A group of clergy, lawmakers and labor leaders is urging the nation's black churches and political leaders to push for major intervention in the African-American HIV and AIDS crisis.

"We are most at risk," the Rev. Horace Sheffield III, head of the Detroit chapter of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, told leaders gathered for a breakfast Monday at the Laborers Local 1191 union hall in Detroit.

Sheffield, pastor of the New Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit, called on leaders to support a bill in Congress called the National Black Clergy for the Elimination of HIV/AIDS Act of 2009. The measure calls for combating the problem with new funding for prevention, education, testing and research into ways to reduce transmission of the virus.

Sheffield and other leaders also called on traditionally silent black clergy to enter the fight against AIDS because of the church's importance in African-American culture.

"It's important that the church be involved and also that we recognize the importance of health, even in a time of economic downturn," said Dr. Calvin Trent, general manager of special populations for the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion.

Two-thirds of the estimated 18,200 Michigan residents with HIV/AIDS live in southeast Michigan, and Detroiters represent 58% of new HIV infections in the region, according to the Michigan Department of Community Health. African Americans in the state are infected with HIV at a rate 10 times that of whites.

About a dozen students from Detroit Cares Alternative Academy attended the event. Sheffield said the students can help educate their peers.

Patrick Dean, 18, a senior at the alternative school, said he hopes more people get involved in the effort to fight HIV infections. He said his classmates need to hear more about the dangers of unprotected sex.

"We can't stop it," Dean said of teens having sex. "They just have to be safe with it."