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March 4, 2010
Ludacris, Jamie Foxx Promote HIV Prevention to Black Youth
Recording artist Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and actor Jamie Foxx have joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) “i know” social media campaign, which aims to encourage HIV prevention and testing among young African Americans, USA Today reports. The initiative, which launched today at Clark Atlanta University, is part of the five-year, $45 million Act Against AIDS effort announced last year at the White House.
The campaign’s goal is to draw thousands of teens into conversations about HIV through Facebook, Twitter, text messages and the Act Against AIDS website. The CDC hopes it will make young African Americans more active consumers of HIV prevention messages.
“They’ll become vocal advocates armed with information that will help them protect themselves and one another from HIV,” said Kevin Fenton, MD, PhD, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention. “We’re trying to create a movement.”
Blacks make up 14 percent of Americans ages 13 to 29, but they account for more than half of new HIV infections in this group, according to the CDC. In addition, men who have sex with men account for 55 percent of infections among African Americans in the same age group.
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