Black leaders urge more HIV testing

TORONTO, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- A coalition of African-American leaders is reportedly calling for an urgent drive to increase AIDS testing and awareness programs in their communities.

"Now is the time for us to face the fact that AIDS has become a black disease,'' said Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP. "It has invaded our house, and our leaders must accept ownership and fight it with everything we have.''

Bond, speaking Monday in Toronto, Canada, during the 16th International AIDS Conference, said African-Americans should seek HIV testing so they can learn whether they are harboring the virus, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

"Knowing your HIV status and the status of your partner can save your life,'' he said.

U.S. healthcare experts say although 17 percent of the U.S. teenage population is black, African-Americans accounted for 70 percent of HIV infections among that age group during 2004, the newspaper said.

Phill Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, told the Chronicle a recent study of infection rates among gay men in large U.S. cities found 46 percent of black men who had sex with men were HIV positive, but 67 percent of those did not know they were infected.