National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

In Montgomery County, African Americans accounted for 40% of the newly diagnosed HIV cases in 2017.

National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, February 7, is a time to promote HIV education, testing and treatment in African American communities. While HIV diagnoses among African Americans have gone down over the years, African Americans still have higher numbers of new HIV infections, and are living with HIV and AIDS diagnoses, when compared to other races/ethnicities In 2017, African Americans accounted for 43% of HIV diagnoses, despite only making up 13% of the U.S. population. Additionally, more than half (58%) of African Americans who received an HIV diagnosis were gay or bisexual men during the same year. Among Montgomery County, Ohio residents, African Americans accounted for 40% of the newly diagnosed HIV cases in 2017.

The HIV/AIDS Prevention Committee of Region 9 (Clark, Darke, Greene, Miami, Montgomery and Preble counties) is working to stop the spread of HIV. The participating agencies offers case management, linkage to care, HIV testing, counseling and referral services. The committee is encouraging everyone to:

• Talk about HIV and how it is spread.
• Protect yourself and your partner by:
  • Using condoms, the right way every time you have sex
  • Choosing less risky sexual behaviors
  • Limiting your number of sexual partners
  • Never sharing needles
  • Talking to your doctor about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), if you are at very high risk for HIV
  • Talking to your doctor about post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) if you may have been exposed to HIV within the last 3 days through sex, sharing needles/works, or a sexual assault
• Get treated if you are HIV-positive
• Find out if you are at risk for HIV and get tested. Below is a list of local HIV testing sites: