Chicago Tribune - December 1, 2005
Dawn Turner Trice, dtrice@tribune.com

Both candidates' faces turned ghostly white. Clearly, neither had a clue that black women are so disproportionately affected. And the truth is many Americans, on this World AIDS Day 2005, still don't know.

"In the 1980s and 1990s, we told people to use condoms, and then we walked away," said Cathy Christeller, Chicago Women's AIDS Project executive director. "The assumption was that women had gotten the information, had access to condoms and had the power to make their partner use them."

Those assumptions were wrong.

In Chicago, according to the city Department of Public Health, African-American women made up 78 percent of newly diagnosed HIV cases among women from 2002 to 2003, even though they made up only 37 percent of the female population.

To be clear, the highest numbers of new HIV cases in the city and across the nation are still among men who have sex with men. And the racial disparity between blacks and whites who have HIV is still huge.

But experts say the increase in HIV among black women is particularly striking because this group is so hard to target when getting the word out about HIV prevention and treatment.

Back in the day, safe sex campaigns targeted gay men at risk for contracting HIV. Clean needle campaigns targeted intravenous drug users.

"But it's far trickier to get to black women at risk," said Christeller. "Women most at risk often have partners who are infected. We tell women that marriage isn't a protector against HIV. Neither is a boyfriend who says, `You don't have to worry, I don't have a disease.'"

Women have to take charge of protecting themselves. Black women, especially, have to understand that AIDS is not just a "gay" disease or one that only affects women who are drug abusers or prostitutes.

The stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS remains high in the black community. So does the level of denial.

"That means black women who are infected don't get the care and treatments we now have," Christeller said. "They don't get tested. When they do, they don't want to tell anyone. And they don't want to get services that are available, because they fear someone may be aware they're taking meds."

Christeller said the community has to come together so that women can embolden and educate one another.

Prevention is key. But if you've already contracted HIV, early treatment and careful monitoring may prevent this from developing into full-blown AIDS. In the 1980s, the early years of the disease, many who got AIDS fell sick and died from infections.

Treatment continues to get better, and contracting HIV doesn't have to be a death sentence. But you have to get tested, and preferably before you show signs of illness.

Testing is the big challenge, said Christeller. To get the word out, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago has enlisted several local agencies, including the Women's AIDS Project, to go into South Side and West Side beauty salons and other businesses catering to women.

The outreach effort, called the South Side Women's Collaborative, began this summer and is in 21 sites, including beauty salons, nail salons and shelters. The agencies are training staffers to talk to their patrons about HIV testing, prevention and treatment.

In salons, patrons often are accustomed to sharing some fairly intimate details about their lives, which makes these the perfect forums for talking about the disease. Besides, the women are a captive audience.

The collaborative provides its participating sites with female and male condom kits and, among other things, referral cards for HIV testing, which only takes about 20 minutes. (For information on testing, call the Chicago Women's AIDS Project at 773-955-8709.)

We think of HIV as an out-of-control epidemic in Africa. But clearly, it remains a big problem right here. Christeller said most people don't get tested because they're afraid that knowing their status will disrupt their lives.

The truth is, not knowing could be an even greater disruption.

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