HIV rates for black women up to five times higher than previous estimates

Results from a study released today show that HIV rates among African American women are much higher than previous estimates. The HPTN 064 Women's HIV Seroincidence Study (ISIS) found an HIV incidence of 0.24 percent in the study cohort of 2,099 women (88 percent black), a rate that is five fold higher than that estimated for black women overall by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These rates are comparable to estimated HIV rates in the Congo (0.28 percent) and Kenya (0.53 percent), highlighting that HIV infection is still a large problem in specific US groups, even if attention has turned to other areas of the world. Study Chair Sally Hodder said of the findings, "We have known that black women in the US are disproportionately impacted by HIV, however, the magnitude of this disparity in areas hardest hit by the HIV epidemic underscores the gravity of the problem."