Official Says ‘Down Low’ Men Not Responsible for High HIV Rates Among Black Women
The Seattle Medium - Seattle, WA:
Fri Oct 16 2009 15:29:12 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time)
by George E. Curry
NNPA Special Contributor
Originally posted 10/7/2009
Despite all the talk about “Down Low” Black men – who have sex with women while secretly having intercourse with other men – the major cause of the extremely high HIV/AIDS rates among African-American women is being fueled by heterosexual Black men with multiple sex partners, a top federal official says.
In an interview with the NNPA News Service, Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, said the CDC has studied why Black women make up 61 percent of all new HIV cases among women, with 80 percent contracting the disease through heterosexual contact. “We know that a lot of the infections are actually coming from male partners who have high-risk behavior,” Fenton said in an interview in his Atlanta office. “In fact, we have looked to see what proportion of infections is coming from male partners who are bisexual and found there are actually relatively few. 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.”
At 61 percent, Black women have an infection rate nearly 15 times higher than White women. Latina represent 17 percent of all new HIV cases among women. White women are only 15 percent. AIDS is the leading cause of death among Black women between the ages of 25 and 34....
Huh.
So in other words, HIV/AIDS in blacks in the US looks almost exactly like HIV/AIDS in Africa.
I can't figure out if that's more encouraging or disturbing.
On the one hand, hopefully it will help, at least a little, to reduce some of the ostracising of bisexuals and gays in black communities and neighborhoods. And maybe, if the information gets out where it's needed, it will help empower both women and men to protect themselves with condoms. (Though, sadly, considering the ferocious infection rate among teens -- who really aren't great at thinking ahead and thinking of consequences ... well, one can hope.)
On the other hand ... well. I don't want to contribute to the profoundly stupid noise on the whole "down low" issue ... but I'm not entirely sure that I quite believe these findings. Bisexuaity and gayness is still subject to a powerful social desirability bias, and when the issue comes to disease tracking -- i.e., "whose fault is this, anyway?" -- then I'd think that getting honest answers would be extremely difficult.
I guess I hope that this is a true finding. It will be helpful in getting people to think of solutions, rather than the blame game.
Posted by iain at October 16, 2009 03:44 PM
