BLACK WOMEN AND STDS
Many African-American women who live in rural areas do not perceive themselves as being at great risk for contracting HIV,new study results suggest. Consequently, these women may engage in more sexually risky behaviors than their urban and suburban counterparts, researchers report.
"Much more work with low-income rural women of color needs to be conducted regarding HIV prevention needs and how best to respond to those needs," lead study author Dr. Richard A. Crosby of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, told Reuters Health. "This is an important population of women who can clearly benefit from increased HIV prevention efforts."
Crosby and his team surveyed 571 low-income African-American Missouri residents. About one quarter of the respondents lived in rural counties, while the majority lived in urban or suburban areas.
Rural women were twice as likely as urban or suburban women to say that they did not have a preferred way to prevent HIV or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), because they "don't worry about HIV or STD," the investigators report in the April issue of the American Journal of Public Health, journal of the American Public Health.
The women who lived in rural areas were also two times more likely to report never using condoms or not using condoms because they believed that their partner did not have HIV--regardless of whether or not their partner had actually been tested for the virus. And these women were twice as likely to report that their past or current partner had not been tested for HIV.
"Because this belief (that their partner did not have HIV) was based on something other than the partner's HIV test, the finding suggests that rural women may be more likely than non-rural women to 'take their partners' word' that they are HIV negative," the authors write.
Rural study participants were about half as likely as their non-rural counterparts to report that they had ever been diagnosed with syphilis or gonorrhea. They were also about twice as likely to report not having received counseling about HIV during their last pregnancy, the report indicates.
Overall, however, the reason for the discrepancy in HIV beliefs and prevention practices between urban and rural women may be because "HIV is less salient, as a threat, among rural women," Crosby speculated.
In Deborah E. McDowell’s essay Black Female Sexuality in Passing she writes about the sexual repression of women seen in Nella Larsen‘s writings during the Harlem Renaissance, where black women had difficulty expressing their sexuality. In her essay, she writes about topics affecting the sexuality of women such as, religion, marriage, and male dominated societies. In Toni Morrison’s short story, “Recitatif” there are examples of women who struggle to express their sexuality. The people in society judge women based off their appearance, and society holds back women from expressing themselves due to society wanting them to dress/act a certain way.
As of today, there are many programs and efforts being made that have either already decreased the gap or are attempting to bring change to the problem of increased deaths of African American women from breast cancer. One example is a study that was done in Massachusetts that gave low-income African American women aged 50-70 resources and education for six years, and it was “concluded that the Massachusetts program appeared to mitigate the disadvantages of living in high-poverty neighborhoods” for the incidence of breast cancer in that specific area (Cunningham 595). This study shows that these women need help that has not been previously provided to them in order to reduce the disparity. In this regard, the role of affordable health care needs to be available in order to decrease this problem. The same study showed that “among women without health insurance, disproportionately large numbers are [older African Americans], providing an explanation for high rates of advanced stage cancers at presentation among [African American] women in general” (Cunningham 594). If women are to be able to access affordable screenings, affordable health care must also be provided. Once again, this brings in the role of government in the lives of African American women. Federally qualified health centers offer preventative health care and screenings for a reduced or free cost to women of low socio-economic status, many of which happened to be African American women at a particular clinic, and it was found that the incidence of breast cancer in that community was reduced from the rates that were established previously (Adams 640). Therefore, if low-income women are to be able to access quality health care, then there must be more federally qualified ...
In an excerpt from Janell Hobson’s “Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture” Hobson argues that the “image of black women’s bodies in culture are distorted in a way resembling the morphing of a person’s figure in a carnival mirror,” a term she coins as “un-mirroring.” She continues this metaphor by saying black women artists must “fight against this process by challenging dominant culture’s representation of black women’s bodies as being grotesque and changing the discourse to being one of beauty.” One may argue that black women are too diverse to be represented by one image, rather that they should fight to be regarded as individuals devoid of stereotypes and negative historical connotations. Stereotypes, which are too broad to be accurate, have negatively affected the image of the black female body in culture. To change the trajectory of this idea in the future, the discussion must be aimed towards persuading society that stereotypes are superficial judgments, and that black women should be regarded as a diverse group of individuals, not individual elements of a stereotype.
...ished the danger factors of scamming through dating in the romance department as well as the security and privacy section.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). AIDS weakens the immune system hampering the body’s defense mechanisms. AIDS is known to be a deadly disease, especially if it is not treated in a timely manner. AIDS and HIV is an epidemic that is increasing among the African American population with roots tracing back to Africa, AIDS and HIV needs greater exposure and more awareness within the African American community and in the homosexual community.
The main reason why this article was written was because there was a lack of attention on risk behaviours regarding women’s HIV prevention in the US. Since women have not been paid attention to, they are more susceptible then men in contracting HIV/AIDS. We need to design a risk reduction program that pays more attention to women.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (2012). Refocusing national attention on the hiv crisis in the united states. Retrieved from website: http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/docs/2012/AAAFactSheet-0712-508c.pdf
the Community (7th ed.). St. Louis: Mosby Vyavaharkar, M., Moneyham, L., Corwin, S., Tavakoli, A., Saunders, R., & Annang, L. (2011). HIV-Disclosure, Social Support, and Depression Among HIV-Infected African American Women Living in the Rural Southeastern United States. AIDS Education & Prevention, 23(1), 78-90. doi:10.1521/aeap.2011.23.1.78.
During the 1980s, efforts increased to alert the public to the dangers of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and unintended pregnancy, yet these problems have increased. Adolescents and young adults have been especially hard hit. Pregnancy and birth rates among teenagers are at their highest levels in two decades.
Disclosure of HIV status has various benefits. This is particularly clear in a study “The paradox of public HIV disclosure” (Paxton, 2002), which recognises the benefits of disclosing HIV status, not only prior to sex, but publicl...
It is my duty to conduct outreach in populations that are hard to reach like in rural and urban communities. In the rural communities, individuals have little to no access to computers and social interactions as well as limited public transportation; which limits their ability to receive resources that are beneficial for their lives. Meanwhile, in urban communities, individuals have access to computers and social interactions and access to public transportation, but lack the finances to obtain these valuable resources. Both communities experience these barriers interchangeably none of which is excluded. It is also my duty, to assist and enroll individuals in public health services such as: The Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicaid, and
Kippax, S., Stephenson, N., Parker, R. G., & Aggleton, P. (2013, August). Between individual agency and structure in HIV prevention understanding the middle ground of social practice [Journal]. American Journal of Public Health, 103 (8), 1367-1375. http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301301
This paper discusses various arguments by the proponents and opponents of mandatory HIV testing in two scenarios.
From the moment scientists identified HIV and AIDS, social responses of fear, denial, stigma and discrimination have accompanied the epidemic. Discrimination has spread rapidly, fuelling anxiety and prejudice against the groups most affected, as well as those living with HIV or AIDS. It goes without saying that HIV and AIDS are as much about social phenomena as they are about biological and medical concerns. Across the world the global epidemic of HIV/AIDS has shown itself capable of triggering responses of compassion, solidarity and support, bringing out the best in people, their families and communities. But the disease is also associated with stigma, repression and discrimination, as individuals affected (or believed to be affected) by HIV have been rejected by their families, their loved ones and their communities. This rejection holds as true in the rich countries of the north as it does in the poorer countries of the south.
Barrington M. Salmon. “ African Women in a Changing World.” Washington Informer 13 March 2014: Page 16-17