Are women especially vulnerable?
. In western countries, women are four times more likely to contract HIV through vaginal sex with infected men than men contracting HIV through vaginal sex with infected women. This biological vulnerability is made worse by social and cultural factors that often undermine women’s ability to avoid sex with partners who are HIV-infected or to insist on condom use. In the U.S., the proportion of new AIDS cases among women more than tripled from 7% in 1985 to 23% in 1999. African-American and Hispanic women, who represent less than one-quarter of U.S. women, represent nearly 80% of AIDS cases reported among American women to date.
