HIV/AIDS in Oakland

Hey Everyone!

My interest in HIV/AIDS peaked after taking a course here at Berkeley entitled L&S 150: Global Society & Cultural Change: NGOs & the Response to AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. I researched a lot about female empowerment in Africa, specifically in the realm of HIV Intervention methods targeting Commercial Sex Workers. This passion led me to contact the AIDS Project East Bay (APEB) for my practice experience. Located in Oakland, this non-profit offers a variety of services from medical care, access to life-saving drugs, housing, financial assistance, mental health support, and prevention programs that include support groups, educational programs, testing/counseling, and outreach services. I am most interested in the T.R.A.C.Y’s house, Transgender resources and Center for Youth, because it targets a specific group of affected individuals and I believe that educating the youth is the most effective method of preventing the proliferation of this pandemic. To learn about the most vital issues affecting and gaining the attention of Oakland residents, I have been reading the news covered by the Oakland Tribune. 

David Beasely’s piece on CDC: HIV cases decline for black women, increase for gay men (2012) caught my attention because of it’s relevance to my area of interest. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is an integral player on the topic of HIV/AIDS because of their focus on health promotion and education. Beasely discusses the “increase of new infections amongst young gay and bisexual men by 22%” and the “newly infected black women dropping by 21%” from 2008 to 2010. These stats provide me with some insight into the demographic of people I will probably encounter during my practice experience. One of the biggest issues is that young people are not even aware that they have the disease. As for men who have sex with men, they “underestimate their personal risk and believe that treatment advances minimize the health threat” and “gay men account for 66% of all new infections.” These mindsets and stats show how vital is it that people are educated about safe-sex practices as well as taking the initiative to get tested. I hope to be involved with both aspects of this battle this summer. After talking to the volunteer supervisor at APEB, I learned that the majority of their clients are categorized as low-income and that poverty is yet another underlying issues contributing to the spread of this disease as well as the hesitation in getting tested. Mike Stobbe who also talked about HIV spread high in young gay males (2012) states that the new US HIV infection have reached a plateau of about 50,000/year, but the numbers haven’t decreased. He also stresses the importance of getting our country’s youth tested. In Julie Steenhuysen’s article entitled Infected and unaware: HIV hitting America’s youth, she quotes Dr. Melanie Thompson of the Georgia Department of Public Health who suggests that educating the youth “in a way that is science-based…addressing social, economic, clinical and structural factors influencing HIV health outcomes” could lead to progress. There are many more countless articles that emphasize the role of educating the youth as an essential intervention method for HIV/AIDS. I am looking forward to being a part of that journey this summer.