Women's HIV rates rise rapidly, report says

• African American women now account for 72 percent of infections in women in the United States.

The epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus infection is growing more rapidly in women than in men in almost every part of the world, according to a new report. The "feminization" of AIDS appears to reflect a maturing of the epidemic, suggest the authors of the annual AIDS update prepared by the United Nations, World Health Organization and World Bank. More and more seemingly low-risk women, many of them married, are being infected by men who acquired the virus through high-risk behavior years ago. The trend is most advanced in sub-Saharan Africa, where the AIDS epidemic began and home to more than half the world's HIV-infected people. Women there now comprise 57 percent of people living with the virus.  From 2002 to 2004, the percentage of infected people who are women rose or stayed the same in all regions.  The evolving risk to women is a main theme in the 87-page report. In all, 39.4 million people are infected with HIV now, up from 37.8 million last year. About 3.1 million people died of the infection in 2004, out of about 55 million deaths from all causes worldwide. About 25.4 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected, about 7.4 percent of all adults. The Caribbean has the next-highest prevalence, with 2.3 percent of adults and 440,000 people overall.  African American women now account for 72 percent of infections in women in the United States.  [more]