Today, March 20, Native American communities across the United States are commemorating the second annual National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. According to Indian Country Today (indiancountry.com, 3/19), education and prevention programs are targeting American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Alaskan Native populations.
The newspaper reports that nearly 11 out of every 100,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives were diagnosed with HIV or AIDS in 2005, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Warren Jimenez, executive director of the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center in Denver, says the figures might be even higher. ''There are significant gaps in reporting around this issue,'' he says. ''I think that stigma is an issue to face…[as well as] the issue of sexuality.''
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Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I think that it's OK to be angry. I am sometimes—it's natural—we are HIV positive. but I always try to not let myself stay there too long. Let yourself feel you are human. You should not beat yourself up about being angry."
