I Choose Life Health

L.A. Chapter of I Choose Life Health and Wellness Center Celebrate and Commemorate Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

March 10th was National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, but for I Choose Life Health and Wellness Center, we’re going to celebrate and educate women and girls the entire month of March. When you look at our society and see that there are over 280,000 young ladies 13 and older who are living with HIV in the United States, and some 7,402 women and young girls that were diagnosed with HIV in 2015; we’ve got to talk about it. Black women continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, accounting for 61% of recent diagnoses but only 13% of the female population. Though most women who acquire HIV through vaginal sex, women who inject drugs are also at risk for HIV.

The False Equivalency in the World of HIV

My organization, I Choose Life Health and Wellness Center partnered with Alan Haymon and Haymon Entertainment, as well as Pfizer, Inc. and together, over a period of 18 months, visiting 66 cities, in 24 states, tested more than 30 thousand primarily African American men, women and young adults for HIV. During that period, we found 600 plus HIV positive persons with the oldest being a 65 years old woman in Philadelphia, PA and the youngest, a 16-year-old black girl in Seattle, WA and none of those 600 plus Black people that tested positive for HIV, knew that they were infected with the virus; which brings me to the titled of my article, The False Equivalency in the World of HIV.