HIV / AIDS PREVENTION FACTSHEET - August 1992
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Although most AIDS cases in women occur among injecting drug users, cases attributed to heterosexual contact have the highest rate of increase. Heterosexual transmission has been documented both from men to women and from women to men and occurs mainly through vaginal intercourse. AIDS cases among U.S. women increased 17 percent between 1990 and 1991; among men, the increase during the same time period was 4 percent. The sex ratio of AIDS cases in adults is approximately 8 men to 1 woman; among adolescents, it is less than 3 men to 1 woman.

Racial/ethnic disparities are more striking for women and children than they are for men. Although black and Hispanic women make up 21 percent of all U.S. women, they constitute 74 percent of U.S. women diagnosed with AIDS since 1981. More than 83 percent of children with perinatally acquired AIDS are black or Hispanic. In New York State, AIDS has been the leading cause of death since 1988 for Hispanic children 1-4 years of age, and the second leading cause of death for black children in the same age group.

AIDS Cases Reported Each Year Among Adult and Adolescent U.S. Women Age 13 and Over

Cases --------- 1981 6 1982 47 1983 143 1984 286 1985 538 1986 975 1987 1,704 1988 3,264 1989 3,644

N = 21,225

CDC's Prevention Activities

CDC provides prevention messages to women through school-based programs, community-based programs, and public information and education programs. CDC's National AIDS Information and Education Program includes a number of activities designed to educate women, and the public in general, about how HIV is transmitted, who is at risk of acquiring the infection, and how the infection can be prevented. This program includes the America Responds to AIDS campaign, the CDC National AIDS Hotline, and the CDC National Prevention Information Network.

In collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, CDC initiated the HIV Epidemiology Research Study to investigate the natural history of HIV disease in women and to characterize risk factors for conditions indicative of AIDS in women. CDC has also awarded funds to eight sites to develop, implement, and evaluate programs for the prevention of HIV infection and AIDS among women and infants.

Several ongoing HIV evaluation studies are specifically directed to women and are designed to:

* Evaluate the relationship between various behaviors, including cocaine and other drug use, and prevalent STDs in adolescent girls;

* Evaluate the effectiveness of a variety of interventions on increasing contraceptive use among women at high risk of HIV and women with HIV infection who do not wish to become pregnant;

* Develop, implement, and evaluate community interventions to prevent further transmission of HIV in a community; five of the seven sites have women's issues as a focus;

* Develop, implement, and evaluate two types of interventions: (1) community-level behavioral interventions, including the creation of volunteer and peer networks to promote and reinforce risk reduction; and (2) service-level interventions, including the provision of enhanced family planning services in nontraditional settings (such as drug treatment centers and homeless shelters) where women with or at high risk for HIV infection may be reached.

AIDS is the 6th leading cause of death among U.S. women aged 25-44. (See original fact sheet for graph accompanying this statement: "Death rates for HIV / AIDS and other leading causes among women 25-44 years of age, 1981-1990.")

For more information:

CDC National AIDS Hotline: 1-800-342-AIDS

CDC National Prevention Information Network P. O. Box 6003 Rockville, MD 20849-6003