REPORT FROM CONFERENCE ON AIDS AND MINORITIES

Washington, D. C. was the site of "Prevention and Beyond: A Framework for Collective Action," a conference August 13-17 sponsored by the Department of Health & Human Services to discuss the impact of the AIDS epidemic on ethnic and racial minorities in the U. S., and to create a plan of action to combat HIV transmission and create access to services and treatment in these communities.

The Black, Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American communities were well represented at the conference, with a cross-section of disciplines from each community. The conference addressed issues such as the double and triple oppressions which minorities face, the need for language/culture-specific litera- ture to explain HIV transmission, racist tilting of epidemiological and budgeting statistics, low-income families receiving inferior overall health care (if any at all), and the inadequate access to early diagnosis and treatment options for HIV and AIDS.

A group of concerned attenders interrupted the conference proceedings at one point in an effort to dramatize some of the deficiencies of the conference. The future of the epidemic is bleak unless dramatic changes are made in the manner information is disseminated and the way health care is delivered, or not delivered, in the U. S. Even if an effective treatment and/or vaccine is found, who will get it? Will money or skin color or language or geography or gender decide? Two staff members from AIDS TREATMENT NEWS attended and participated in discussions of these problems and possible solutions. We will report again when the statements from the various conference caucuses are completed.