Black women in some cities, including D.C., are five times more likely to contract HIV than the average black woman in the United States. That’s according to a recently released study conducted in six cities and funded by the National Institutes for Health.
Researchers focused on six HIV “hotspots:” D.C., Baltimore, New York City, Newark, N.J., Atlanta and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. In these communities, 24 black women in every 10,000 is infected with HIV annually. Nationally, the annual HIV-infection rate is 5 in every 10,000 black women.
The new data, which shows higher infection rates than previously thought, came as a surprise to scientists working in the field, including AIDS experts at Johns Hopkins University who assisted with the study.