San Francisco Chronicle - March 9, 2007
Janine DeFao, Chronicle Staff Writer

"For a long time, everyone thought that this was a gay, white men's disease. It's not anymore," Green, who is Latina, told teens at an event Thursday at Oakland High School highlighting women's and girls' risk for AIDS and HIV.

Infected with HIV nine years ago at age 16 by her then-husband, the Oakland resident hopes her street-laced, straight talk can get through to teens who have "Superman syndrome" and don't realize "HIV is their kryptonite."

"Seeing me makes it real," said Green.

The statistics are sobering.

Nationally, women made up 27 percent of new AIDS cases in 2005, up from 8 percent in 1985, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of Centers for Disease Control data. In Alameda County, the proportion of female cases was 19 percent in 2004 and 2005, up from 3 percent in the 1980s, according to the county public health department. And nationally the epidemic continues, with the number of AIDS cases in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., rising from 39,262 in 2001 to 45,669 in 2005, according to federal estimates.

Minority women are particularly hard hit across the country, with African American women 24 times more likely than white women to contract HIV, the CDC says. AIDS was the leading cause of death for African American women 25 to 34 years old in 2004. And black and Latina women accounted for 82 percent of female AIDS diagnoses in 2004, despite representing only a fourth of U.S. women.

"When you look at what's happening with young women and women of color, it's alarming," said Maura Riordan, executive director of Women Organizing to Respond to Life-Threatening Diseases, an Oakland support organization for women with HIV and AIDS, which organized Thursday's event. "We wanted to come to the source."

Advocates and teen health educators urged students to step out to a van for a mouth swab HIV test and were overwhelmed by the response. They had prepared for 20 students, but more than twice that many signed up, perhaps attracted by a raffle of an iPod. Organizers hope to make testing available soon for those they couldn't accommodate.

Riordan said HIV presents a double jeopardy for women and girls because they are both more biologically vulnerable to contracting the disease during intercourse and less able to "negotiate safe sex" because of gender inequalities. According to the Kaiser study, 71 percent of women diagnosed with HIV in 2005 were infected through heterosexual sex.

Students at Oakland High said their peers may talk about sex, but they don't talk about AIDS.

"They only talk about the pleasure of having sex but not the consequences," said senior Sally Nguyen.

The consequences took center stage Friday when students rapped about "wrapping it up" and acted out safe-sex skits that warned that a moment of passion can lead to a lifetime of parenthood or a life-threatening disease.

Deidra Iles, 16, said she planned to get tested.

"It's something you need to know about. It could cost you your life," said Iles, who said there is a lot of pressure on girls to have sex. "I could possibly have it and not know."

Shawn Smith, 15, said she was shocked to learn some of her friends weren't virgins when they signed up to get tested.

"I feel good because I'm a virgin," she said. "I'm fine, and I'm going to stay that way."

E-mail Janine DeFao at jdefao@sfchronicle.com.

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