Forty years into the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Black women continue to bear the highest burden of HIV among women.
Although Black women represent only 13% of the female population, they accounted for over half of HIV diagnoses among all females in the U.S. in 2018, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. White women, who are 62% of the female population, accounted for 21% of HIV diagnoses.
Black women are also less likely than white women to receive the antiretroviral therapies that are highly effective at preventing HIV infection and are more likely to die of causes related to HIV.
This year’s World AIDS Day theme included ending inequalities in HIV and AIDS care. But in order to address the inequities, it will require examining the root causes of them. In the United States, the most prominent reasons for these disparities are structural and systemic racism.
