by Rena Meyer
She wakes. The sun will not rise for at least two hours, yet she knows that it is
going to be one of those days. She stretches and gets out of bed. It is quiet,
but her children will be up soon. She stops, leans against the doorway and
peeks into their bedroom. It has always been one of her favorite things to do.
Her son looks so much like his father, who has been gone almost a year now.
He was so sick at the end, so small; the memory still makes her heart ache.
Mostly she just misses him.
She wipes the tear that is rolling down her cheek and takes one more look at
her children. She breathes them in hoping that when it is her time she will
remember them. Eventually, she turns away. There is no time for dwelling –
there are things to do.
For almost 40 years we’ve heard the statistics and listened to the personal triumphs and the inevitable, sorrowful outcome of men living with and dying from HIV/AIDS. Countless hours and billions of dollars have been spent on prevention, care and treatment. But most of these efforts – including clinical trials for treatment – have been focused on men as early in the pandemic, men vastly outnumbered women among reported HIVAIDS cases.
Unfortunately, that trend is changing. According to UNAIDS - the joint United Nations Program for HIV/AIDS - women account for nearly half of the 40 million people living with HIV worldwide. Although infection rates have fallen sharply in recent years according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), more than 7,000 American women received an HIV diagnosis in 2015. In the same year, there were 2.3 million HIV positive young women (ages 15 to 24) worldwide living with HIV, which is about 60 percent of the total population of young people living with the disease. Among adults, there are about 5,300 new HIV infections a day, of which 47 percent are among women UNAIDS says.
As with men, HIV disproportionately affects African-American women and Latinas, who collectively make up less than 25 percent the female U.S. population, yet account for more than 77 percent of American women with the disease according to the CDCP statistics.
The Local Picture
According to the December 2015 New York State Department of Health Surveillance and Epidemiological reports, there were 321 reported cases of women living with HIV and 441 living with AIDS in the Mid-Hudson region (which includes Orange, Ulster, Sullivan and Ulster Counties).
And Just like on the national level, local communities of color are disproportionately affected as large percentages of individuals living in with HIV/AIDS in the Mid-Hudson identified themselves as African-American/Black (33.3 percent) or Hispanic/Latino (33.3 percent) although the groups only make up 7.4 and 8.6 percent of the regional population respectively.
Despite the overwhelming statistics, women must not be regarded simply as victims. In many communities, women and men are beginning to take action. Initiatives are being implemented to increase knowledge and expand access to sexual and reproductive health and educational services as well as to female-controlled prevention methods, like female condoms. But even with these efforts and no cure on the horizon, the impact of HIV/AIDS on women could echo for generations.
She leans back on the couch and puts her feet on the coffee table. It was a
day filled with doctors’ appointments, work, meetings, dinner and homework.
Sometimes the list seems endless, yet, she loves the mundane routine as it
sometimes makes her forget the reality of living with AIDS.
She snuggles into bed and gazes at his picture, wishing that she had gone
first. He always said that she was stronger, but it doesn't feel like that. Who
will take care of her children? Will she lose her friends, her family, her dignity?
She closes her eyes.
There is no time for dwelling – there are things to do.
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