Statement of Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases National Institutes of Health on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day February 7, 2010

African-Americans continue to bear the largest and most disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS of all racial and ethnic groups in the United States. While black men and women made up 13 percent of the U.S. population in 2007, they accounted for more than half of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses that year and nearly half of all Americans living with HIV/AIDS. For black women ages 35 to 44, HIV was the third leading cause of death in 2006. In our nation’s capital, whose HIV/AIDS epidemic is among the worst in the United States, 6.5 percent of black men are living with the virus — a percentage higher than that of any other racial, ethnic or gender group in the city, and higher than in many countries in Africa.

NIH and D.C. Department of Health Team up to Combat District’s HIV/AIDS Epidemic

Officials from the National Institutes of Health and the city of Washington, D.C. today announced the new D.C. Partnership for HIV/AIDS Progress, a collaborative research initiative between NIH and the D.C. Department of Health designed to decrease the rate of new HIV infections in the city, improve the health of district residents living with HIV infection, and strengthen the city’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The partnership is being co-led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH, and the D.C. Department of Health.