Why AIDS is becoming a Black woman's disease and what we can do about it - Health

Ebony, Nov, 2002 by Nikitta Foston

A disease once thought to affect only gay White men is rapidly becoming a Black disease and, in some cities, a Black woman's disease. Although African-American women account for only 33 percent of the New Jersey population, they comprise 66 percent of all AIDS cases, with the highest rates of infection in Newark, Jersey City and Paterson. In Atlanta, long considered the cultural hub of the South, Black women comprise 85 percent of all AIDS cases. In Los Angeles, at the close of the decade, 40 percent of AIDS cases were African-American women. Staggering rates of infection in New York City, Miami, Chicago and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., have created new epicenters of HIV with the highest rates of new cases among African-American women in metropolitan cities. In some cities, AIDS is the No. 1 killer of Black women between the ages of 25 and 44.

"During the past 10 years, the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States has undergone a dramatic transformation from one concentrated primarily among homosexual men to an epidemic that is now closely associated with the inner city," remarked David Bloom, professor of economics and demography at Harvard University's School of Public Health, in a recent CNN report. According to the report, a Black woman is 20 times more likely to contract AIDS than a White woman. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control indicate that Black women represent 63 percent of all women with AIDS in the United States, three times higher than White women. With a seemingly unyielding force, HIV infects 1 in every 160 African-American women, making Sisters the largest-growing sector of HIV infected people.

"It's devastating," says Dr. Gayle E. Wyatt, professor at the UCLA AIDS Institute and author of Stolen Women: Reclaiming Our Sexuality, Taking Back Our Lives. "We need to protect ourselves," she adds.

Rae Lewis Thornton, the Sister who captured the world's attention almost a decade ago with her story of battling the AIDS virus, agrees. Thornton was only 23 years old when she learned that she was HIV-positive. She was heterosexual, had never used drugs or shared needles, and never considered herself at risk for HIV.

"Women who see themselves in stable, monogamous relationships don't think that they are at risk," says Thornton. "We think that `because I'm in love' or `to the best of my knowledge, the relationship is monogamous,' that we are not at risk. We don't like to think of our partners going outside of the relationship," she adds. "Women tend to love hard and love blindly."

Contributing to the alarming rate of infection are a variety of factors, including unprotected sex, sex with multiple partners, needle-sharing among intravenous drug users, and the growing population of "down-low Brothers"--men who do not consider themselves gay or bisexual, but engage in sex with both men and women.

The return of previously incarcerated men into our communities also affects the rate of infection among Black women. "We have a huge population of African-American males who go into prison HIV-negative and come out HIV-positive," says Thornton. "When these men get out, they come back to our daughters, our mothers and our sisters. They don't go back to men because they don't consider themselves gay."

Marcy Moore, program director of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, cites the failure of condom use as a major reason why the disease has ravaged African-American women in epic proportions. "When the mood is set and the time is right, we don't want to create an uncomfortable moment by bringing up the `condom issue.' We avoid the subject altogether out of fear of rejection or what our partner may think of us," adds Moore. "But one uncomfortable moment sure beats the many uncomfortable moments you will certainly have if you become infected with HIV." Moore believes that Black women must take charge and be more responsible for their own health in light of the AIDS epidemic.

"African-American women historically have very poor health care," says Dr. Wyatt. "Even women who are middle-class and very well-educated, but come from working-class homes, tend to have the same health-care patterns of their parents; not necessarily indicative of their own income. However, we need to be agents of change in our families, in our community and in or churches."

Sheila Taylor, mother of three, including a 12-month-old daughter, changed her life in response to her HIV-positive diagnosis four years ago. "I got educated about HIV before I had my daughter. That's why my baby is HIV-negative," she says. "I knew what to do for her." Choosing to learn from, rather than suffer through her HIV status, Taylor now conducts weekly informational sessions on HIV and AIDS awareness from her home. "If a person is educated, they don't have to go through what I went through initially. If you're HIV-positive, you don't have to live in shame and fear."

Increasingly, HIV-infected women are breaking through their fears and embracing the resources that are prolonging their lives. "AIDS is not the end of life, but rather, a change in life," says Dr. Wyatt. "You have to become an expert in terms of what medicines are available, what programs are offered, and what social support groups are at your disposal." Wyatt recommends that HIV-infected women develop good relationships with their health care providers who can understand their specific needs. "The doctor-patient relationship is crucial," says Thornton. "If you don't feel like you can talk to your doctor, you've got to get a new doctor."