[mpoverlay]Several HBCUs, including Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, Southern University – Baton Rouge, North Carolina Central University, Fort Valley State University and Jackson State University, were commended in a recent entry on the federal HIV/AIDS blog.

The author, Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of HIV/AIDS in the Department of Health and Human Services, said that historically black colleges are leading the way in addressing prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS for African-American communities.

A number of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are engaged in significant efforts to educate students and promote HIV awareness across their campuses. These efforts are particularly important given that African Americans face a very severe and disproportionate burden of HIV disease in the United States. Despite representing only 14% of the US population in 2009, African Americans accounted for 44% of all new HIV infections in that year, according to the CDC.

Alarmingly, CDC also reports that more new HIV infections occurred among 13–29 year-old black gay and bisexual men who have sex with men (MSM) than any other age and racial group of MSM; further, new HIV infections among young black MSM are trending up, increasing by 48% from 2006–2009. Of the total number of new HIV infections in U.S. women in 2009, 57% occurred in blacks, and the rate of new HIV infections among black women in 2009 was 15 times that of white women. These realities make the HIV prevention efforts of the nation’s HBCUs all the more important.[/mpoverlay]