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Twenty years after HIV first appeared in America, the face of AIDS has changed, and it looks a lot like Tim'm West. Through his teen years and early 20s, the smart and angry hip-hop artist living in Oakland kept his sexuality "on the down-low" - a term some African American gay men use to describe being in the closet. That, the Duke University graduate said, contributed to a low self-esteem, then to unprotected sex. "There's a rule in the African American community: We don't air our dirty laundry," said West, who is 28 and tested HIV-positive in 1999. "That ethic is killing our community." Stories like West's are repeating themselves all over the United States, where the AIDS epidemic is moving steadily away from the affluent white gay population and burrowing itself into low-income minority communities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, half the newly infected men in the United States now are African Americans. In large cities, some of the highest infection rates ever recorded are occurring among young gay and bisexual black men. Each year, 15 out of every 100 people ages 23-29 are newly infected, and 32 percent are already HIV-positive. AIDS is the leading cause of death for African Americans ages 25 to 44. To epidemiologists who have been tracking AIDS for 20 years, the latest trends are disturbing. Study after study is showing that the efforts to maintain safer sex practices are breaking down, particularly among white men. Last year, San Francisco became the first city to report a consequent increase in new cases of HIV infection. Because new AIDS drugs are saving lives, there are more people in San Francisco living with AIDS who have the potential to transmit disease. Since 1995, the city has seen higher rates of sexually transmitted disease - often a precursor to more HIV infections. "The same
people who were sick five years ago are back at the gym. They are feeling
better, and they are going back to the old habits they had when they were
younger," said Alfredo Armendariz, coordinator of the Plus Program,
which counsels newly infected gay men in San Francisco. |