Breaking Down the Barriers
- jenrileyms
- Aug 1, 2015
- 1 min read
An interview with actor and AIDS advocate Jay Ellis
Jay Ellis is looking to leverage his celebrity to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS among African Americans. The need
is great; year after year, African Americans bear a disproportionate burden of the epidemic in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the diagnosis rate in 2011 for HIV cases among blacks was nearly four times the rate for the general population. African American men accounted for 42 percent of HIV cases diagnosed among men in 2011. And of 197,090 HIV diagnoses from 2008 to 2011, blacks accounted for 47 percent of the total, despite comprising only 13 percent of the population.
An ambassador for amfAR’s generationCURE group of young HIV/AIDS advocates, Ellis was also recently named an ambassador for National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Here the 34-year-old actor discusses his personal interest in the issue and the importance of HIV/AIDS education.
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