AIDS-Awareness Writer, Dies at 36

LeRoy Whitfield, a writer who focused on the battle against AIDS among black Americans, died Sunday after living 15 years with the HIV virus—while refusing to take medication. He was 36.

Whitfield, a contributor to Vibe magazine, died at North General Hospital in Manhattan from complications related to AIDS.

One convention Whitfield challenged after being diagnosed with HIV in 1990 was the use of antiretroviral drugs, whose possible side effects range from fatigue and nausea to blurred vision.

But toward the end of his life, he expressed doubts about his decision.

Whitfield linked AIDS among blacks with public housing, poverty and violence, which he said contributed to the rise of HIV. He opposed the notion, voiced in some circles, that AIDS was a white conspiracy to spread the disease among blacks.

According to the 2000 census, blacks make up 12 percent of the U.S. population. However, they have accounted for 40 percent of the more than 900,000 estimated AIDS cases diagnosed since the first ones were reported in 1981 by the federal Centers for Disease Control.

Whitfield was a senior editor at POZ, a magazine aimed at people with HIV. (AP)