US President Barack Obama at his final State of the Union address in January to a joint session of Congress in Washington, DC, said that they were treading on the planned path to wipe out new HIV/AIDS transmissions from the country by 2020.

The federal government and various states have prepared a strategy to counter the epidemic through recent medical advances that have been decreasing the incidence of the deadly infection and making better the quality of life in some US demographic groups.

But the information needs to be better spread among various stakeholders, including volunteers active in the field, religious leaders and others who can help check the scourge of HIV/AIDS at the grassroots level in African-American communities.

The National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (NBLCA) said among the accomplishments factoring into President Obama’s statement about HIV/AIDS are the passing of the Affordable Care Act and the establishment of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

A not-for-profit organization designed to fight HIV/AIDS and other health disparities, the NBLCA said, “The Affordable Care Act has already expanded coverage to millions of Americans, including those with pre-existing conditions such as HIV/AIDS. It has also broadened eligibility requirements for Medicaid, which is the single-largest payer of HIV care in the United States”.

Each year, February 7 is marked as the 16th National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, an event that aims to spread awareness around the national HIV epidemic. The HIV/AIDS made its first appearance nearly 30 years ago but three decades down the line, the disease remains a critical health issue for the black community.

The CDC has put the rate of new HIV infection in African-Americans at eight times higher than that among whites. It is estimated that nearly 500,000 African Americans are living with HIV.