“Down Low” Men Not to Blame for High HIV Rates among Black Women

(Oct. 19) Straight black men with multiple sex partners are responsible for the extremely high rates of HIV/AIDS among black women, not men on the “Down Low,” according to Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) official.

“The majority of these infections are not coming from men who are behaviorally bisexual…but these are men that are having multiple sexual partners with women,” said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention.

He also attributed the disproportionately high rate of HIV/AIDS among black women to intravenous drug use by their heterosexual male partners.

“We have looked to see what proportion of infections is coming from male partners who are bisexual and found there are actually relatively few,” Dr. Fenton said. “More are male partners who are having female partners and are injecting drugs or using drugs or have some other risks that may put those female partners at risk of acquiring HIV.”

Black women represent two-thirds of the almost 10,000 new HIV/AIDS cases every year. High-risk heterosexual contact accounts for 80 percent of these infections, according to recent CDC data.

While only a quarter of all HIV/AIDS cases are among women, black women represent a staggering 61 percent of the more than 100,000 women living with HIV/AIDS in the United States today.

AIDS is the leading cause of death among Black women between the ages of 25 and 34.

In an interview with the National Newspaper Publishers Associations (NNPA), Dr. Fenton went on to explain how “the force of infection” is a unique contributing factor in the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the black community.

“If we have a higher prevalence of HIV within a given community and you’re likely to have your own sexual partners from that community, it means that your probability of coming in contact with HIV is much higher than that of others.”

Dr. Fenton also suggested that the disproportionate rate of infection must be seen in a larger context reflecting persistent health disparities in poor and rural communities and in ethnic and racial minorities.

“We’re seeing populations which have been historically and traditionally hard to reach and more difficult to serve,” he said.

Of increasing concern to health official is the number of new HIV/AIDS cases among black teenagers.

While only constituting 13 percent of the teenage population in the nation overall, black teenagers account for 69 percent of all new HIV/AIDS case among those ages 13-19.

Fenton attributed higher rates of sexually-transmitted diseases such as Chlamydia, gonorrhea or herpes among black teens and the higher rate in which black teens engage in sex with older partners, as compared to their white counterparts, as key factors that place black teens at greater risk of HIV infection.

Yet, black gay men still bear the brunt of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Half of all new HIV/AIDS cases are among black gay men.

In an effort to curtail the spread of HIV/AIDS in the black community, the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services announced a 5-year Act Against AIDS partnership with 14 national black organizations in May this year.

The initiative finances community outreach efforts by awarding grants to the organizations to higher AIDS coordinators to offer support and direct efforts to educate the public about HIV/AIDS.

Of the 1.1 million people in the United States living with HIV/AIDS, more than 500,000 of them are black.