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| An image from the NNHAAD 2015 Calendar, available for download here. |
Friday, March 20, marks National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day 2015 (NNHAAD). The observation is marked each year on the first day of spring.
The goal is to promote HIV testing and education among Native American communities and to decrease stigma associated with the virus.
According to an awareness day fact sheet, 2,306 American Indian and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) were living with HIV as of 2008. Among Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders (NHOPIs), that number is 245.
HIV rates among these ethnic groups are the third and fourth highest in the country, behind those of African Americans and Latinos. Specifically, “in 2008, the rate was 22.85 per 100,000 persons for NHOPIs and 11.9 per 100,000 for AI/ANs, compared to 73.7 for black/African Americans, 25.0 for Hispanic/Latinos, 8.2 for whites, and 7.2 for Asian.”
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