According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the 37,832 new HIV diagnoses in the United States and dependent areas in 2018, 42 percent were among adult and adolescent blacks/African Americans despite the fact that blacks/African Americans accounted for just 13 percent of the overall U.S. population that year.

Male blacks/African Americans were nearly three times as likely as females to be diagnosed with HIV.

Such statistics are sobering, but HIV diagnoses among the black/African American community have declined considerably in recent years.

A report from the CDC indicates that such diagnoses decreased by 15 percent between 2010 and 2017, though more can be done to further decrease the spread of HIV within the black/African American community.

For example, the CDC reports that, in 2016, 61 percent of blacks/African Americans with HIV received some HIV care, 47 percent were retained in care and 48 percent were virally suppressed.

If those percentages increase, instances of HIV within the black/African American community may decrease as a result. That's because the CDC notes that a person with HIV who takes HIV medicine as prescribed and gets and stays virally suppressed or undetectable can stay healthy and has effectively no risk of sexually transmitting HIV to HIV-negative partners.

The CDC is working to improve HIV education and increase access to high-quality health care within black/African American communities as part of its ongoing effort to end the HIV epidemic.