Black History Makers - Phil Wilson Keeps It Real In The Battle Against HIV/AIDS

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by Thelma Sardin

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first detected case of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The initial reports of AIDS among Blacks were recognized in the early 1980s. Originally, HIV and AIDS largely affected gay men and intravenous drug users within the Black community as well as in the rest of the population. According to Avert.org, in 1983, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documented the first two cases of AIDS in women. Both women had acquired HIV through sex with an intravenous drug user. One of these women was Latina; the other was Black.

As time progressed, the AIDS epidemic grew rapidly in the black community. Women were particularly affected and by 1988, African Americans accounted for half of all AIDS cases identified in females in the US. Today, over 60% of women with AIDS are black.

The CDC cites on its website that African Americans face the most severe burden of HIV in the United States. While blacks represent approximately 12% of the U.S. population, they account for almost half (46%) of people living with HIV in the US, as well as nearly half (45%) of new infections each year. HIV infections among blacks overall have been roughly stable since the early 1990s.

While February traditionally recognizes achievements of blacks in history, Phil Wilson, founder and executive director of the Black AIDS Institute based in Los Angeles is making history today by helping to stop the spread of the deadly virus. While HIV/AIDS has become one of the leading medical threats and continues to rise in epidemic proportions among blacks, the Institute is unique since it serves as a training and mobilization center focused exclusively on black people. The mission is to stop the pandemic by engaging and mobilizing both black institutions and individuals in confronting HIV/AIDS.

Wilsons work in the battle against the virus spans across the globe. Prior to founding the Institute, he served as the AIDS Coordinator for the City of Los Angeles from 1990 to 1993, was the Director of Policy and Planning at AIDS Project Los Angeles from 1993 to 1996 and he co-chaired the Los Angeles County HIV Health Commission from 1990 to 1995, among other accomplishments.

He also coordinated the International Community Treatment and Science Workshop at the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th International AIDS Conferences in Geneva, Switzerland, Durban South, Africa, Barcelona, Spain, Bangkok, Thailand, and Toronto Canada and hes been involved in the founding of a number of other AIDS service organizations and community-based organizations, including the Chris Brownlie Hospice, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and the National Minority AIDS Council, the Los Angeles County Gay Men of Color Consortium, and the CAEAR Coalition.

Publishing articles in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, the Los Angeles Weekly, Essence, Ebony, VIBE, Jet, Poz, HIV+ and Arise, the Ford Foundation named him one of the 20 award recipients for the Leadership for a Changing World in 2001. He was also given the Discovery Health Channel Medical Honor in July 2004, and was named one of the 2005 Black History Makers in the Making by Black Entertainment Television (B.E.T.).

Wilson says the AIDS epidemic has devastated the black community because the community was slow to respond and as a result, the disease manifested itself.Since HIV is a disease of opportunity which means that once the virus is spreading in the community-- it is more difficult to stop, he said. He added that a higher percentage of black Americans do not have health insurance and among other factors, blacks do not have the same kind of resources that other communities have.

But he adds the Black HIV/AIDS epidemic can be controlled by taking ownership of the disease. We want to believe that AIDS is someone else's problemthe truth of the matter is that AIDS is very much a Black problem in America today, adding, while we may not like that and we may bristle at the prospect of the stigma associated with that, unless we take ownership and acknowledge that and take action, we will not be successful at ending the AIDS epidemic, he emphatically states.

Started in 1999, Wilson said he found the Black AIDS Institute because the community was in need of an organization whose explicit mission was to advocate on behalf of black people, adding I feel very strongly that at the end of the day, the only people that can save black people from HIV is gonna be black people, he said.

In addition to his professional work as an advocate and organizer in helping to eradicate the problem, Wilson also speaks from his own personal experience. Diagnosed with HIV in 1981, he says that his HIV/AIDS awareness activism is one of the reasons why he is still alive. The fact that I took control of my disease, control of my life, and the fact that by being an advocate, I have made sure I kept myself aware of issues as they have happened I think that my activism also has puts me in places where I have had access to care and treatment, he said.

Moving forward, Wilson says there needs to be open communication about HIV/AIDS in our communities. We need to be advocating for HIV conversations to be happening in our schools , in our churches, in our communities and [with] our families around the dinner table. More of us need to be talking about HIV and more of us need to be getting tested and more us who are HIV positive need to be seeking treatment, he stated.

Additionally, Wilson also suggests that Blacks need to talk about sex more openly and realize HIV/AIDS happens to all sexual orientations. He says the conversation, isnt that scary or that deep, adding communication needs to be established among sexual partners. [We need to] ask our partners about their HIV status and their sexual history and begin there, Wilson said.

To find HIV testing locations in your area log on to www.blackaidsday.org

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