An institute that has been promoting AIDS awareness among the black community has revealed critical information: a huge portion of the non-medical workers for HIV and AIDS may not be fully competent in terms of scientific knowledge and treatment.
In a report published in its website entitled "When We Know Better, We Do Better," a line taken from the late great Maya Angelou, Black AIDS Institute, a national organization that focuses on HIV and AIDS in the black community, conducted a huge survey covering no less than 3,500 non-medical health workers in AIDS-related organizations, groups in communities, and health departments in the community and the state.
Around 50% of the organizations also serve the black community and about 33% serve gay and bisexual men and people with HIV. The respondents also mentioned that over 70% of them offer prevention help, while around half provide both care and treatment. Meanwhile, 62% give treatment and education on prevention.
When they were tested according to their knowledge on treatment, including the science behind the tools, around 70 percent of them scored only a passing grade of 70, which is equivalent to D in the academic setting. Only 4% rated A. For questions about treatment, the average score is only 56%, which means F.
In terms of states, most of these barely passing non-medical health care workers were in Florida and Georgia. States such as Ohio and Missouri received some of the highest average grades.
The test is extremely essential for a number of reasons. First, huge developments have been happening in the area of prevention, detection, and treatment of both HIV and AIDS, yet the country still experiences no less than 50,000 new infections each year. Second, almost 50% of these cases are black while more than 55% are gay or bisexual men. Third, biomedical tools mean nothing when the people expected to use them do not have the adequate competency.