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Blacks make up more than half of new HIV infections annually in the United States and about two-thirds of new AIDS cases among teens, though they represent less than 15 percent of the nation's population, according to a report released Tuesday. The report, titled "The Time is Now!," was released to coincide with the beginning of Black History Month. It is based on statistics related to HIV and AIDS among blacks from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Kaiser Family Fund and the U.S. Congress, among other sources. Funding for the primary federal AIDS program has remained steady in the last three years while the number of media stories about AIDS declined by 57 percent between 1997 and 2002, according to the report, produced by the Black AIDS Institute, a Los Angeles-based research and public policy group. The institute called on Congress to increase funding for AIDS and HIV treatment, control the cost of medications, provide more comprehensive sex education in schools and urge more states to adopt needle exchange programs. [more]

Blacks in America have the nation's highest death rate for all cancers combined and for most major cancers. [more]
Study finds stroke risk greatest in black Southerners [more]
Blacks are three times more likely to die from asthma than whites. Black children also are three times as likely as other children to develop sleep apnea. Blacks have one of the highest rates in the world of sarcoidosis, a dangerous lung inflammation that contributed to the recent death in December of former NFL star Reggie White at age 43. [more]