[lbo-talk] AIDS, Race, and Class

[bitch at pulpculture.org]

At 07:34 PM 2/12/2007, you wrote:
>AIDS activism such as that of GMHC, ACT UP, etc. has changed the lives
>of the richer half of white gay men for the better, but it doesn't
>work as a solution for poorer men and women, especially poorer people
>of color, and statistics shows it:
>
>"African Americans represent about 12.5 percent of the U.S.
>population, but have disproportionately high rates of HIV/AIDS
>infection (Figure 1). Among black men, the annual rate of infection
>between 2000 and 2003 was 100 per 100,000, compared to fewer than 15
>among non-Hispanic white men. Among black women, the rate of infection
>(55 per 100,000) was 19 times that among white women, and the numbers
>carrying the infection were much larger. Rates of infection show
>little sign of slackening. Blacks accounted for 49 percent of all
>HIV/AIDS cases diagnosed in 2005"
>("New Perspectives on the Social and Economic Contexts of HIV/AIDS
>Infection," Focus Vol. 24, No. 3, Fall-Winter 2006,
><http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc243f.pdf>).

Didn't they cover partly why this is so in an issue of Science? Apparently, 
because people of European descent have ancestors that survived the plague, 
people of European descent have a greater resistance. I don't know what the 
status of this research is, but there was some discussion here a couple of 
years ago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/highlights/011025_ccr5.shtml

Obviously, as with all other health issues, the racist discrepancy would 
still be there, but this difference may account for *some* of the discrepancy.

Bitch | Lab
http://blog.pulpculture.org (NSFW)