Are women at risk to be infected with HIV?
Women remain the fastest growing group to be infected with HIV. Today one out of every three people found to have HIV infection in the U.S. is a woman. Yet there are many gaps in our medical knowledge about women and HIV disease. There seem to be complex gender differences in the symptoms and the drug side effects, as well as the gynecological complications. The number of AIDS cases among women increases steadily each year in the United States. For 2005, women represent 27% of all new AIDS diagnosis. Heterosexual contact is the leading risk exposure category for all women, and 29% of those are due to sex with an injection drug user. Injection drug use accounts for 32% of all AIDS cases. African American and Hispanic women have been disproportionately affected by AIDS. In 2005 83% of all female AIDS cases were for African American and Hispanic women.
