Saturday, May 7, 2011

Are Women Getting Aids More Than Men In The U.S.?


Are women more apt to get aids than men? The fact is, Aids is still out there and very real to some of your friends. I will answer the question for you momentarily. First I want to share something with you that I think is relevant when discussing Aids. Not long ago my mother purchased a property and turned it into a half way house for the financially displaced. She had people from various walks of life staying there in any given month paying room and board at a price they could afford while saving money to pull themselves up in life. Some were runaways, veterans and some had fallen because of drug use.

The property was near my mother's own residence and for this reason, my brother or I would visit with her and our younger brother at least every other day in support of her efforts. During these visits, I became privy to certain events among the boarders. I learned of dates resulting in unprotected sex. One day I discovered something appalling, a startling reality. Almost all of these individuals were aware of the dangers of Aids, but behaved as though STD's did not exist. I concluded that at least a part of the reason was because these individuals put ecstasy at a hirer priority than caution or the safety of others. The worst of it is they didn't care about themselves or anyone else! They used sex as an escape from the anger, misery and unhappiness they felt about life.

It was not a lack of education about sexually transmitted diseases, not like you might find in a third world country or a remote area of the world where women are getting Aids faster than men, where women's rights are non existent or abused without recourse. Women have sex forced upon them and have no law to protect them in those places and they get Aids as a result. No, for your information, these men and women just didn't care about their safety or that of their partners. Let me illustrate with a true to life example using one of the men I met there. I will change his name for obvious reasons. We will call him Carlos. Carlos was a tall hansome guy, well spoken and about thirty years of age. A guy with a promising life before I met him. Carlos had been an Air Force veteran and star basketball player who was good with the ladies. However, that all changed for him when he found that he had contracted Aids while playing ball in Europe. He then, left the team and came back to the states to start his life over again. It was then that he became a resident of my mothers. He never mentioned having Aids.

We found out when another resident told my brother that he was visiting Carlos and saw a pill bottle that Carlos had left sitting out. He said the label identified Carlos and clearly stated " treatment for HIV". This is where the plot thickens! Carlos had previously disclosed to me that he was sleeping with a young lady who I had seen visiting with him. I asked if he was using protection, and he told me "I don't use condoms because they cut back on that good feeling, that real pleasure." I became concerned because I knew he had a way with women, I had seen him with several. I mentioned this to my mother who wasted no time in asking him if he was HIV positive, and he said yes he was and apologized for not telling her sooner. He said he was leaving anyway and going back to Chicago, and shortly afterwards moved out. We never saw him again. I heard from my brother about four years later that he saw Carlos getting off a trolley with a young woman in tow not far from that same part of town. My brother said he wanted to go talk to her but couldn't bring himself to say anything.

So what's the point of my sharing this with you? There are people out there who are selfish, cruel or don't care about your well being. You must think about yourself and trust no one! HIV infections are growing faster in women than men in the US.  In the beginning, the numbers were about even between men and women who contract Aids, but since then recent polls show that the number of women infected is growing. Because women out number men some would assume that is the reason polls show their numbers exceeding that of men who are infected. Polls going back as far as 2009 are showing that women in the US are getting Aids at a hirer rate than men. The reason may surprise you.

It has been concluded that the increase in numbers of women getting Aids in recent years is because men deliver a higher concentration of the virus into the woman's vagina due to the volume of semen being more than that of a woman's vaginal fluids. This results in her getting the virus sooner than he does. It could also mean that fewer men are infecting more women due to people relaxing their precautions. It does not say uninfected men should use this as a reason to relax their use of condoms. Protection is for both partners until such time as a medical exam has been performed showing the results are negative in both people. Only then should unprotected sex take place. Please see links below for more information about Women living with Aids:

Why women are more likely to contract Aids than men
American women with Aids
One American state stats


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