Prevalence of HIV in African American and Hispanic Males: Health Care Disparity - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages Different factors contributing to the disparities as indicated in this paper include social justice system issues, health policy issues, and political as well as cultural issues. This paper analyses the issues surrounding healthcare disparity issues among African-American and Hispanic males living with HIV/AIDS through evidence-based research. It also looks into existing gaps in the literature review and the implication on nursing education, practice, and research. Finally, a conclusion is drawn from the findings.

The present state of the Health Care Disparity
The existence of health disparities among African-American and Hispanic males living with HIV is evident in the literature. According to a report by Kaiser Family Foundation, African-American adolescents are 10 times more likely to test positive Ron HIV/AIDS as compared to Whites. Worse still, even though there are reports that the number of deaths as a result of oHIV-relateded causehasve drastically reduced since the introduction of antiretroviral therapy, the impact among African-Americans has been minimal. For instance, the number of deaths resulting from HIV-related causes dropped by 19% between the years 2000 and 2004 among Whites while only a 7% drop was recorded among African-Americans (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2006).

Though the population of blacks living in the US by the year 2000 census, the number of those among this population living with HIV/AIDS is significantly high. In 2005, 49% of the total number of new HIV/AIDS cases were blacks as diagnosed in 33 states. This research presented strong evidence of existing disparities as it involved scientific data recorded by the CDC for different states. Having sex with fellow men was identified as the leading mode of transmission among black men followed by drug use and injection. Heterosexual contact was the third common mode of transmission among this group. The HIV prevalence rate among the African-American men who have sex with men (MSM) was identified as being twice that of the white MSM. ...Download file to see next pages Read More