TOURING THE FACILITY (l-r) is Michael Herman, Chicago House CEO; Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, Evany Turk, Chicago House Residential Housing program Director; and Ryan Garrison, Chicago House Board President.
While a cure for HIV/AIDS remains elusive, advances in medicine over the years have significantly improved prevention and treatment efforts. Advocates continue their work to combat the stigma associated with the disease.
Compassionate care, treatment and housing for people living with HIV took center stage this week with the launch of the new Englewood Family Homes opened by Chicago House. The facility, located at 1650 W. 63rd St., will provide permanent support housing and services for 13 families living with HIV. The neighborhood, bordered by Garfield Boulevard to the north, 75th Street to the south and Racine Avenue to the west, has an HIV incidence rate of 50.7 per 100,000 compared to the Chicago average of 34.2 per 100,000.
HIV.gov reports approximately 1.2 million people in the United States are living with HIV, and 13 percent don’t know their status and need testing. The diagnosis rate is calculated as the number of diagnosed cases per 100,000 population, annualized. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), there were 1,195 new HIV diagnoses in Illinois in 2021, according to recent data. This represents an increase from previous years, as there were 1,159 new diagnoses in 2020, down from a 10-year high of 1,698 in 2012. Cook County, which includes Chicago, had 62 cases diagnosed between January 1 and February 28, 2023.
“This new facility represents a significant milestone in Chicago House’s ongoing mission to fully support individuals and families living with HIV,” said Michael Herman, Chief Executive Officer at Chicago House. “Englewood Family Homes will provide not only a safe place to live, but also access to essential services that will empower these families to meet their goals and live safely. We are so grateful to all of our partners for standing with us today as we make a lasting commitment to these families and all Chicagoans living with HIV.”
Chicago House and Social Service Agency serves individuals and families “who are disenfranchised by HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ,” organizers said. The group offers housing, employment, legal and medical linkage to other services for those impacted. The Englewood facility was made possible in part by contributions from the Chicago Department of Housing, the Illinois Housing Development Authority National Housing Trust Fund, the Illinois Housing Trust Fund and the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation.
“The opening of Englewood Family Homes is a testament to the power of community-driven solutions. This facility will provide crucial support to families in need, offering not just housing, but a foundation for stability and growth,” said Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton during a Tuesday news conference. “These kinds of initiatives close gaps in people’s basic needs and contribute to the overall well-being of our neighborhoods.”
Ongoing support for the project will be provided by the Chicago Housing Authority and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. In addition to housing services, the agency will provide employment and prevention support, including HIV testing and linkage to crucial care and social services. The office space will also serve a housing team that manages nearly 500 units of scattered site and residential housing for those living with HIV and experiencing homelessness.
Chicago House is one of many advocacy organizations and non-profits, such as the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Lighthouse Foundation, Turning Point, Chicago Center for HIV Elimination, Project Vida, Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus, Black Alphabet, and Nefuse, playing a crucial role in promoting health equity and ending HIV in Cook County.
In a national effort, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) launched a national advertising campaign this week to shatter the stigma associated with the disease. The campaign includes billboards, transit shelters, bus interiors, posters, benches, and standalone kiosks that will run in 14 states, including Illinois, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. The artwork includes the URL HIVcare.org, which directs people to AHF’s directory of service locations nationwide.
“Too many people still are afraid to get tested because they fear what life might look like living with HIV,” Dr. Michael Dube, national medical director for AHF’s Public Health Division, said in a statement. “But it is not knowing your status and not getting the care you need that can interfere with how you live life. When someone tests positive for HIV, we immediately connect them with a Linkage Counselor who not only helps get them into care but fosters a relationship that helps keep them in care.”
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) weakens the immune system by destroying CD4 cells that fight disease and infection. When the CD4 count drops below 200, a person progresses to advanced acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), in which the body cannot fight infections, illnesses, and various cancers.
First discovered in the U.S. in 1981, AIDS emerged from a slew of cases of rare lung infections and aggressive cancers in young, homosexual men in Los Angeles and New York. In June of that year, medical officials in Atlanta had reported to federal health databases that five gay males had contracted a “rare pneumonia” and that two had died, and the other three were gravely ill.
The AIDS outbreak and subsequent reporting on the disease led to widespread panic across the United States and patients being stigmatized and ostracized in their communities. Dr. Anthony Fauci, most recently known for his work during the coronavirus pandemic, led the efforts to understand this new public health crisis and slow its spread.
Some experts later claimed the first true case of HIV in Africa occurred in Kinshasa, Congo, in the late 1970s and within five years AIDS emerged as a global pandemic. Since then, more than 70 million people across the globe have been infected with HIV, and approximately 35 million have died from AIDS. The virus spread from Africa to other regions through international travel, contributing to its global impact. The Caribbean has the second-highest incidence rate (1.9 percent and 3.1 percent) of reported AIDS cases in the Americas. With between 350,000 and 590,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, second only to the continent of Africa (7.5 percent and 8.5 percent).
In 1991, U.S. basketball superstar Earvin “Magic” Johnson stunned the sports world when he announced his HIV diagnosis on October 24. Though he tested positive and ended his basketball playing career, the athlete-turned-activist and businessman defied medical expectations and has lived unscathed or stigmatized by the disease for more than 30 years.
Tennis legend and anti-apartheid activist Arthur Ashe allegedly acquired HIV from a blood transfusion during a heart bypass surgery in 1983. In 1992, the athlete announced he had AIDS after a friend who happened to be a reporter at USA Today revealed his condition to the public. He established a foundation in his name to bring awareness about the disease and to help find a cure. The only African American man to win Wimbledon and the U.S. and Australian Opens, Ashe died in New York City on February 6, 1993.
The AIDS outbreak, combined with the crack cocaine epidemic, followed by the massive uptick in nationwide gang violence and easy access to semi-automatic weapons, inflicted massive harm on African Americans across the country and led to systemic damage well into the 21st century.
By 1996, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that African Americans accounted for the majority of AIDS cases and, within two years, accounted for 49 percent of U.S. AIDS-related deaths. It had long become an epidemic. African Americans are a whopping ten times more likely to acquire the disease than their White counterparts. A 2011 CDC study that examined gay men over a five-city radius revealed that 46 percent of the Black males examined were HIV positive and that 67 percent of those infected were unaware that they had the disease.
In addition, due to unprotected intercourse with infected partners, the practice of closeted gay (Down Low) males having relations with unsuspecting females, and because of intravenous drug usage, by the year 2000, African American females were 23 times more likely to contract the disorder than White females. In 2018, 57 percent of U.S. women diagnosed with HIV were Black.
African American youth between the ages of 13 and 29 account for approximately 57 percent of new HIV infections. Three-quarters of new infections occur among young, Black gay/bisexual men, according to the National Prevention Information Network within the CDC and studies of incarcerated juveniles. In addition, among persons in correctional facilities, the prevalence of HIV in 2021 was approximately 1.1 percent (13,531 individuals), with states such as Mississippi, New York, Louisiana, and Florida having the highest prevalence (2.0 percent or greater).
The CDC and AIDS researchers also noted that while HIV affects all races and ethnicities in the United States, Black/African American people continue to be disproportionately affected compared to their population size, with the highest burden among Black and Latino gay and bisexual men. In 2021, 25 percent of new HIV infections were among Black gay and bisexual men and 22 percent among Latino gay and bisexual men. Whites accounted for 26 percent of HIV infections or 8,200 cases.
HIV is diagnosed through blood screenings and antibody tests. Symptoms include flu-like illness within two to four weeks of infection (fever, chills, body rashes, night sweats, muscle aches, sore throat, and swollen lymph nodes). Risks include having unprotected sex, sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis, herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and/or substance abuse (sharing needles or syringes for drug injections).
Treatments such as anal cancer screenings, mRNA vaccines, lenacapavir, an HIV prevention drug used by non-gay women, and stem cell transplants have been effective in treating the disease and preventing its escalation into full-blown AIDS. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) involves taking a prescribed combination of medicines to manage the virus and prevent its transmission.
With advances in treatment and through efforts to reduce stigma associated with the disease there has been increased awareness about its transmission and how to prevent being exposed to HIV. Researchers note that while the CDC has been proactive in funding numerous projects aimed at combating the disease, specifically in the Black community, their “noble” efforts continue to lack the cultural competency required to fully eliminate HIV among its steady growth within the African American population.
The federal agency noted over the years the CDC has funded projects such as HIV testing for students attending historically Black colleges, epidemiological research designs focusing on this population, support for community-based organizations serving African Americans, educational campaigns to raise awareness about the disease, and the development of scientific interventions. However, researchers and advocates believe that more can be done.
“Although HIV/AIDS prevention programs have proven to be successful for some segments of the population, these programs continue to be ineffective in reducing the spread of the disease among African Americans, said researcher Dr. Latrena Davidson in an extensive study on the spread of the disease among Blacks.
“African Americans continue to be disproportionately burdened by this debilitating disease because many barriers continue to exist regarding the successful implementation of prevention programs and risk-reduction efforts,” she said. “A large percentage of African Americans do not seek testing for a myriad of reasons, some of which are beyond their control (e.g., decreased access to health care, lack of insurance, poverty, racism). This results in not being aware of one’s status, thus contributing to the spread of the disease.”
Reporting made possible by Inland and Crusader news foundations
