The African American community is an ethnic cultural community that consists of Americans who have either partial or total ancestry from one of the African countries. This group of community predominated by descendants of an enslaved generation of Africans (Locke & Bailey, 2013). In the United States, this community is known to be the third largest racial group in terms of demographics. They come after White Americans who are the largest racial community followed by the Hispanics. According to Rucker (2006), most African Americans are associated with ancestry from Western and Central Africa, and together, they speak a common language known as African American Vernacular English which has a variety of dialects according to an individual’s region of origin. Their religious beliefs are however, diverse with Protestant Christians constituting of the majority; these attend the Church of God in Christ (National Council of Churches, 2009).
The relationship between African Americans and healthcare prevention for a long time now, has been regarded as being on the low, and this may also be described as a negative relationship. This negative relationship in terms of healthcare prevention is attributed to the high levels of poverty amongst the members of the community (Barbarin, 2006). Individuals therefore, are not in a position to afford quality healthcare provisions. It is therefore, important to implement a HIV prevention program for this culture because of their inability to afford proper healthcare services. African Americans also represent a whole 26% of all adult HIV reported cases (Morgan et al, 1986)). This community is thus affected by the HIV virus and yet lacks the adequate resources required for the control and treatment of the disease. This paper analyzes the strategies aimed at preventing HIV virus among the African Americans particularly the adolescent age group who are considered to have a high risk of infection.
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The HIV prevention plan amongst African American adolescents encompasses diverse strategies that first, identify the character of the people under study and then, implement a prevention plan that best suits them. According to Metro news (2016), antiviral therapies play a significant role in the improvement of the length and quality of life of the infected individuals. However, there is still need for a prevention plan because of the increasing cases of infected teenagers within the community, as most of them have limited funds to seek quality medical healthcare in the United States (“Centers for Disease Control”, 1988). The prevention plan is aimed at first, educating the target group about the safe health practices in order to live and maintain a HIV negative status. This education aims at encouraging every individual to get tested in order to tell their status. Also, it aims to dispel the misinformation with regards to the virus within the community, seeing as this is the reason for the community’s negative profiling of HIV. Getting an HIV test enables an individual to not only know their status but to also start making smart decisions depending on their status reports. The plan offers advice to the infected, the uninfected, the heterosexual, same sex partner and finally, the injection drug user adolescents. This is because; the above groups of individuals are at high chances of contracting the disease as portrayed by their close association with the HIV virus transmission channels.
After the educational process, the prevention plan also focuses on identifying different locations where individuals with HIV related cases can seek help. Seeking help applies for both the affected and infected members of the community. Through education concerning safe health practices and provision of standard healthcare services, the prevention plan is believed to have a reduction impact on the number of individuals infected by HIV virus among the African American adolescents. This prevention plan adopts an educational approach because ignorance concerning the safe health practices is a key contributor to the contraction of new infections. With prior knowledge therefore, the plan assumes that adolescents are young adults capable of making smart decisions concerning their livelihood and healthcare.
This prevention plan is expected to be conducted in different social gatherings in the form of an educational campaign. The African American community members are known for their love for sports and other social and recreational activities. The prevention plan would, therefore, run a HIV awareness campaign that will also sponsor some of the social and sporting activities within the African American neighborhoods. The prevention plan will mainly target the young adults who are also known to be actively involved in sporting competitions. The sporting competition venues often also attract other different age groups and this will ensure this prevention plan not only reaches the adolescents but also each and every member of the society who attends the sporting and social activities and competitions. The prevention plan is expected to attract and reach a good number of people because of its casual venue. The plan will offer free HIV tests in order to enable individuals to get to know their health status which is the first step towards reducing the number of infections. This plan will be unique because the whole process including testing and counseling will be offered throughout the competitions and will be absolutely free of charge. The implementation of this prevention plan just like any other plan is feared to be faced with financial challenges because of the high poverty levels within the community under study and also because of the provision of the services for free. This challenge is however, healthy because at the end of the day, the prevention plan will have created the necessary awareness aimed at controlling the rates of HIV infections. This financial challenge can be solved through donations. Different organizations will be allowed to kindly donate to this great course voluntarily. The donations are thus expected to help in running and maintaining the campaign. The plan is also expected to raise money from the sporting competitions by partnering with the games and shows organizers. The HIV prevention plan amongst the African American adolescents, is thus a great course aimed towards reducing the number of HIV infections among the young adults in the United States.
References
Barbarin, O. (2006) "Characteristics of African American Families". University of North Carolina. Retrieved November 16, 2016
“Centers for Disease Control”. (1988). HIV-related beliefs, knowledge, and behaviors among high school students. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Don C. Locke, Deryl F. Bailey. (2013). Increasing Multicultural Understanding. SAGE Publications. p. 106. ISBN 1483314219.
Morgan WM, Curran JW. Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome: Current and future trends. Public Health Reports.
“National Council of Churches”. (2009)
Rucker, Walter C. (2006). The river flows on: Black resistance, culture, and identity formation in early America. LSU Press. p. 126. ISBN 0-8071-3109-1.
