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HIV Rates for Black Women in Parts of the US Much Higher than Previously Estimated

By on March 9, 2012

Study results released today indicate that the HIV incidence rate for US women living in areas hardest hit by the epidemic is much higher than the overall estimated incidence rate in the US for black adolescent and adult women. The HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) announced results from its HPTN 064 Women’s HIV Seroincidence Study (ISIS) which found an HIV incidence of 0.24% in the study cohort of 2,099 women (88% black), a rate that is five fold higher than that estimated for black women overall by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The rate noted in the HPTN 064 (ISIS) study is comparable to estimated HIV incidence rates in the general population in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa including the Congo (0.28%) and Kenya (0.53%), underscoring the substantial ongoing HIV transmission within specific US populations, including women at risk as defined in this study. The incidence rate observed in HPTN 064 is based on findings from women enrolled from six geographical areas in the US where HIV and poverty are known to be more common. Study Chair Sally Hodder, M.D., with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School commenting on the findings said, “We have known that black women in the US are disproportionately impacted by HIV, however, the magnitude of this disparity in areas hardest hit by the HIV epidemic underscores the gravity of the problem.”

Women constitute roughly one-quarter of new HIV infections in the US with 66 percent of these infections occurring among black women, although black women constitute only 14 percent of the US female population. In the US, the age-adjusted death rate of black women with HIV is roughly 15 times higher than that observed for HIV-infected white women.

“Despite prevention efforts in the last 30 years, the reality is that we still have ongoing HIV transmission in the US that requires focusing prevention efforts,” said Hodder.

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