AIDS in Minorities

When people hear the phrase, “unprotected sex” when it comes to heterosexual couples, pregnancy is the first thing to come to mind, followed by less serious STD’s and STI’s, and then maybe the idea of AIDS.

The AIDS epidemic is viewed as a things of the past. “It happened in the 80s, we don’t need to know about it now”. There’s also a stereotype when it comes to the AIDS epidemic, the main thing that people think of are predominantly, white, gay, men. This stereotype is leaving out a whole gender, people with other sexual preferences, and many other races.
Another thing people have a tendency to forget is that AIDS is also a disease the occurs in places other than the United States.

HIV/AIDS in Brazil

AIDS can also be transmitted through sharing needles or syringes. HIV can live in a used needle up to 42 days depending on temperature and other factors. (5) Less commonly, HIV can be spread from mother to child during childbirth or breastfeeding. This risk can be higher if the woman is diagnosed but does not take medication for it. Testing women who are pregnant for HIV and immediately treating them lowers the risk of the child getting the disease.

African Americans

According to the CDC, Blacks/African Americans account for a higher proportion of new HIV diagnoses, those living with HIV, and those who have ever received an AIDS diagnosis, compared to other races/ethnicities. In 2016, African Americans accounted for 44% of HIV diagnoses, though they comprise 12% of the U.S. population. In 2016, 17,528 African Americans received an HIV diagnosis in the United States,4,560 of them were women.

Hispanics/Latinx

Hispanics/Latinos are also disproportionately affected by HIV. One year earlier, in 2015, Hispanics/Latinos accounted for 24% (9,798) of the 40,040 new diagnoses of HIV infection in the United States, 12% (1,223) were women. A lot of these numbers don’t seem like a big deal when it comes to who is infected, especially if they’re from 2–3 years ago. These are the minorities that are forgotten about in the AIDS epidemic. Among Hispanic women/Latinas, 90% (1,096) of the diagnosed HIV infections were attributed to heterosexual contact. Why is this? Is this because of the poor sex education in the United States? Is it due to the fact that the idea that condoms break easily, so what’s the point of using them in the first place? Or maybe that if your partner is taking a contraceptive pill, so they’re not needed. These are all false ideas. If the sex education system in the United States was as strong as it is in other countries, maybe, just maybe, AIDS wouldn’t be a big, ongoing, issue.

Other reasons that these groups are disproportionately affected could be because that the tendency to have sex with partners of the same race/ethnicity contributes to a greater risk of HIV infection and socioeconomic issues associated with poverty: limited access to high-quality health care, housing, and HIV prevention education. (6)

Women in General

In 2016, more than 7,000 women in the United States received an AIDS diagnosis. Out of that, 61% were African American, 16% were Hispanic/Latina, and 19% were white. Heterosexual content made up for the 87% of infected women. Overall, 12% of these diagnosis were from injection drug use, but in white women, the percentage jumps to 28%.

Queer Women

Other groups that that get forgotten about when it comes to HIV/AIDS diagnoses are LGBTQ+ women. They have been described as “ignored”, “invisible”, “neglected,” and “understudied.” (8)

The stigma that isolates these women from HIV/AIDS research are factors such as sexual stigma, homophobia, heterosexism, transphobia and cisnormativity. (9) Initially, lesbian, queer, and bisexual women (LBQ women) were considered immune to HIV and not relevant to be included in studies on the disease. The early HIV research instead focused on prodomintley cisgender, hetereosexual women. Although these LBQ individuals were seen as having low risk for the disease, the factors of getting the disease through sex with men, sex work, injection drug use and/or sexual violence were not taken into consideration. (8) A study done on WSW: women who have sex with other women revealed that the United States has a lack of resources designed for them when diagnosed with HIV. (1)

Transgender Individuals

Transgender women have been described as having a higher risk for getting AIDS. In 2008, out of 29 studies, HIV among trans women ranged from 11.9%, (these rates were self-reported) to 27.7% (this percentage was from HIV test results). (2)

Their subjection to the disease can be attributed to social and structural contexts of widespread violence and discrimination in housing, employment, educational and healthcare systems. (13)

Transgender female sex workers have a higher risk of HIV infection than transgender women not involved in sex work, male sex workers and cissexual female sex workers. (11)

In the United States, over one million people identify as transgender. Half of the transgender individuals who are diagnosed with HIV are African American. From 2009 to 2014, 2,351 transgender people were diagnosed with HIV in the United States. Eighty-four percent (1,974) were transgender women, 15% were transgender men, and less than 1% had another gender identity. (4)

AIDS/HIV Research

Because of the limited research on this specific group of people and HIV infection tells us that healthcare providers may not have the knowledge or the resources to serve HIV-positive transgender people.

When it comes to HIV/AIDS Research, other countries allow research and have a tendency to discuss things more in depth than the United States. In Canada, the healthcare system is working on researching HIV-positive transgender individuals to see what they can do for them.

References:

(1) Arend, Elizabeth D. “The Politics of Invisibility.” Journal of Homosexuality49, no. 1 (2005): 97–122. doi:10.1300/j082v49n01_05.

(2) Herbst, Jeffrey H., Elizabeth D. Jacobs, Teresa J. Finlayson, Vel S. Mckleroy, Mary Spink Neumann, and Nicole Crepaz. “Estimating HIV Prevalence and Risk Behaviors of Transgender Persons in the United States: A Systematic Review.” AIDS and Behavior12, no. 1 (2007): 1–17. doi:10.1007/s10461–007–9299–3.

(3) “HIV Prevalence, Risk Behaviors, Health Care Use, and Mental Health Status of Transgender Persons: Implications for Public Health Intervention.” American Journal of Public Health91, no. 6 (2001): 915–21. doi:10.2105/ajph.91.6.915.

(4) “HIV/AIDS.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. April 25, 2018. Accessed May 01, 2018. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/.

(5) “Homepage.” HIV.gov. June 28, 2017. Accessed May 01, 2018. https://www.hiv.gov/.

(6) Iovannone, Jeffry. “Intersectionality & AIDS.” Lecture.

(7) Katz, Kenneth A., and Timothy J. Furnish. “Dermatology-Related Epidemiologic and Clinical Concerns of Men Who Have Sex With Men, Women Who Have Sex With Women, and Transgender Individuals.” Archives of Dermatology141, no. 10 (2005). doi:10.1001/archderm.141.10.1303.

(8) Logie, Carmen H., Llana James, Wangari Tharao, and Mona R. Loutfy. ““We Dont Exist”: A Qualitative Study of Marginalization Experienced by HIV-positive Lesbian, Bisexual, Queer and Transgender Women in Toronto, Canada.” Journal of the International AIDS Society15, no. 2 (2012). doi:10.7448/ias.15.2.17392.

(9) Marrazzo, Jeanne M. “Dangerous Assumptions: Lesbians and Sexual Death.” Sexually Transmitted Diseases32, no. 9 (2005): 570–71. doi:10.1097/01.olq.0000175368.82940.61.

(10) Nemoto, Tooru, Don Operario, Joanne Keatley, Lei Han, and Toho Soma. “HIV Risk Behaviors Among Male-to-Female Transgender Persons of Color in San Francisco.” (10)American Journal of Public Health94, no. 7 (2004): 1193–199. doi:10.2105/ajph.94.7.1193.

(11) Operario, Don, Toho Soma, and Kristen Underhill. “Sex Work and HIV Status Among Transgender Women.” JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes48, no. 1 (2008): 97–103. doi:10.1097/qai.0b013e31816e3971.

(12) Silva, Girlene Alves, and Valesca Nunes Dos Reis. “Building on HIV / AIDS: Women on the Scene.” Physics Collective Health Magazine:22, no. 4 (September 25, 2012). http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-73312012000400010.

(13) Thornhill, Lee, and Pamela Klein. “Creating Environments of Care With Transgender Communities.” Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care21, no. 3 (2010): 230–39. doi:10.1016/j.jana.2009.11.007.