Bringing AIDS awareness to the black community

The mission was outreach to black people about HIV and AIDS, and Latanya Horace-Cheatham, braving a chilling wind on the sidewalk at 23rd Avenue South and South Jackson Street, was all about reaching out.

"Know your status, brother!" she shouted to a man in a white car. "Know your status! Get tested!"

Pretty much every black person passing the busy corner this morning was going to get a message, so long as Horace-Cheatham stood there.

A member of the Black Leadership Council on HIV, she made sure everyone got a brochure — "HIV in the Black Community — It's Time to SPEAK THE TRUTH!" — a pitch for free testing nearby, an invitation to a community educational event, and sometimes, a personal chat.

"I'm feeling some geniune anguish about this," Horace-Cheatham said. "I know there is an epidemic in my community and across the country."

The HIV/AIDS virus is having a "grossly disproportionate" impact on black people, according to the National Institutes of Health. According to Public Health — Seattle & King County, African Americans and black immigrants together account for 21 percent of new HIV infections, although they make up less than 6 percent of the county's population.

For African Americans in King County, the diagnosis rate is 3.4 times higher than for whites, a rate that has stayed relatively steady for a decade. But for black immigrants in King County — who make up nearly a quarter of the black population — the diagnosis rate is 8 times higher, and appears to be increasing. "This strikes us as a growing problem," said Jim Kent, a public health senior epidemiologist.

The street-corner education Thursday was part of a national effort to raise awareness through National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day.

"Many people in the Black community don't realize that HIV and AIDS still pose a threat to people in all walks of life," King County Executive Ron Sims said in a statement. "We need to educate one another, promote HIV testing and get treatment to those who need it."

Both Horace-Cheatham and her street-corner colleague Quinten Welch, facilitator of the leadership council, have had friends die of AIDS — something that doesn't have to happen these days, with testing and treatment.

But they both know the reluctance of some people in their community to face the statistics.

African American men diagnosed with HIV/AIDS mostly often caught the virus by having sex with another man, while black immigrants typically caught the virus through heterosexual sex.

In either case, a diagnosis, and even testing, can bring stigma. Welch said churches, which are so powerful in the black community, are beginning to grapple with that. Although in some people's minds the disease carries a lot of moral or religious overtones, "it's just a disease."

Welch, who sometimes works public health's HIV/AIDS hotline, said despite the proliferation of educational messages about HIV/AIDS, many people still don't know basic facts. "I still get questions: 'Can I get it from a pool, or from kissing?' We cannot stop the education."

And so, at 23rd and Jackson today, Welch and Horace-Cheatham continued doing just that.

"Can I give you a flier? Please?" she entreated a recalcitrant woman towing two children. "Come to this! There will be free food!"

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com