April 16, 2008

Florida’s Black Churches Preach HIV Testing

Hoping to lower the rate of HIV infection among black parishioners, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church is working with the Florida Department of Health to open at least one church-based testing site in each of the state’s counties, the Orlando Sentinel reports (orlandosentinel.com, 4/15). Although black people constitute only 14 percent of the state’s population, they accounted for 54 percent of Florida’s new HIV infections in 2007.

The article notes that 12 churches have signed up to provide testing in Florida’s Volusia County alone, while churches in Polk County, Orange County and Daytona Beach plan to launch sites in the coming months.

A regional AME church leader, James O. Williams, told the Sentinel that church leaders are looking past HIV stigma in their congregations and communities to fight the epidemic. 

“In the past it’s been standoffish [in advocating HIV awareness] as far as the churches are concerned,” he said. “But these are our family members, and the church should be a part of the healing process.”

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