HIV crisis worse than previously reported

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced that the number of HIV transmissions in the U.S. each year is significantly higher than previously reported. The CDC’s revision of its method for calculating HIV transmission rates paints a troubling picture of the government’s unwillingness to stem the spread of the virus, which causes AIDS. The CDC increased its estimate of new HIV transmission rates by 40 percent, to over 56,000 new cases each year.

AIDS activists have pointed out that the new numbers demonstrate the U.S. government is not marshalling the resources necessary to effectively counter the epidemic. The Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project issued a statement saying, “This improved estimate means little if it does not serve as the spark to inflame our collective anger about the deadly neglect of an acute emergency.”

The revelation that transmission rates are drastically higher than previously claimed comes at the same time data from the National Health Interview Survey show the rate of HIV testing leveled off after 2001.

The effect of the government’s failure to provide the funding and services necessary for HIV prevention and testing is compounded by the soaring cost of health care in the U.S. A recent Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality survey found that the cost of health insurance premiums more than doubled between 1996 and 2006.

Workers now pay an average of $2,890 a year for family coverage, up from $1,275 in 1996. The share for single person coverage increased from $342 a year to $788 over the same period.

Government inaction potentially puts millions of lives at risk of HIV transmission and even death, especially when the costs associated with health care deny those living with HIV access to the quality treatment they need to prolong their lives and delay the onset of AIDS.

The AIDS epidemic has long affected the nationally oppressed as well as men who have sex with other men. In the 1980s gay and bisexual men were at such a disproportionately high risk of contracting HIV that AIDS was widely thought of as a homosexual disease.

Homophobia stopped President Ronald Reagan from acting to counter the disease until the epidemic was already widespread. It is estimated that by the time Reagan made his first public statement on AIDS in 1987, over 20,000 people, primarily gay and bisexual men, had already died. The only reason Reagan addressed the crisis at all was a mass backlash to government inaction initiated by a national gay-led grassroots movement.

During this same period it became apparent that AIDS had a disproportionate impact on the nationally oppressed, in addition to gay and bisexual men of all nationalities. As early as 1984 scientists recognized that the widespread incidence of AIDS in Africa was linked to heterosexual transmission. The international AIDS charity AVERT reports that by 1993 an estimated 9 million adults in sub-Saharan Africa were living with HIV. Some 1.7 million had full-blown AIDS. AVERT estimates that by 2007 more than 22 million Africans were living with HIV and over 1.3 million died from AIDS that year.

The legacy of colonialism and continued political interference by former colonial powers such as the U.S. and Britain in many of these countries has left African governments unable to adequately respond to the epidemic. Racist attitudes on the part of governments in the developed capitalist countries prevent the distribution of financial aid necessary to solve the pandemic.

National oppression has taken a disproportionate toll on communities living inside the U.S. as well. Each year more than 30,000 Black people contract HIV. This accounts for almost 54 percent of new cases. The Black AIDS Institute estimates that the number of Black people living with the AIDS virus in the U.S. exceeds the number of cases in Botswana, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Namibia, or Rwanda—six of the world’s worst-hit countries. The institute also estimates that a Black person living with HIV in the U.S. is 2.5 times more likely to die than a white person.

Latin@s living in the U.S. are also at higher risk of transmission. The CDC reports that between 2000 and 2004, AIDS prevalence increased by 31 percent among Latin@s, while whites showed only a 22 percent increase. There was a 7 percent increase in the death rate among Latin@s with AIDS during this same time period, while whites actually experienced a 19 percent decline.

Sexism adds yet another dimension to the AIDS pandemic. The World Health Organization estimates that in 2005 more than 17.5 million women worldwide were living with HIV. CDC statistics demonstrate that AIDS is the leading cause of death for Black women aged 25-34 years in the U.S. Rape means HIV can be transmitted to women during nonconsensual sex. The slow development of female contraception effective in preventing the transmission of HIV robs women of the full control they need to protect themselves. Recent CDC studies even demonstrate that women are less likely to receive effective prescription treatments than men.

Pharmaceutical companies charge extortionate prices for the antiretroviral medicines HIV-positive people need to live a longer, healthier life. According to the World Bank the necessary prescription therapies can cost up to $1,000 a month. Internationally, drug companies routinely refuse to lower rates or allow the development of lower-cost generic alternatives. In turn the big pharmaceutical companies make billions while millions suffer and die.

National oppression, sexism and homophobia continue to exacerbate the AIDS crisis both domestically and internationally. The unnecessary pain and suffering inflicted upon those living with HIV is rooted in the oppressive nature of the global capitalist system.