AIDS TREATMENT NEWS No. 115 - November 27, 1990
Laura Thomas
The World Health Organization's very conservative estimate is that there are over three million women with HIV in the world, most of them in Africa. In fact, one in 50 women in sub-Saharan Africa is infected with HIV, and one in 700 in North America. AIDS is the leading cause of death for women ages 20-40 in major cities in the Americas, Western Europe, and Africa. By 1992 over four million infants will have been born to mothers with HIV, and about a million of the babies will themselves be infected.
In the United States women are the fastest growing group of people with HIV, yet remain invisible in the epidemic. AIDS is the leading cause of death for women ages 25-34 in New York City, and women with AIDS die four to six times faster than men with AIDS. However, the Centers of Disease Control still refuse to include the opportunistic infections specific to women in their list of AIDS-defining infections. This means that many women with HIV are misdiagnosed or even undiagnosed, and do not receive the treatment or services they need. It also makes it very difficult for women with HIV to get the immediate disability benefits they need once they become sick, and women have died while waiting for their benefits.
ACT UP/Network, the national network of direct action AIDS activist groups, has declared November 26-December 3, 1990 a "Week of Outrage." During the week, ACT UP groups across the country will hold demonstrations to draw attention to the issues of women and HIV infection. Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Austin, are among the cities demonstrating. For more information, contact your local ACT UP, or call Saundra Johnson at 312/829-6797. The Week of Outrage will culminate on Monday, December 3, with a large demonstration at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, to demand that the CDC expand their definition of AIDS to include the infections and symptoms common to HIV-infected women. For more information about the action in Atlanta, contact ACT UP/Atlanta at 404/286-6247.
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