July 13, 2009

Greater Than AIDS

A new media campaign mobilizes African Americans to respond to HIV/AIDS in their communities.

In anticipation of National HIV Testing Day, June 27, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), the Black AIDS Institute, the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched the “Greater Than AIDS” campaign, an effort to rally media companies to address HIV/AIDS in black America, which accounts for roughly 50 percent of new annual cases in the United States and about 50 percent of AIDS-related deaths. The campaign will roll out over the next several months.

According to a 2009 KFF survey, 44 percent of black Americans said that the media is their primary source of information about HIV/AIDS over family members and health care providers. However, only 33 percent of African Americans said they have seen, heard or read a lot about AIDS in the United States in the past year compared with 62 percent in 2006.

It’s crucial to reach out to media companies to come together and promote HIV awareness through radio, outdoor, print, online and television venues, said Stephen Massey, senior program officer for KFF.

“In the past, we’ve found that this type of coalition effort here in the U.S. has been difficult to pull together, since media companies are fiercely competitive—as we know—and like to preserve their own pro-social brands,” Massey explained in a July 8 teleconference. “That said, we felt that the public health mandate of HIV in black America was strong enough, and the alignment of forces within the community compelling enough, that we could attempt to forge a coalition where competing companies would work together to address the major public health crisis that is AIDS facing black America.”

Companies that have committed to “Greater Than AIDS” include American Urban Radio Networks, CBS Outdoor, Clear Channel Communications, ESSENCE Communications and the National Newspaper Publishers Association, which represents more than 200 black community newspapers across the country. The campaign is being developed and distributed by the Black AIDS Media Partnership and produced in collaboration with the CDC’s five-year “Act Against AIDS” campaign, which aims to refocus efforts on fighting AIDS domestically.

Phill Wilson, founder and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, said that while there remains a high sense of urgency in African-American communities surrounding HIV compared with other racial and ethnic groups, the number of people who consider AIDS to be a serious problem is decreasing. About 40 percent of African Americans said that AIDS is an urgent problem in their community compared with 52 percent in 1997.

But despite a growing apathy around HIV/AIDS, the epidemic is hitting closer to home among African Americans than ever before. In 2009, 58 percent of black Americans said they know someone who is HIV positive or has died from AIDS; moreover, for 38 percent of respondents, that person is a close friend or family member.

“The message is that the individual concern about HIV/AIDS is great, but there is a limited sense of community ownership and responsibility,” Wilson said. “The campaign is a call to action. We’re encouraging people to get informed, to get tested, to get treated, to use condoms, to talk openly, to fight stigma and to get involved.”

The name “Greater Than AIDS” is inspired by President Barack Obama’s World AIDS Day speech in 2006, during which he said “what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart.” The campaign aspires to be a testament to that philosophy.

“AIDS is a battle we can win,” Wilson affirmed. “African Americans are greater than any challenge that we’ve confronted in the past, and we will be greater than HIV/AIDS as well.”

For more information about “Greater Than AIDS,” visit greaterthan.org.

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Jerry Robbins, ST. Petersburg, 2009-07-19 21:52:37
It is just as hard foor poor white americans as well to get the treatment we need to stay alive so we should all stay together on this one. Remember it wasn't justthe black community thatvoted for Barak Obam as Our new and hopefully great change President for everything not just AIDS. Thank you all may god bless us all