• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

AIDS Hits Bay State Women Hardest

Posted on: Sunday, 10 July 2005, 21:00 CDT

The death rate for Bay State women infected with AIDS has tripled over the past 15 years, even as the overall number of AIDS-related fatalities has sharply declined, according to state statistics.

Experts attribute the increase at least in part to the fact that women with HIV/AIDS in general have less political clout and less access to expensive medical care than their male counterparts, many of whom are upscale, gay professionals.

"As much as we like to celebrate the fact that we do have effective treatments for HIV, we have a lot of concern about whether women are getting access to that treatment," said Sophie Godley, director of prevention at the AIDS Action Committee in Boston.

In all, 226 Massachusetts residents died from HIV/AIDS in 2003, the latest available year, down from a peak of 1,207 in 1994, according to the state Department of Public Health. But women accounted for a a far larger share of AIDS-related deaths, skyrocketing to 34 percent in 2003 from 11 percent in 1989.

While the number of white males reported with HIV/AIDs who died from 1999 to 2003 decreased 24 percent, from 139 to 106, for example, white females known to have the virus or disease who died soared 56 percent, from 36 to 56, according to DPH figures.

Over the same period, the number of black males who died and were reported to have HIV/AIDS dropped 29 percent, from 68 to 48, while the number of black females jumped 28 percent, from 25 to 32.

Hispanics were the only group to see the number of deaths decrease among both males (from 64 to 52, or 19 percent) and females (from 27 to 17, or 37 percent) reported to have HIV/AIDS.

But Hispanic and black females are still diagnosed at levels 13 and 20 times, respectively, that of white females, according to an October 2004 DPH report.

The reasons why women are dying at a greater rate than men include disparities in access to affordable, effective treatment, and in the way men and women advocate for themselves, both in the medical and political arenas, and in their relationships with each other, Godley said.

Most women, for example, become infected not through casual sex, she said, but through sex with their main partner. Yet many are still reluctant to get tested with their partner and to insist that he wear a condom.

"We have to accept the fact that some women are in relationships where there's not only an imbalance of power," Godley said, "but where even raising the issue may subject them to abuse."

Source: Boston Herald

More News in this Category