Drug Therapy Delayed for Blacks With HIV

White doctors routinely delay treatment of HIV-positive black patients, a new finding that adds to a growing body of research that suggests a sharp racial divide in American medical care. Researchers didn't examine why doctors act differently when their patients are black, and it's not clear that racism is the cause, said study co-author Dr. William D. King, a visiting assistant professor of infectious diseases at the University of California at Los Angeles. However, he said, "we can definitely see there is a huge disparity. There is discrimination." King and his colleagues examined the results of a previous study that looked at HIV-positive patients from 1996 to 1999. Of 1,241 adult patients, 61 percent were white with white doctors, 32 percent were black with white doctors, and 6 percent were black with black doctors. Fewer than 1 percent were whites with black doctors. The researchers report their findings in the November issue of theJournal of General Internal Medicine. Overall, the black patients received powerful HIV drugs after a median of 439 days -- well over a year -- compared to 277 days for whites. If blacks had white doctors, they received drugs after a median of 461 days; if they had black doctors, the delay was only 342 days. White patients with white doctors, meanwhile, received drugs after 353 days, similar to black patients with black doctors. [more]