Black History Month: African-American HIV/AIDS Awareness

Note: This is the fourth installment of WCBS 880's Black History Month series.

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork)-- February is Black History Month. And this Sunday is National African American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

Experts say that while there is still much work to do, there is some very good news about AIDS.

"New York, last year, celebrated for the first time zero babies born with HIV," Virginia C. Fields, President of the National Black Leadership Commission On AIDS, told WCBS 880's Jane Tillman Irving.

Fields is also the former Manhattan borough president and a social worker by training.

"There are still some 50,000 new cases annually and African Americans are disproportionately impacted," Fields said.

The breakdown is grim: one in 16 black men and one in 30 black women will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetimes.

Nearly 37 million people are living with HIV globally, according to The Foundation For AIDS Research. Every day roughly 5,600 people contract HIV, more than 230 every hour.