'It's not just in America,' said Gregorio Millett, the senior policy adviser in the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, at a panel on HIV infections among African and Caribbean MSM. BE HEARD was organized by The Global Forum on MSM & HIV and featured the debut of the Johns Hopkins-World Bank's global survey of HIV epidemics. On the day before the conference officially opened, an all-day pre-conference event addressed the soaring global rates of MSM seroconversions. But as the rate of HIV infections among Black gay and bisexual men continues to rise with no end in sight, their specific health needs and concerns are now reaching a global platform at the 18th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) in Vienna. Just like the recent reports of escalating Black MSM seroconversions in Chicago, New York, Charlotte and other cities, the Milwaukee data barely made a 'blip' on the local news. 'This is a very serious public health threat,' says Mike Gifford, chief operating officer of AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin, which is adding 'a staff member to do outreach and counseling with Black MSM,' reports Milwaukee News Buzz.
