the church will use its influence and mobilize volunteers to encourage people to get tested.

The Times notes that through the initiative, Tampa joins a "large number of black churches ... responding in a coordinated effort to the reality that AIDS remains a public health crisis that devastates many black communities." The editorial adds, "The code of silence finally has been broken" (St. Petersburg Times, 3/26).

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Posted in: Disease/Infection News

Tags: AIDS, HIV, HIV/AIDS, HIV-1, Public Health, Virology, Virus

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HIV in Tampa

jenny says:

September 26, 2009 at 3:56 PM

If you or your spouse contracted the HIV virus after having sexual contact with one of Primatives call girls. the business is located at 1430 w Busch Blvd.
I strongly urge you to contact the Tampa Police department Att; Det Michael Victor at 231-6130 to make a police report. If your not sure if you have contracted the HIV virus contact the Hillsbourgh county Health Dept 870-4717 STD testing.
For the vast majority of people living with HIV, preventing others from becoming infected with the virus that they carry is a primary concern. HIV positive individuals are, after all, only too aware of just how difficult it can be to live with the illness, and few would wish it on anybody else.
This said, not all HIV positive people take the precautions that they perhaps should. Scare stories of people 'deliberately' or 'recklessly' transmitting HIV to others have appeared in the media since the epidemic first began, and some of the individuals concerned have even been criminally charged and imprisoned for their actions. But while at first it might seem obvious to prosecute someone for recklessly or intentionally infecting another with an ultimately fatal virus, this assumption, and its consequences, can present numerous problems.

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