AIDS - Women Die Sooner than Men :: Science Health Diseases Essays

AIDS - Women Die Sooner than Men Given the varying types of gender-specific opportunistic diseases associated with AIDS such as cervical cancer, there is reason to believe that the biological progression of HIV/AIDS is different in women and men. Still, there is no conclusive evidence in support of the hypothesis that the progression of HIV/AIDS is more accelerated in women than it is in men. Regardless, the fact that women infected with HIV/AIDS become sicker faster and die sooner than men can be entirely attributable to social factors that do not depend on the scientific details of the HIV virus. Two social factors primarily responsible for the rapid demise of HIV-positive women in the United States are the mis- and under-representation of women in the national AIDS discourse and the disproportionate number of woman living in poverty. From the moment AIDS first appeared in the United States as "Gay-Related Immuno Deficiency", women (among others) were left out the national AIDS dialogue. Even though the first case of HIV/AIDS infection in an African-American woman was reported in 1982 (Goldstein 114), the general public believed for the most part of the 1980s that women would remain unaffected by the epidemic. Since then, women have been slowly incorporated into the national AIDS debate, albeit in a very limited and qualified manner. In her essay, "Seeing AIDS: Race, Gender, and Representation," Evelynn Hammonds recognizes an array of contemporary AIDS narratives depicting different female stereotypes, but contends that the majority of African-American women are not identifying with these narratives. In a study on commercial street sex workers, Kim Blankenship shows how such non-identification with an at-risk population can lead to a false sense of security while engaging in risky behaviors and can ultimately lead to a late diagnosis of HIV/AIDS. This is particularly problematic for African-Americans, who will account for 64% of new infections among women in the year 2002 according to the Center for Disease Control but do not "see" themselves as being affected by the epidemic. Consequently, African-Americans women will be diagnosed later in the progression of HIV/AIDS than men, the vast majority of whom identify themselves either with the at-risk population of men who have sex with men or with that of intravenous drug users (IDU). These women will therefore become sicker faster and die sooner. Another mis-representation of women in the AIDS epidemic that contributes to the speedy progression of HIV/AIDS in females is the characterization of women as "vectors" of transmission.