AIDS cases are increasing among women, even in U.S.

Washington -- The face of AIDS is just as likely to be that of a woman as a man.

In 2005, about one-half of people infected with HIV globally were women, according to data presented last month at a Capitol Hill briefing.

In the United States, women represent more than one in three new HIV infections and one in four new AIDS cases.

HIV is most often transmitted to women through heterosexual sex and during their childbearing years, according to data provided by amFAR -- Foundation for AIDS Research, which sponsored the briefing with the Society for Women's Health Research and Women's Policy Inc.

Black and Hispanic women make up a disproportionate amount of new AIDS cases, said Lynn Paxton, MD, MPH, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's division on HIV/AIDS prevention.

Although black women represent only 13% of the U.S. population, they account for 67% of AIDS cases among women, Dr. Paxton said. Hispanic women, 11% of the population, account for 16% of women with AIDS.

The route to infection has undergone a major shift in the past 20 years, she noted. In 1985, transmission through injection drug use was responsible for 53% of AIDS cases among the nation's women, while, by 2003, transmission via heterosexual sex was responsible for 71% of cases.

The largest number of new cases are among women who live in the southeast, Dr. Paxton said. Especially troubling are the more frequent diagnoses among 13- to 19-year-olds.

Women's vulnerability to infection because of physiology, lack of information and lack of control over sexual relations should drive necessary changes in health care, said Cynthia Gomez, PhD, the co-director of the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California at San Francisco.

Such changes should include improved education; universal access to health care, including for immigrants; and linguistically tailored services, Dr. Gomez said.