From The Office of Minority Health and National Women's Health Information Center
HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS has had a devastating impact on minorities in the United States. Racial and ethnic minorities accounted for almost 66% of the newly diagnosed cases of HIV and AIDS in 2006. In 2006, 81% of babies born with HIV/AIDS belong to minority groups.
In the African American community, HIV/AIDS has become an epidemic. African Americans accounted for 47% of all HIV/AIDS cases diagnosed in 2006. African American men are more than nine times more likely to die of AIDS than non-Hispanic White men. AIDS is the third leading cause of death in African American women ages 25-34 and the third leading cause of death in African American men, ages 35-44, in 2005.
HIV/AIDS is spreading at a rapid rate in the Hispanic community. Hispanics accounted for 18% of AIDS cases in 2006, despite making up only 14% of the U.S. population. Hispanics are 3.3 times more likely to be diagnosed with AIDS than non-Hispanic Whites. Hispanic males were also almost three times more likely to die of AIDS than their non-Hispanic White counterparts in 2006.
Though the numbers are small, American Indians are also impacted disproportionately by HIV/AIDS. American Indians are 1.2 times more likely to have AIDS than non-Hispanic Whites.
For Asians and Pacific Islanders, HIV/AIDS is the eighth leading cause of death in men aged 35 to 44, as well as for American Indians/Native Americans in the same age group.
Quick Facts
- African American females had over 21 times the AIDS rate as non-Hispanic white females in 2006.
- African American women were over 21 times as likely to die from HIV/AIDS as non-Hispanic white women.
- Hispanic females were 5 times as likely to have AIDS in 2006 as non-Hispanic white females.
- American Indian/Alaska Native women have almost twice the AIDS rate as non-Hispanic white women.
- Asians/Pacific Islanders have lower AIDS rates than non-Hispanic white counterparts and they are less likely to die of HIV/AIDS. One Asian/Pacific Islander child was diagnosed with AIDS in 2006.
Other Sexually Transmitted Infections
Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) remain a major public health challenge in the United States. While substantial progress has been made in preventing, diagnosing, and treating certain STDs in recent years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that approximately 19 million new infections occur each year, almost half of them among young people ages 15 to 24.
Women suffer more frequent and more serious complications from STDs than men. While each STD causes different health problems, overall, they can cause cervical cancer and other cancers, liver disease, pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, pregnancy problems, and other complications. Some STDs increase your risk of getting HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS can cause a number of health problems and raise the risk of getting life-threatening diseases and certain forms of cancer.
Chlamydia. Chlamydia is the most frequently reported bacterial sexually transmitted disease in the United States. In 2006, 1,030,911 chlamydial infections were reported to the CDC from 50 states and the District of Columbia. Chlamydia is common among all races and ethnic groups; however, African-American women are disproportionately affected. In 2006, the rate of chlamydia among African Americans was more than eight times higher than the rate among whites (1275.0 vs. 153.1 per 100,000 population), with approximately 46% of all chlamydia cases reported among African Americans. Additionally, the rates among American Indians/Alaska Natives (797.3 per 100,000) and Hispanics (477.0 per 100,000), were five times and three times higher than whites, respectively. In 2006, chlamydia rates increased for all racial/ethnic groups, except for Asians/Pacific Islanders.
Chlamydia is known as a "silent" disease because about three quarters of infected women and about half of infected men have no symptoms. In women, untreated infection can spread into the uterus or fallopian tubes and cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). This happens in up to 40% of women with untreated chlamydia. PID can cause permanent damage to the fallopian tubes, uterus, and surrounding tissues. The damage can lead to chronic pelvic pain, infertility, and potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy outside the uterus). Women infected with chlamydia are up to five times more likely to become infected with HIV, if exposed.
Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is a general term that refers to infection of the uterus (womb), fallopian tubes (tubes that carry eggs from the ovaries to the uterus) and other reproductive organs. It is a common and serious complication of some sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), especially chlamydia and gonorrhea. PID can damage the fallopian tubes and tissues in and near the uterus and ovaries. PID can lead to serious consequences including infertility, ectopic pregnancy (a pregnancy in the fallopian tube or elsewhere outside of the womb), abscess formation, and chronic pelvic pain.
Bacteria (a type of germ) moves up from a woman's vagina, infecting her tubes, ovaries, and womb. Many different types of germs can cause PID. But, germs found in two common sexually transmitted infections (STDs or STIs)— gonorrhea and chlamydia — are most often the cause of PID. After a person is infected, it can take from a few days to a few months to turn into PID.
Minority women reported one-third of all PID cases. Among African-American women, the incidence of ectopic pregnancy is 1.5 times higher than that of all other women of color.
Gonorrhea. Gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, with 358,366 cases reported in 2006. It is the disease with the largest disparity between African Americans and whites. It is 18 times more prevalent among African Americans than whites. Currently, 15- to 19-year-old African-American women still have the highest gonorrhea rate of any group. Rates among Hispanic women increased 6.5% between 2005 and 2006, 4.7% among white women, and 3.5% among American Indian/Alaska Native women. A decrease of 8.1% was seen among Asian/Pacific Island women.
Gonorrhea is caused by a type of bacteria that can grow in warm, moist areas of the reproductive tract, like the cervix, uterus, and fallopian tubes in women as well as the urethra in men and women. Gonorrhea is spread through contact with an infected vagina, penis, anus, or mouth. Many women who contract gonorrhea do not show symptoms, and sometimes symptoms are so mild that they are mistaken for a bladder or vaginal infection. Gonorrhea infections that occur in the throat usually do not have symptoms and often go undetected.
Syphilis. While syphilis rates remained much lower among females than males, overall rates among females increased for the second year in a row, after a decade of declines, with an increase of 11.1% between 2005 and 2006 (from 0.9 to 1.0). This increase was largely due to increased rates among African-American females, which rose 11.4% (from 4.4 in 2005 to 4.9 in 2006). Roughly 41% syphilis cases reported in 2005 occurred among African Americans. Rates among females in all other racial/ethnic groups declined or remained stable.
Genital Herpes. Genital herpes is caused by the herpes simplex viruses type 1 (HSV-1) or type 2 (HSV-2). Most genital herpes is caused by HSV-2. HSV-1 can cause genital herpes, but it more commonly causes infections of the mouth and lips, so-called "fever blisters." HSV-1 infection of the genitals can be caused by oral-genital or genital-genital contact with a person who has HSV-1 infection.
HSV-1 and HSV-2 can be found in and released from the sores that the viruses cause, but they also are released between outbreaks from skin that does not appear to have a sore. Generally, a person can only get HSV-2 infection during sexual contact with someone who has a genital HSV-2 infection. Transmission can occur from an infected partner who does not have a visible sore and may not know that he or she is infected.
Genital herpes infection is common in the United States. Nationwide, at least 45 million people ages 12 and older, or one out of five adolescents and adults, have had genital HSV infection. Over the past decade, the percent of Americans with genital herpes infection in the U.S. has decreased. Genital HSV-2 infection is more common in women (approximately one out of four women) than in men (almost one out of eight). This may be due to male-to-female transmission being more likely than female-to-male transmission. Of these people, almost 46% are African American, compared to 18% of White Americans. African-American women are three times more likely than White women to be infected with genital herpes (HSV type 2). Though there are treatments for genital herpes, it has no cure.
Human papillomavirus (HPV). Human papillomavirus is also called HPV. It is a virus that includes more than 100 types, over 30 of which are sexually transmitted. The types of HPV that infect the genital area are known as genital HPV. Genital HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States. Most sexually active people will have HPV at some point in their lives, though most will never know it because it usually has no symptoms and goes away on its own.
Almost all cervical cancers are caused by two types of human papillomavirus (HPV). Other types of HPV can cause genital warts.
African American women develop cervical cancer more often than white women and are more than twice as likely to die from it. Hispanic/Latina women have the highest rates of new cases of cervical cancer and the second highest death rate from cervical cancer (behind African American women). In fact, Hispanic/Latina women are about one and a half times as likely as white women to die from cervical cancer. Asian American/Pacific Islander women and Vietnamese American women especially, tend to have much lower rates of cervical cancer screening than other groups.
