great challenges regarding changing behaviors and
lowering disease risk. In January 2000, the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services launched
Healthy People 2010, a comprehensive, nationwide
health promotion and disease prevention agenda.
The overarching goal of this program is to increase
quality and years of healthy life and eliminate health
disparities between whites and minority populations,
specifically African Americans. As national health
initiatives and programs continue to improve and tar-
get African Americans and other populations in need,
preventable diseases will be lowered, creating a health-
ier U.S. society.Resources
BOOKS
Foner, Eric, and Garraty, John A., eds. (1991).The Reader’s
Companion to American History. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin.
Genovese, Eugene D. (1974).Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World
the Slaves Made. New York: Vintage.
Harris, Jessica (1995).A Kwanzaa Keepsake: Celebrating the
Holiday with New Traditions and Feasts. New York:
Simon & Schuster.
Harris, Jessica (1999).Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons: Afri-
ca’s Gift to the New World Cooking. New York: Simon
& Schuster.
Thompson, Becky W. (1994).A Hunger So Wide and So
Deep: American Women Speak Out on Eating Problems.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Wilson, C. R., and Ferris, W. (1989).The Encyclopedia of
Southern Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press.
Witt, Doris (1999).Black Hunger. New York: Oxford Uni-
versity Press.
Zinn, Howard (1980). ‘‘Drawing the Color Line.’’ InA
People’s History of the United States. New York:
HarperCollins.
PERIODICALS
Basiotis, P. P.; Lino, M; and Anand, R. S. (1999). ‘‘Report
Card on the Diet Quality of African Americans.’’Fam-
ily Economics and Nutrition Review11:61–63.
de Wet, J. M. J. (2000). ‘‘Sorghum.’’ InThe Cambridge
World History of Food, Vol. 1, ed. Kenneth F. Fiple and
Kriemhil Conee Ornelas. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press.
Dirks, R. T., and Duran, N. (2000). ‘‘African American
Dietary Patterns at the Beginning of the 20th Century.’’
Journal of Nutrition131(7):1881–1889.
Kittler, Pamela Goyan, and Sucher, Kathryn, eds. (1989).
‘‘Black Americans.’’ InFood and Culture in America.
New York: Van Nostrand and Reinhold.
Popkin, B. M.; Siega-Riz, A. M.; and Haines, P. S. (1996).
‘‘A Comparison of Dietary Trends among Racial and
Socioeconomic Groups in the United States.’’New
England Journal of Medicine335:716–720.OTHER
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National
Center for Health Statistics (2002). ‘‘Monitoring the
Nation’s Health.’’ Available from<http://www.cdc
.gov/nchs/>
U.S. Census Bureau (2001). ‘‘General Demographic Char-
acteristics for the Black or African American Popula-
tion.’’ Available from<http://www.census.gov>
U.S. Census Bureau (2001). ‘‘Profile of General Demo-
graphic Characteristics.’’ Available from<http://
factfinder.census.gov>
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Healthy
People 2010. Available from<http://health.gov/
healthypeople>M. Cristina F. Garces
Lisa A. SutherlandAging and nutritionseeSenior nutrition
AIDS/HIV infection
Definition
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection
is a complex illness caused by a retrovirus, which is a
single-strand virus that replicates by using reverse
transcription to produce copies of DNA that become
incorporated within the genome of the host cell. The
HIV virus destroys a type of white blood cell known as
CD4þT lymphocytes, or T helper cells. These cells are
important in maintaining the various functions of the
human immune system. When the level of CD4þT
cells in the bloodstream falls, the patient loses the
ability to fight off bacteria, viruses, and fungi that
would not cause disease in a person with a strong
immune system. Infections that occur in people with
weakened immune systems are called opportunistic
infections.
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is
an advanced form of HIV infection in which the
patient has developed opportunistic infections or cer-
tain types ofcancerand/or the CD4þT cell count has
dropped below 200/mL. According to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated
1,039,000 to 1,185,000 persons in the United States
were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2003, with
24–27% undiagnosed and unaware that they are
infected. More than 40 million persons around the
world are infected with HIV as of 2007, with approx-
imately 14,000 new infections every day. The diseaseAIDS/HIV infection