Black men in focus in U.S. HIV drug trial

As a control, half the group don't receive the drug for the first nine months to see if taking a pill that might potentially make them less likely to contract HIV might encourage men to take more risks with sexual health.

It's part of a long-term project that includes similar studies in Botswana and Thailand and elsewhere to determine if a drug that suppresses the AIDS virus could one day be used as a prophylactic to prevent people from contracting it.

Researchers said one reason for the reluctance of blacks to participate in the study is the legacy of the notorious 40-year-long Tuskegee experiment, which was exposed in 1972 and led to an apology by President Bill Clinton on behalf of the government to the victims.

In that experiment, the U.S. Public Health Service starting in 1932 told 400 blacks with syphilis in Alabama they had "bad blood," leaving the syphilis untreated to study its long-term effects on the body.

Some 43 percent of men enrolled in the AIDS drug study are black but many others were reluctant to take part because of misunderstandings about what the study entails and fear within the black community about clinical trials, Thompson said.

"My first question was 'Wait, are you going to inject me with the HIV virus?,"' said Dorrington Poitier, who is now taking part.

Atlanta is considered by some the gay capital of black America and gays organize an annual gay black pride festival on the Labor Day weekend.

Despite the large numbers of at-risk men, researchers said lack of organization within the gay black community had made it harder to promote awareness and mobilize against AIDS, which in addition had killed some community leaders.

"AIDS has sucked so much energy out of the community. The leaders started dropping dead, started getting sick. And we have been trying to replace them but against the odds," Teague said.

Another underlying reason for the prevalence of HIV infection was the stigma still attached to homosexuality within some parts of the black community, which left some gay men vulnerable to a degree of social isolation that made poor choices on safe sex easier.

"People within the black community say: 'It's fine to be gay but ... don't wear it on your sleeve. They see black as something you can't really hide but they don't want you to be gay in public," said Anthony McWilliams, a project organizer.