The AIDS epidemic among women in the United States continues to expand. The number of women living with AIDS more than doubled between 1992 and 1998.⁽¹⁾  (See Figure 1.)

The impressive gains from new AIDS medicines can be seen in the pattern of AIDS deaths among women.

AIDS deaths rose between 1992 and 1995 and then as antiretroviral therapies became available, AIDS deaths fell, going from a high of almost 8,000 in 1995 to 3,800 in 1998.  

In 1998, an estimated 58,000 women were living with AIDS, the last stage of HIV disease.  Many thousands more were infected with HIV, but had not yet progressed to AIDS.⁽²⁾

African American and Latina Women Hardest Hit

African American and Latina women are hardest by the AIDS epidemic.  In 1998, the AIDS rate among African American women was 22 times that of white women.  The AIDS rate among Latinas was 7 times that of white women.⁽³⁾

In 1997, among women age 25 to 44, AIDS was the second leading cause of death for African American women, the third leading cause of death for Latinas and the ninth leading cause of death for white woman.⁽⁴⁾

How women get AIDS: sex and injecting drug use

The AIDS epidemic among women is expanding among women who inject drugs and women who are the sex partners of men with HIV.⁽⁵⁾ (See Figure 2)

Thus effective prevention means we must deal realistically with the emotionally charged topics of sex and injecting drug use.

Footnotes 

(1) Tables 25 and 28. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report.  U.S. HIV and AIDS cases reported through June 1998 and June 1999. Midyear Editions.  

(2) National estimates of the number of women who are infected with HIV, but have not yet progressed to AIDS, are unavailable.  

(3) Based on estimated AIDS incidence for women ages 13 and over in 1998 and  population data for U.S. women ages 13 and over in 1997 and population data for Puerto Rican females of all ages for 1998.  AIDS data from Table 21 of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report. U.S. HIV and AIDS cases reported through June 1999. Midyear Edition.  Population data from U.S. Census.

(4) Table 9. D.L. Hoyert, K.D. Kochanek, and S.L. Murphy. Deaths: Final Data for 1997. National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 47 no.19. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 1999.

(5) Table 25. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report.  U.S. HIV and AIDS cases reported through June 1998 and June 1999. Midyear Editions. The "other" category refers to two groups of women:  (1) those who were infected through receipt of a blood transfusion, blood components or tissue, a means of HIV transmission that has been almost completely eliminated and (2) those for whom the exposure group is unknown.

The presentation in this section is based on estimates of the number of women living with AIDS.  For an analysis based on estimates of new AIDS cases each year, see Pascale M. Wortley and Patricia L. Fleming, "AIDS in Women in the United States," Journal of the American Medical Association. Vol. 278. pages 911-196. 9/17/97.

For a list of other materials used on this website, see References.