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Poor,
black and female
By
Gumisai Mutume
WASHINGTON
- Wendy says she suffered from uterine bleeding every day for three
years, because doctors were reluctant to complete surgery on her
once they learnt of her HIV status.
"When
they found out I was HIV positive, no one wanted to treat me,"
says Wendy, who now spends her time raising HIV awareness among
poor, predominantly Black and Hispanic communities in Gary, Indiana.
"If
I had been a gay, White man, would I have been easily brushed aside?
I've had to fight for treatment which I think I wouldn't have had
to, were I a man," says Wendy. She was diagnosed HIV positive
in 1995, and she says she has been fighting for fair medical treatment
ever since.
Wendy,
who is in her 40s, represents the marginalised face of HIV in The
United States. "When a lot of African American women get to
find out what they have, it is probably too late to save them from
ordinary illnesses that can be cured," says Wendy. "I
have seen more African American women die of HIV than any other
group."
In
the United States, AIDS has evolved into a disease of the poor.
It is now the leading cause of death among African-Americans between
the ages of 25 and 44, even though it no longer makes the list of
the federal government's 15 leading causes of death in the broader
population.
A recent
report by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) reveals that even
though African Americans represent 13 percent of the US population,
more than half of all new HIV infections occur among them. They
are 10 times more likely than whites to be diagnosed with AIDS and
10 times more likely to die from it.
The
report estimates that 1 African American man in 50 is infected with
HIV and 1 in every 160 Black women. In comparison, the prevalence
among White men is 1 in 250 and 1 in 3,000 among White women, in
a country where an estimated 900,000 people are infected with HIV.
"It
is becoming more prevalent in marginalized communities, among people
who are generally outside the system when it comes to getting information,"
says David Satcher, the US Surgeon General. "People who, when
they get information, get it late."
Since
the first Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome cases were reported
in June 1981, the virus has caused the death of 400,000 Americans.
Worldwide 22 million deaths have been reported and global infection
is currently estimated at 36 million people.
Helene
Gayle of CDC says that in the United States,"prevention strategies
have to evolve to address the new challenges, and the needs of new
population groups increasingly at risk without ignoring those who
were first infected".
The
major defining characteristic of HIV/AIDS in America now is neither
race nor sex, but social class, says Gayle. Those in the upper levels
are able to afford to manage the disease, while the poor, who often
lacking health insurance, do not.
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