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This year’s National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NBHAAD) observance comes amidst a national dialogue on systemic racism and calls for a greater focus on equity in all everyone’s work. People should use this opportunity to examine and address historic inequities experienced by Black Americans. For the HIV community, this means working to understand and address the circumstances that put people at risk for HIV or that create barriers to HIV care and treatment.

Black Americans continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV compared to other racial/ethnic groups. According to CDC data,

• Black Americans represent 13% of the U.S. population, but 41% of people with HIV in the U.S. in 2018.
• 42% of new HIV infections in 2018 were among Black Americans.
• Among the estimated 161,800 people in the U.S. with undiagnosed HIV, 42% (67,800) are Black. That means that nearly one in seven Black Americans with HIV are unaware of their HIV status and are not receiving the care they need to stay healthy and prevent transmission to others.

Fewer Black Americans in HIV care are virally suppressed: In 2018, 60% of Blacks, 64% of Latinos, and 71% of whites with diagnosed HIV were virally suppressed.

The recently released HIV National Strategic Plan (HIV Plan) makes clear the disproportionate impact of HIV among Black Americans, and includes Black women, transgender women, people who inject drugs, and Black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men among its designated priority populations. The HIV Plan notes that focusing efforts on priority populations will reduce HIV-related disparities, which is essential to the nation’s effort to end the HIV epidemic by 2030.

Recent national efforts to address HIV have included new financial resources to support innovative approaches in the 50 geographic areas with the highest number of new HIV infections, 7 states with disproportionate numbers of new HIV infections in rural areas, and HHS agencies. As the country examines and re-defines the role of public health, communities have an opportunity to form new partnerships and create new ways of influencing the social determinants of health in order to of improve HIV prevention, testing, and care outcomes. Many geographic areas are pursuing new approaches, collaborations, outreach, and other efforts to engage and support Black Americans at risk for or living with HIV.

Read more on HIV.gov.com.

Deaths from overdoses of methamphetamine are rising across the United States, especially among Blacks and American Indians/Alaska Natives, a new study warns.

“While much attention is focused on the opioid crisis, a methamphetamine crisis has been quietly, but actively, gaining steam — particularly among American Indians and Alaska Natives, who are disproportionately affected by a number of health conditions,” said researcher Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

The researchers found that fatal meth overdoses more than quadrupled among American Indians and Alaska Natives from 2011 to 2018 (from 5 to 21 per 100,000 people). In this group, deaths for men rose from nearly 6 to 26 per 100,000 and from nearly 4 to 16 per 100,000 among women.

Decreased access to education, high rates of poverty and discrimination are among factors that contribute to health disparities for American Indians and Alaska Natives, the study authors noted.

“American Indian and Alaska Native populations experience structural disadvantages, but have cultural strengths that can be leveraged to prevent methamphetamine use and improve health outcomes for those living with addiction,” Volkow added in an NIDA news release.

A holistic approach to wellness is a deeply rooted tradition among some American Indian and Alaska Native groups, such as talking circles and ceremonies. Using these traditions and other community-based approaches may be a way to help prevent drug use among young people, the study team suggested.

According to researcher Dr. Beth Han, also from NIDA, “Identifying populations that have a higher rate of methamphetamine overdose is a crucial step toward curbing the underlying methamphetamine crisis. By focusing on the unique needs of individuals and developing culturally tailored interventions, we can begin to move away from one-size-fits-all approaches and toward more effective, tailored interventions.”

Read more on WebMD.com.

Numerous recent reports and studies on the issue of health disparities within the U.S. population, particularly within minority population groups have heightened awareness about the role of chronic diseases including their effects on the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine physician scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School, a person’s economic status, underlying health conditions and other conditions may lead to the health disparities observed among underrepresented adults.

Sanford also noted that. “We need to be cognizant of the fact the people who are disproportionately impacted are those that have less power to deal with these issues…Better chronic disease management, particularly surrounding obesity, which has borne itself out to be one of the major risk factors for COVID-19 is necessary for the treatment of obesity across the age spectrum, particularly in communities that look like mine.”

Finally Dr. Sanford summarized the fact that “There is still a lot for us to learn as we conduct research….We can make an impact. We know that issues related to structural racism and related to the history of this country have made it that certain groups are disproportionately impacted by chronic and acute diseases like COVID-19.”

A position paper published in January 2021 by the American College of Physicians (ACP) provides a framework for recognizing, confronting and removing disparities in health and health care that individuals face based on their race, ethnicity and religious and/or cultural identities.  

Two of the 17 recommendations are noted below:

• ACP recommends that policymakers address the effect of social drivers of health, like poverty, on the health and health care of those affected, while addressing disparities associated with personal characteristics independent of, or in addition to, socioeconomic status.
• ACP believes that policymakers should recognize and address how increases in the frequency and severity of public health crises, including large-scale infectious disease outbreaks, poor environmental health, and climate change, disproportionately contribute to health disparities for Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and other vulnerable persons.

Much needs to be done to address health disparities across the board. This has been particularly demonstrated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Let’s hope that this provides a kick-start toward equitable health care, particularly for the underserved population in our society.  A right to quality health care should be a basic human right for all.

Read more on Tallahassee.com.  

In order to highlight pockets of excellence across the country, the NNED selects a partner organization to highlight once a month. Take Flight Inc., has been selected as the Partner of the Month for February in celebration of Black History Month.

Take Flight Inc. is a nonprofit organization that serves youth, and families throughout the Washington D.C, Maryland, and Virginia areas. Their services are focused on health & wellness, mental, physical, and emotional well-being. Take Flight’s vision is to encourage future leaders to be fit both mentally and physically. To motivate them and test their risk-taking abilities to inculcate a healthy lifestyle and habits in them. This is not just an action but a on a path to run a legacy through this initiative.

The programs and services that are currently offered:

• Youth Wellness Program –  It is a 12-week curriculum that focuses on getting school aged kids moving with physical fitness activities such as squat, push up, plank, and more. The instructors make these classes more engaging and interesting with their years of expertise and fun way of interaction.
• Family FitCamp – This program is designed especially for those who look to exercise and have fun together being with their family members.
• Mentoring – Take Flight’s unique mentoring approach combines intense weekly strength training workouts with challenging physical, academic, and social goal setting and achievement.
• SportsFit Online– The online program offers physical activities kids can do indoors on the agenda like online exercise videos and yoga practices for kids.

Learn more about the Take Flight Inc., and their partnership with schools and community organizations to provide fitness plan of action and wellness education, after-school programs, and active out-of-school initiatives to achieve their mission is to impact lives and empower communities through health & wellness.

View a list of previous NNED Partners of the Month.

Nina Thomas, 24, is a single mom who lived in Kankakee, Illinois, before COVID-19 upended her life.

Her routine, for nearly four years, included working her night shift job at a Joliet warehouse, and picking up and dropping off her toddler son, Jayden, at the babysitter’s during the week.

“I love being a mom. It’s the greatest thing ever,” she said. “Then when COVID-19 hit, it was like everything got turned upside down—my partner left, the job left, the car almost left. It was hard.”

Thomas was also going through her second pregnancy during it all, and at 22 weeks, she was having some serious issues with housing stability. A former resident of Dolton, she remembered the Family Christian Health Center (FCHC) on the campus of UChicago Medicine-Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey.

“When I came to the office and talked to my doctor, I just started crying,” Thomas said. “The doctor asked what was wrong, and I was like, ‘I’m so stressed out.’ I got this baby with me, and he’s 3, and I don’t want to let him down.” She said she asked for help because she was “scared” and had no support from family members.

“If there was a facility more focused on single moms … going through this journey, a place where people make you feel safe that it is OK to ask for help, I’d go,” Thomas said she thought at the time.

On Feb. 1, such a place will open on the Ingalls hospital campus in Harvey—the Maternal Child Health and Wellness facility (15620 S. Wood St.). And as its name indicates, the space will center on maternal health in an attempt to reduce the alarming rate of maternal mortality in Black women in Illinois.

Health records show that of the 46 million hospitalizations of pregnant or postpartum women between 2007 and 2017, Black women were 45% more likely to die in the hospital, women of color reported more pain postpartum, and yet they receive less opioid medication in the hospital and at discharge, and Black women in Illinois were six times as likely to die of a pregnancy-related condition than white women.

In December, the federal Department of Health and Human Services announced a plan to improve maternal health that includes getting blood pressure under control for 80% of reproductive-age women. Dr. Lisa Green, CEO and co-founder of the Maternal Child Health and Wellness site, hopes the new site will turn the tide. She has worked to improve health care services for Black moms throughout her career and conducted a symposium on the topic in 2020.

“What we’re trying to do is to make sure that there is a complete ecosystem that is sustainable enough that allows Black mothers to make sure that they get the care that they need,” Green said. “I believe strong heartedly that we can be a model that makes a difference for our communities, because if we don’t, then who will?”

Read more on MedicalXpress.com.

Members of the Latinx community are disproportionately affected by the pandemic, and stigma surrounding mental health means they are among those least likely to reach out for support — but a young advocate has ideas for what might help.

Speaking from the experience of organizing a mental health survey of middle and high school students in Gonzales, California, youth council member Magaly Santos said during a virtual news briefing that challenges related to stigma are well-rooted in her community.

“Living within a majority Hispanic, Latinx farm-working community, many of our peers saw the stigma that our parents had about the topic of mental health alone,” Santos said. Latinx is a gender-neutral term.

“You mention the word social worker and licensed clinical social worker, and they think, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to have my children taken away from me,’” Santos said.

Even if someone were to overcome societal challenges of getting counseling related to access and affordability, Santos said many in her community usually aren’t motivated to seek help until there is a major crisis.

Organizers said that, “The latest data show that two out of five Latinxs report frequent symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder, significantly higher than white and Asian Americans. Losing a job, social isolation, and for some, the fear of deportation, have created extra layers of stress that are worsening their mental and physical health.”

Mental health isn’t something typically discussed at the dinner table.

“It’s not like: ‘Did you feel stress today? Did you feel anxiety? Were you trembling?’ Things like that,” Santos said.

Santos said breaking the cultural and generational stigma surrounding mental health can begin with conversations.

“Once our community is more knowledgeable about what mental health is. What’s anxiety, [what] does stress look like, and that it doesn’t just affect your mind, it affects your whole body,” she said.

Santos believes messages delivered in someone’s native language from someone who is trusted have the best chance of being heard.

“Even when we’re giving out this information with Instagram or with Facebook, we’re making sure they’re in Spanish, so our communities are involved and they know, ‘Hey, there’s going to be this change, maybe I should advocate for it,’” Santos said.

Read more on WTopNews.com.