LOUISVILLE — The disproportionate number of African-Americans in Kentucky with AIDS is alarming minority advocates as more young black people contract the virus.

        Thirty-nine percent of the AIDS cases diagnosed statewide in the first half of this year were African-Americans, though only 7.3 percent of Kentucky's population is black, according to the Kentucky Department of Public Health.

        “I think that silence in our community is killing people,” said Stephanie Benson, director of the Louisville-Jefferson County Minority AIDS Program of the Lincoln Foundation. The foundation is a partner in the 2001 Kentucky State African American Leadership Conference on HIV/AIDS, which began Friday in Louisville.

        Members of the clergy, health professionals and the general public are expected to attend the three-day conference.

        The effort is taking place as diagnosed cases of AIDS appear to be declining statewide. There were 189 such cases among people of all races in Kentucky in 2000, compared with 220 in 1999, state statistics show.

        State officials credit the decline to drug therapies that have helped keep the onset of AIDS at bay and to greater awareness about prevention.

        But among cumulative AIDS cases in the state, the average rate for African-Americans in Kentucky is actually six times higher than whites, said Melissa McCracken, an epidemiologist in the HIV/AIDS branch of the Department of Public Health.

        “Through the '90s, there has been a shift to where now the average patient with AIDS is African-American — probably a high school dropout or poorly educated,” said Nikki White, an HIV-AIDS surveillance nurse at the Jefferson County Health Department.

        “It used to be that most people with AIDS were in their late 30s or 40s, and they were diagnosed with HIV in their early 30s,” she said. “Now, we are seeing individuals in their teens and 20s being diagnosed with HIV and with AIDS.”

        Many African-Americans are taught to hide supposedly shameful information, such as having AIDS, so “we're not talking about it. We're scared, and we're running and we're hiding out of fear,” said Steve Braden, president of the support group Sisters and Brothers Surviving AIDS. There's also the perception that AIDS isn't present “in our community.”

        Geraldine Martin's son, Rothel Covington, hid his condition from her until pneumonia landed him in the hospital and the staff called her to his bedside.

        Having “the burden” of the secret uncovered allowed the two to enjoy Mr. Covington's last three years before he died at age 32 in 1995, she said.

        Ms. Martin says her son could have died without her letting him know she loved him. “It made a difference,” said Ms. Martin, who now consoles mothers who've lost children to AIDS.

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