J Natl Med Assoc
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HIV and AIDS disproportionately affect African Americans more than any other racial or ethnic group in the United States. Representing only 13% of the U. ⋯ The present incidence and prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the black community in the United States is of crisis proportions. The situation as it stands today is tantamount to a state of emergency for African Americans.
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African Americans are at greater risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality than European Americans or Asians. They also bear a disproportionately greater burden from type-2 diabetes mellitus. Not as much access to healthcare and less intensive use of available therapies may explain some of these disparities. ⋯ In addition to lifestyle approaches, achieving aggressive goals for blood pressure (< or =130/80 mmHg) and low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (<100 mg/dL, or <70 mg/dL for patients at very high cardiovascular risk, including those with diabetes) will necessitate the use of effective pharmacologic therapies. Clinical trial data indicate that antihypertensive regimens, particularly those that include a diuretic, are as effective in African Americans as in other racial/ethnic groups. Moreover, potent statins have been shown to decrease low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol to goal levels in African-American patients.