HIV Infection Rates in High-Poverty U.S. Cities

Study looks at HIV and poverty, By Ron Winslow and Betsy McKay, July 18, 2010, Wall Street Journal: “The prevalence of HIV infection among heterosexuals in U.S. inner cities constitutes a generalized epidemic, a new U.S. study says. The report, based on interviews of more than 9,000 people not considered at high risk of HIV/AIDS who live in high-poverty areas of 23 U.S. cities, found that 2.1% of that population was infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That figure is more than double the 1% considered the threshold for a generalized epidemic as defined by the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS. And it’s about 20 times as high as the prevalence of the virus among heterosexuals in the general U.S. population. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which ran the study, says the findings reveal the strongest evidence yet of a link between poverty and HIV infection. People in low-income communities lack access to medical care and spread the disease more readily because they are unaware that they are infected and therefore not being treated, the researchers said…”