Yesterday was National HIV Testing Day. Sorry that I missed it. Of course, for those of you who also forgot, it’s not too late to get tested!
In honor, I wanted to bring this sobering article from AlterNet to your attention, which talks about how HIV-AIDS is on the rise among U.S. women, particularly Black and Latina women.
“Everyone is telling us what not to do, but who’s telling us what to do?” says Loretta Ross, the national coordinator for Atlanta-based SisterSong, a collective of some 80 organizations focused on reproductive health for women of color. “‘Just say no’ ain’t worked for drugs, sex or politicians.”
While men still make up the vast majority of reported HIV-AIDS diagnoses in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that diagnoses of women rose 17 percent from 2001 to 2005, with more than 9,800 women diagnosed for the first time in 2005.
Of U.S. women currently living with the virus, about 64 percent are African Americans, and another 15 percent are Latina. HIV-AIDS remains the leading cause of death for African American women aged 25 to 34, and a top-four cause for black women 35 to 54. It’s also the fourth-leading cause of death for Latina women 35 to 44. Younger women remain at higher risk and only cancer and heart disease kill more women annually.
Wow. There’s nothing to like about that. So what can we do?
The article discusses not only the need for more education, but also the need to women-controlled prevention methods, such as the female-condom. New prevention methods are currently being researched, such as the diaphragm, films, gels and possibly a ring-like device similar to the Nuva ring. Personally, I’m a huge fan of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, but any significant possibilities there are years away.
The issue here is particularly sensitive because it affects women of color. Women of color have strong reasons to be wary of the medical establishment, and any sexual health information provided to them by the government, due to their history with forced sterilization, eugenics and coerced use of Norplant. Whatever the solution is here, it not only needs women of color involved in development, but also in educating and distributing it to communities. Without strong oversight and administration by the POC community, we risk not only some new form of exploitation of WOC’s bodies, but also even higher distrust of and aversion to prevention techniques. This isn’t a problem that the white medical establishment can solve for women of color . . . it’s a problem that they need to solve with women of color.
{ 2 comments }
I totally agree. In addition, abstinence-only sex education needs to be abolished NOW. Its critical that the education stops denying young women real information about safe sex. Especially coupled with what you said about how women of color have reason to distrust the medical establishment(so true) – there would be a much better likelihood of being to bridge some of these gaps for young women, if some of this information was starting in their communities and schools while they were teenagers.
oy… I had some issues typing in that last comment and left out some words! that was supposed to be “education system stops denying” and “much better likelihood of being able to bridge some of those gaps”.
(long day)
-b
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