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Shawn Thew / EPA
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared on a large video screen at the 19th International AIDS Conference this week. Many presentations target women, who make up more than a quarter of new HIV infections in the U.S.
Del’Rosa Winston thought she’d done everything right. She kept herself in steady employment, and waited until she was married to start having children. When her marriage ended, she started having regular HIV tests, just in case. So when she settled into a new, steady relationship, she never dreamed she’d end up infected with the AIDS virus.
“I had a job. I had been in the military. I was educated," said Winston, a soft-spoken, well-groomed woman with fashionably cropped red hair. "I just got it from a straight man in a monogamous relationship."
More than a quarter of new infections in the United States every year are in women, and of the 1.1 million Americans with the AIDS virus, 280,000 are women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black women are especially vulnerable – their infection rate is 15 times the infection rate for white American women.
Winston’s smooth skin and easy smile represent the hidden face of the AIDS epidemic in the United States – the people who don’t look like “typical” HIV patients. The 50-year-old mother of three hopes that speaking out at the 19th International AIDS Conference, being held in Washington, D.C., will help reduce the stigma and ignorance that fuel the spread of the virus.
“There are so many people who are getting it because they loved someone,” Winton told NBC News in an interview. Winston couldn’t wait to be in a steady, safe relationship so she could stop using condoms, which she found uncomfortable to use. Her boyfriend, who has since died, told her he had no idea he was infected. But he was, and so was Winston. “We didn’t fit the parameters of what an HIV-positive person looked like,” she said.
She can remember the moment in 1990 when she was told her test came back positive. “The room was gray,” she said. “Like stainless steel. I know there were objects in it but I couldn’t see them. I just flowed like water to the floor.”
Health experts at the conference say they are trying to find new and better ways to reach not only the people at the highest risk – young gay and bisexual men – but others, like Winston, who may not intuitively know how easily and insidiously the virus can move during a moment of passion. “Everyone’s at risk, whether you have the greatest trust relationship or not,” Winston, who now works as an HIV counselor in Atlanta, said.
Health experts are also trying to figure out some of the factors that make women vulnerable and keep them from protecting themselves even if they do understand the risks. Winston has some ideas – women are often too busy looking after others. “We put everyone else first – kids, school, even the PTA. We get into the mind frame that we don’t have to care for ourselves,” she said.
Another factor may be domestic abuse. A team at the University of California San Francisco published a study on Monday showing that physical and sexual abuse and trauma are major factors affecting which women become infected.
“For a long time we have been looking for clues as to why so many women are becoming infected with HIV and why so many are doing poorly despite the availability of effective treatment,” said Dr. Edward Machtinger, who led the study. “Women who report experiencing trauma often do not have the power or self-confidence to protect themselves from acquiring HIV.”
Their team did a study called a meta-analysis, looking at data from other studies involving 5,900 women. They found 30 percent of women infected with HIV had post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, compared to 5 percent of the general population. Twice as many women with HIV reported they had been victims of partner violence as women without the virus, they found.
Kat Griffith thinks she knows why. The slender redhead from Peoria, Illinois has been HIV positive for 21 years and she blames a violent boyfriend from high school. “I had a jealous and controlling partner who called me names, demeaned me,” she said. “I had no self-esteem.”
But Griffith went away to college and, she thought, started a fresh new life. “I knew that HIV could affect me and I thought I asked all the right questions,” she said. “But my abuse made me feel I was not worthy of protection." Her college boyfriend infected her.
Women may often put others first but they also lack a good way to protect themselves, Griffith noted.
For years, researchers have been looking for ways to protect women against the virus. There’s been hit-and-miss progress with microbicides – gels or creams that women can use quietly to reduce the chance they’ll become infected during sex. On Tuesday, researchers will announce the start of an advanced, Phase 3 trial of a device called a vaginal ring impregnated with dapivirine, a drug used to treat people with HIV. Researchers will enroll 3,500 women in the two-year study to be conducted in Africa, where half of all HIV patients are women.
Studies have shown that microbicide gels or creams can work - at the last AIDS conference in Vienna in 2010, researchers reported on one that reduced a woman’s risk of infection by 39 percent. But other studies haven’t done so well and experts fear inconsistent use may be one problem.
A flexible, silicone ring may be easier to use and less intrusive than a gel that must be applied before and after sex, the researchers hope. So does Griffith. “After 30 years, we still do not have a completely female controlled prevention technique,” she said.
Speaking at the International AIDS Conference, Elton John says that because he did not take precautions, he should have contracted HIV in the 1980s. Watch his entire speech.
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Unless they've been tested and you are privy to the results you have to assume the other person has AIDS.
Funny how this article is written:
Therefor 75% of new infections ARE IN MEN. Isn't that a more significant story to write about?
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Yes John but: That would be perceived as a negative comment on the gay community and so it must be avoided. Someone would act as if the reporter "wished" it on someone when she didn't. So we have to be warry of attribution even if it wasn't said or intended.
John, how is that significant at all? You've done nothing more than state a well-known and established trend.
The reason this new research is important: it shows people like you that women are becoming infected at an increasing rate, and more importantly, that all people (gay, straight, male, female) are at risk of contracting the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It is incorrect and dangerous to believe this is a "gay-only" disease.
No, John. Women are more important than men. So when male-dominated risks such as HIV or suicides are in the paper, the story focuses on the better sex : women.
MmmMmmBeer wrote "that all people (gay, straight, male, female) are at risk of contracting"
But straight males, particularly white, have a much lower risk at contracting HIV from sex. All groups are not equally at risk . Here are the top three transmission paths in the US, by quantity of infection :
1) Anal reception of HIV-infected sperm
2) Intravenous reception of HIV-infected blood
3) Vaginal reception of HIV-infected sperm
Although homosexual males engage in #1 more than anyone else, another difference in that group is that a carrier becomes a transmitter.
It was a story about women with AIDS, so they focused on women. You know, like if it was a story about cats with fleas, the focus would probably be on cats. What a lot of silly questions.
I would prefer that our resources are spent trying to cure a disease that is not preventable.
Unfortunately, the cure for stupidity is still a distant dream.
So you are saying that it is okay if sex is deadly? What if your spouse is cheating on you and brings home the virus? It would be your fault because you weren't using condoms in a monogamous relationship? In many countries women, do not choose whether to have sex. Obviously, women who are raped here had no choice either. And since women are biologically different, they are more at risk and it kills them faster and if they are pregnant, it is a disaster.
Also, HIV breaks down the immune system in such a way that it causes so many other problems, such as pneumonia, cancer... It is possible that finding a cure for it would lead to preventing or curing these other diseases.
What about the recipients of tainted blood products used during surgeries, etc.?
Wow. So, are you blaming people with AIDS for their illness? Really? Kids who got it from their parents? Rape victims? Not to mention just being lied to or cheated on. Sure, AIDS can be prevented - sometimes. And you're less likely to break your leg if you never leave your couch.
I'm not at risk. I do not engage in relations with more than one woman (ever, one wife for life). I do not engage in drugs consumption (no needles to share there).
The only way I could become infected is if somehow someone elses infected fluids got into my system like at a hospital.
I don't even find it difficult to avoid such risky behavior.
So no, not everyone is at risk.
Does she cheat? Is so, then you are at risk. People who are being sneaky rarely follow safe-sex guidelines. That's part of the problem with homophobia. It encourages irresponsible behavior by driving responsible behavior underground. If people are successful at lying about heir sexual behavior, including their sexual orientation, I can guarantee you that they are lying about a bunch of other things as well.
With a cheating wife, a man is at greater risk of being forced to father a child that is not his than contracting HIV.
Denali, no matter how small the risk, there is still a risk and some men have become infected by a cheating spouse.
Your compassion toward those who have HIV or AIDS seems to be non-existent. Have you ever heard the word "Empathy"? Perhaps there IS someone in your "perfect" word who does have AIDS or is HIV +. I bet they would not confide in you, knowing how you feel and think about those "other" people. How do you know for certain, that in your lifetime, you will not ever be in a situation which caused YOU to get the virus? I have more pity for you, and others like you who have the same attitude toward the infected humans, than the HIV patients themselves. At least, they are aware of it and have take steps to get the medication necessary for them to live a long, full life. Who are u to judge the innocents, the naiive, the people who got the virus by no fault of their own? Only God can judge, and He will! I do pity you when you face God and have to answer for what you did to help those people. Or rather, what you DID NOT do to help those people.
So you never dine out at restaurant's? There was an article just last week about sperm as a "special sauce." And wouldn't you know that a lot of people responded in favorable comments toward it's usage? My reply was: "Better make sure that secret sauce is HIV tested."
And what about blood transfusions? Blood wasn't tested for HIV prior to 1985 and HEP C wasn't tested before 1990. What about hospital caregivers who are infected and don't know it? You would hope that they're tested at least bi-annually, like the military, for HIV. But are they?
Thing is, most everyone just assumes HIV is a "Gay Only" disease--even today. That's scary. With all the information on AIDS/HIV, movies, what have you, for people to still think they're 100% safe, is ludicrous. You only fool yourself and maybe some other unsuspecting person.
your ignorant... my friend...she thought she was not at risk because, she was married??? her husband did not even know he had the virus??? people do not get tested??? Her husband contracted the virus from his sexual relations BEFORE he married her... he was sowing his oats as most males do before marriage??? the VIRUS can hide for years without symptoms... some people are carriers NEVER affected by the virus known as HIV? so never say never!!!
HEP-C can still be contagious
in dried blood... up to 72 hours... you can still catch it?
There would not be people getting aids from blood transfusions, heterosexual sex, etc if not for the homosexual community having spread the disease to the degree that it threatens everyone. While it may not be politically correct to point that out out, it is completely and utterly true. I dont understand how folks cannot recognize that this one small group of people's irresponsibility and hedonistic selfishness has resulted in a worldwide health threat. The gay community got to have their unrestricted and thoughtless f-fests, and the rest of us pay dearly for it.
Your risk goes dramatically lower if you just don't have sex......has worked well for me for many years.
Seems to me to invest all this money for a disease that afflicts sick deviant sexual acts.. would be better spent on cancer. I mean so what if we loose gays and negro's? not like anyone will miss them and negro's aren't worth saving the way they have destroyed soceity, we be better off breeding them out of the human race
The majority of cancers are due to lifestyle choices (diet, exercise, exposure, etc), so why spend more on that?
@mike here 5731578. Personally, instead of breeding "negroes" out of the human race, why don't we breed White serial killers, murderers, shooters, pedophiles, exterminators (Adolph Hitler, etc.) and financial scan artists (Bernie Madoff, etc.) out of the human race. Maybe if Africans had not been "polluted" by the sperm of their White slave masters, there wouldn't be a "negroes" problem. My main point, however, is there are PHUCKED up people of ALL colors. You will realize this when you take your a$$ off your high and mighty shoulders.
@mike here: I'm sorry there is no cure for inbred ignorance but that doesn't mean you have to take it out on others. I know you're jealous because gays and negros have educations, friends and jobs but that's just because you set the bar so low, it's easy to be better than you.
I now understand why your pathetic, myopic comments were adjudicated unworthy of posting in our community. Your lack of empathy, compassion, and love toward your fellow human beings is the lowest I have EVER read in a public forum like this one. It is sad that you live your days with such hatred toward people you do not even know. And your ignorance stands out like a sore thumb! What about innocent babies who receive it because their MOTHER WAS RAPED BY A diseased man, and did not choose to have an abortion? What about others who have received HIV by tainted blood via a blood transfusion they had to have in order to live? I could list several other scenarios about this matter, but I doubt it will change your mind. It has already been set up and there is no hope for you, my "friend", unless perhaps YOU get the virus yourself! Now that is what I would call KARMA. And how dare YOU pass judgment on others when you are obviously very flawed yourself? P.S. Personally, I know a nurse who was accidentally stuck by a needle, after injecting medication into a patient with AIDS, and sadly, she has the disease now. It was caught early, so hopefully, with medications for the rest of her life, she will be able to live a long and happy life. That is the silver lining in the dark cloud.
Mike... with comments as such maybe you should not be in existence?
The Biblical plan for sex (don't have sex until you are married, then have sex only with your wife/husband) dramatically lowers one's chance of getting any kind of STD! Even non-believers are blessed if they follow the Biblical plans for finances, sex, work, and so on!
Like I've said before, we need to start citing our sources. To me, the Bible does say that "promiscuity" is a sin. However, what is promiscuity? Does it mean sex outside of marriage? The Bible never defines marriage, although people claim that the Bible says marriage is the union between one man and one woman. Where in the Bible does it say that? Where in the Bible is marriage defined, period? We are given many examples of promiscuity and it's resulting misfortunes only.
... and the FDA has just approved new antiviral drugs for AIDS and reducing exposure risks, but the cost is something like $19,000 per year. So only the rich can afford it, and likely health insurance won't cover it.
AIDS is a scourge, one we can eradicate if only through education and awareness, and using our resources to combat it. But it's too highly politicized. I see from some of the above comments, the old prejudices are still alive and kicking. Sometimes I feel ashamed to be human.
I understand you can get AIDs from the toilet seat. I know a lot of you people will not agree with this statement but you certainly can get it if you sit down before the other guy gets up.
you don't get AIDS. you are exposed to a virus that is called HIV. AIDS is a medical condition developed over time. lastly HIV has to get into your bloodstream. you cannot get it just from touching a surface where there is clearly no fluid. if there is fluid on the toilet seat. we wipe it or use the brown paper or layers of toilet paper to sit on before we plop down on the toilet seat. that barrier is effective enough to prevent any fluid from touching our largest organ (the skin). your logic is completely faulty. i have no idea why the youth and even adults in america and probably the world are STILL uneducated on HIV transmission. unbelievable.
Read what he wrote, oh pompous one. Homeboy was joking.
Hahahahaha!! Good one Homeboy!
you are not at risk if you masturbate. end of story.
Masturbation will cause hair to grow on your palms and you will go blind. And onece you are blind you can't shave the tell tale hair and everyone will know.
The "Female Face of Aids" would have to be the beautiful face of Gia Marie Carangi, the first female to die from the AIDS virus.
I got the documentary of her life and she was gay and the narrator said in interviewing her she had been sexually abused by her father.
Relevance? Gia was an IV drug user who also had sex with men in exchange for drugs. No one knows how she was infected, whether it was sexually transmitted or needle transmitted. She was beautiful but she had issues, just as many others of us have them. It was her misfortune to contract HIV.
Look up her photos. Her legacy is in her beauty, not in her death. Besides, it's more likely that women in Africa died of AIDs before Gia died. Think about it.
I've been hiv+ going on 27 yrs and I stopped having sex because I feel like I should be the solution not a part of the problem.I take 1 pill a day (Atripla) 1800.00 dollars a month for one bottle.But to look at me you would never know.What if they have it and don't know because what I've read 20% of people who have it don't know.So you have to protect yourself because no one else will.I read The Future of AIDS on here and they're predicting the epicenter of AIDS will be China India and Russia in the next quarter of this century and when that happens the repercussions are going to be staggering because it will kill people in there most productive yrs.I'm not ashamed I'm grateful to be alive I didn't plan on catching it.I was 21 when I contracted it and I'm going on 48. Please respect yourself and protect yourself.God Bless You All
Maggie Fox, I would very much like to know what happened to the broad spectrum anti-viral DRACO that was making news some time ago. It just disappeared from the press entirely even though its early testing was very successful.
Obviously it would be much better for them, and much cheaper for them and everyone else to cure these folks, (not to mention those kids that recently died of whooping cough in Washington), than it would be to treat them with medications for the rest of their lives.
My concern in that big pharma (or their placed people) killed it because they would lose too many sales. Could you please find out for us?
The SURE, 100% way to ensure you do not get AIDS is to follow the moral requirements of God.
Wait until your marry and then be faithful to your spouse and don't use drugs. If you follow this you will NEVER get AIDS.
That's a load of crap. There are countless cases of HIV that were non sexually transmitted to people who did nothing to increase their risk. God's moral requirements? How about "thou shalt not bear false witness." I guess that one is a little inconvenient sometimes. Ignorance and intolerance never solved anything.
Sure, Larry. That will work. Unless you're raped. Or a child with an HIV positive parent. Or need a blood transfusion. Or an organ transplant.
The risk of getting HIV from a blood transfusion or an organ transplant these days are ridiculously slim. You don't qualify to donate either if you're HIV positive and if you don't know, they test and test and test it again anyway. This isn't the 80's anymore.
Looking at this from a statistical perspective, yes there is a chance that you will be raped, but the risk of getting HIV from being raped is nearly statistically insignificant when compared with the risk of getting HIV from frequent, unprotected sex. Abstinence is actually smart after all - who'da thunk?
Oh wait, I forgot. We're supposed to be "sexually liberated". Progressive. Enlightened. All that jazz.
...
The risks are very low, rjh, but they are still there. So that refutes Larry's 100% prevention method.
Larry, as another Christian, please don't post this sort of crap. As others have written, there are no guarantees. I have been raped and I was lucky not to have been infected. I was raped by a married man, the husband of my friend. I was married at the time.
God makes no promises to us that we will be protected against these things because we're Christians. That's something you and other Christians have made up. It's a lie, and an empty one at that. What we Christians do get from our religion is the strength to live through a crisis like a rape.
Pay no attention to Larry. He's a simpleminded lackwit who doesn't comprehend the real world. I do. I'm a Christian. I was raped when I was 22 years old. My marriage broke up but I retained my sanity.
Same old story when the AIDS conference comes around every year looking for money. "EVERYBODY" is at risk! "Everyone’s at risk, whether you have the greatest trust relationship or not" A liberal, gay, bisexual, IV Drug-abuser BIG LIE "cover story" for requesting additional funding, because people don't want to donate for people who DELIBERATELY engage in high-risk behavior. So the Administration and AIDS conference trot out a seemingly, straight, normal woman as the face of their campaign. Well she certainly didn't ask enough questions back in the 80's before getting her positive result in the early 90s! No doubt her ex-beau frequented prostitutes who engaged bisexual men, or was himself bisexual. Sixty-seven percent of all AIDS cases in the US now come arise in men having unprotected anal sex. That is the AIDS World Conference's own number. Another significant percentage comes from IV drug abusers. So who are they trying to snow with "Everybody's at risk"? The taxpaying public, of course.
In my hometown, there are daily ads posted by married men looking to cheat on their wives, so the rise in female infections doesn't suprise me. The ads always say something like, "Horny married man looking for discrete good time with another dude." Nothing about safety at all. So when married men have sex with men behind their wives' backs, of course they could be transferring disease organisms from that man's anus to their wives vaginas. Result: transmission! Wake up, wives!
wake up wives? LMAO ! These "wives" are being LIED to. How do you supose they ,"wake up?" Come on! How about these "men" start waking up and start finding a way to be honest. How about these "men" stop the lies and focus on being a good human being. Get some therapy for their sexual aggressions. Men who hire for sex are very sad and broken people they NEED help. These woman are operating from the information to which they are given . Which are again LIES. How is on suppose to wake up from deception?
I have had two cousins die of HIV one a male the other female. They were boy sexually active with multiple parents during the late 80's and early 90;s. they were both diagnosed within a year of each other and died within six months of each other. I am 64 years old now and my chance of getting AIDS is 99.1% against it. I don't engage in nor have i ever engaged in promiscuous sex. I have been married to the same woman for 42 years. She also has not participated in sex with anyone else. Now you say that I could get if from a transfusion or my wife could do the same. We lower that risk by keeping our own blood on supply in case of emergency surgery like i have had. Now an emergency outside of my hospital area puts me at risk. but at worst only .9%. So that is my risk factor 0.9%. The statement is correct that everyone is at risk. Most people that live monogamous lives lowers tht risk factor to almost no risk at all. If you want to prevent AIDS in yourself or lower your risk to the lowest possible level STOP SCREWING AROUND AND SETTLE DOWN.
Ok now all of you people that think I am just an old fuddy-duddy well take your best shoot. but my risk is extremely low to the alternative life style.
YEAH ....someone with a little common sense is writing on this wall....100% agreement
No substitute for common sense...show me ONE person who has NEVER had any emotional, mental, or physical repercussions from sleeping around (before or after marriage, doesn't matter) and I will show you my beachfront property on Mars...
Why didn't the author tell the truth about AIDS?:
Once again the press is playing the mix messages game with the public. This is a deliberate attempt to hide the TRUTH.
Homosexuals are at the highest risk for AIDS and according to the CDC; homosexual white males lead the pack with over 70% of all new infections. In recent years the numbers were as high as 98%.
This only speaks to the reckless behavior of some that believe they their white skin is invincible, but the truth is skin and blood is all the same.
Sorry, but it is called a CONDOM - I don't care who it is, when a person is that old, he/she needs a c ondom because they don't know where the other person has been - don't feel sorry at all. It is big bad world, we have to take responsibility for our actions.
Chuck:
Because the title and the subject of the article is The Female Face of HIV. Female. Not male.
If you want to write an article about the male face of HIV, do so.
I agree with you completely.
amen!!!
ladies, it is simple, all of those men who have been sowing their oats are reaping herpes, warts, syphllis, gonorrhea and hiv/aids, why in the world would you let them have sex with you?? It is really not that hard, raise your standards and realize that men are quite resistable, in fact their is nothing special or even appealing about men if you think about it.
Why does our society still so wrongfully think it is ok for men to "sow their oats"when we know it can come back to hurt them or somebody they might love and respect later, what is wrong with people still to this day???(stds are better than no protection, but stds can still be spread outside the condom area and through leaks/tears/etc. I don't know how people feel safe even with a condom, to me it is not worth it, I can live without the risk until I know for sure.
It's like oh honey I've been waiting all my life to find the woman I love and give her all the stds I have acuqired from all the loser sluts I have sowed my oats with/slept with, reallly????? great:>
My sister was a virgin when she married her first husband. He gave her genital warts and herpes and she had to divorce him. He was the love of her life but he wasn't capable of being faithful to her. It was a shame because she loved him dearly. He's now had 5 wives and he's divorced a final time with an unknown number of children (I can't keep up with the number of kids he's fathered), it's at least 6 kids and he's close to none of them, and he's on Facebook whining about how no woman has ever understood him.
It's a load of crap to wait until you're married. If you're sexually incompatible, all the waiting in the world won't resolve that issue.
Her second husband was insane. Absolutely certifiable. She didn't know that when she married him. She waited before having sex with him, too. That didn't help her at all. What a loony.
If you don't know them enough to know if they have hiv/aids, why would a condom even make you feel safe or comfortable ?It could break or move/leak, not to mention stds outside the condom area. Why not just refrain from sex until you know who you are with and what they have. How could you enjoy yourself really, it makes no sense to me, just stupid.
I enjoyed Elton John's speech. It was good. But the reality of it there are just too many stupid people out there spreading to each other and knowing it. As far as the blood supply in the hospitals and what not it is too well tested now days. I am a nurse who once worked in the lab. That blood is tested 5 or 6 time before it is ever used. People just need to quit being such self centered @!$%#s. I liked the law they passed in Oregon that if you knowingly passed the virus to another you could be tried for attempted murder.