To participate in the fifth annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day, the Black Student Alliance and the Lansing Area AIDS Network, or LAAN, are offering free testing in the Union's Multicultural Center today from 6-9 p.m.
The day was created to urge blacks to "get educated, get tested and get involved" with HIV/AIDS activities in their communities said Philip Hilton, senior vice president of fund development and communication affairs at the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.
Hilton said statistics show that blacks have been disproportionately infected and affected by HIV/AIDS since the epidemic's beginning.
"African Africans comprise 12 percent of the nation's total population and 54 percent of all newly reported HIV or AIDS cases," Hilton said. "From coast to coast, our communities are in a state of crisis because of this public health crisis."
The HIV/AIDS prevalence rate among black women is 18 times the rate among non-Hispanic white women. In addition, black men in 2003 had the highest rate of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses than any other racial/ethnic group, about seven times the rate among white men and twice the rate among black women, according to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
LAAN Prevention Supervisor Andre Truss said anyone who has had unprotected sex in the last 90 days should get tested now and again in six months.
BSA President Geneva Thomas said it's important for the MSU community to acknowledge the severity of a disease that affects communities throughout the world.
"People are dying every single day. Children are dying," Thomas said. "The numbers are frightening."
Thomas said MSU could have done more to inform students of the increasing threat that the disease poses.
"It's sad that the university doesn't acknowledge this day," Thomas said. "We can acknowledge Founders Day, Presidents Day and Martin Luther King Day, but we can't acknowledge AIDS Day."
Hilton said there are many people who are infected with HIV or AIDS and are unaware of it.
"They need to safeguard their lives and the lives of their loved ones," Hilton said. "They need to get tested, get educated, to dispel myths about the disease and get involved in efforts to stop it.
"It's important not just to African Americans, but to all Americans to get tested."
Thomas said education about the disease is the first step in combating it.
"AIDS does not discriminate," Thomas said. "It's important to know about precautions we can do to prevent it in our communities."
