Throughout June and July, Indiana is promoting HIV awareness with its "Get Tested for HIV" campaign. The state Office of Minority Health (OMH) has awarded 38 grants -- mostly $1,000 each -- to help local organizations and churches provide testing and counseling services for state residents. Indiana was one of 16 states or territories that received the funding this year through a program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Blacks comprise only 8.3 percent of Indiana's population but account for about one-third of residents living with HIV/AIDS, according to state health statistics. Among women, blacks account for 43 percent of cases. Danielle Patterson, OMH director, said that sharing needles, trading sex for drugs or other enticements, and sex between males "on the down low" are contributing to HIV's spread through the black community. "Homosexuality in the African-American community is still taboo. Consequently, people tend to stay in the closet longer," she said. The idea that AIDS is a white gay man's disease is also aiding HIV's spread among minorities, including Hispanics, Patterson added.

Indiana recorded 346 residents diagnosed with HIV infection during the 12 months ending May 31, for a total of 7,579 cases, including 3,834 patients with HIV who have not progressed to AIDS.

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