Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.
NIAID Director
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National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
February 7, 2004
Statement of
Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.
Director
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National Institutes of Health
Each year on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information
Day, our Nation reflects on the devastating impact HIV/AIDS continues
to have on African Americans and renews its commitment to a world without AIDS.
Today we are unfortunately still far from that goal. By the end of 2002,
an estimated 185,080 African Americans had died from AIDS, accounting
for 37 percent of all AIDS-related deaths in the United States. Despite
the fact that African Americans account for only 12 percent of the U.S.
population, more than 50 percent of all AIDS cases in 2002 in the United
States were among African Americans.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the
National Institutes of Health, and our colleagues around the world are
working to find new and better drugs and the best possible combinations
of existing drugs to treat those already infected with HIV. But treatment
is not a cure, and even those receiving treatment are still able to pass
HIV to others.
Although there is no vaccine to prevent HIV infection, considerable effort
is being directed toward the development of a safe and effective HIV vaccine.
More than 20 candidate preventive HIV vaccines are being tested in clinical
trials in the United States and worldwide. We do not know if any of these
vaccine candidates will work until we test them, and we will not know
if they work for everyone unless diverse populations, including African
Americans, participate in these and future trials.
While participants in AIDS clinical trials are much more diverse than
they were early in the epidemic, we need to increase our enrollment of
individuals from minority groups in clinical trials. Overall, in both
prevention and treatment clinical trials, minorities represent just over
30 percent of all trial participants, despite the fact that more than
65 percent of all new HIV/AIDS cases in the U.S. occur in minorities.
In the only Phase III preventive HIV vaccine clinical trial conducted
so far in the United States, fewer than 10 percent of the participants
were African American.
Just as important as having African Americans participate as trial volunteers
is having African American investigators conduct the research to find
a vaccine and a cure. To put it simply, if we are to end the HIV pandemic
in African Americans, African Americans must continue to be part of the
solution, as clinicians, prevention providers, treatment advocates, researchers,
and as HIV therapeutic and preventive vaccine clinical trial volunteers.
Every National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day is an opportunity
to educate our communities about progress in prevention, care and treatment,
and the need for a vaccine; however, these efforts should take place not
only on this day. To those who already are involved in the struggle to
end the AIDS pandemic: Be proud of yourselves, and share information about
what you are doing with others. Strong role models are an important source
for education and hope.
Today is not only a day to remember the past but also a day to renew
our passion to save lives and strengthen our determination to find solutions
through research.
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Dr. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda,
Maryland. The National Institutes of Health is an agency of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services.
For more information on HIV vaccine research, please visit: http://www.niaid.nih.gov.
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Last Updated May 12, 2004 (ere) |