U.S. News & World Report Examines HIV/AIDS Rate Among Black Women

[Mosi Ngozi]

Kaiser Health Disparities Report: A Weekly Look At Race, Ethnicity And Health
Health in the Community | U.S. News & World Report Examines HIV/AIDS Rate Among Black Women
[Sep 16, 2008]


U.S. News & World Report recently looked at how "black women continue to be struck particularly hard" by HIV/AIDS (Payne, U.S. News & World Report, 9/12). According to the latest available figures reported by CDC, blacks in 2006 had the highest HIV/AIDS incidence rate of any racial and ethnic group in the U.S. Among women, 61% of new infections occurred among blacks, 23% among whites and 16% among Hispanics. The rate of new infections among black women is almost 15 times higher than among white women; the rate among Hispanic women is nearly four times higher than white women, the study said (Kaiser Health Disparities Report, 9/12).

In 2005, black women accounted for 64% of the more than 126,000 women living with the virus. The disease has been among the top three causes of death for black women ages 25 to 34 in the last few years, according to U.S. News.

Eighty percent of new HIV infections in women in 2006 stemmed from heterosexual sex with a high-risk partner, CDC data indicate. C. Virginia Fields, president and CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, said that "because of how this (disease) is spreading through heterosexual black women," it makes sense to discuss the connection to men who secretly have sex with other men, as well as to the number of black men who return from prison and are not tested for sexually transmitted infections before having sex with their girlfriends or wives. According to the CDC report, male-to-male sexual contact accounted for 63% of new HIV infections among black men. In addition, CDC estimates that HIV prevalence among those who are incarcerated is about five times higher than that of the general population, U.S. News reports.

Raymond Martins, medical director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, said women should feel "empowered to make sure that their partner uses a condom. Especially in the black community, that doesn't seem to always be the case" (U.S. News & World Report, 9/12).

[cliffwms44]

I agree their are some MSM activity that has risen but what we fail to kinda realize is that many men who have been incarcerated so they found that they may have been infected before becoming incarcerated but, it is then upon release having relations with females I agree the ball is in the woman's court to stand firm on no sex without a condom to at least lesson the risk of transmission But, the other side of the coin is that while BOO was a way was His lady or partner protecting herself. Prevention must start at home as well
in the in lockup.