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AIDS rates fall in Milwaukee area

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Also by Kate Thibault:

Legislators pitch fix for sports TV (November 30, 2007)
Wisconsin could split 10 electoral votes in future (November 7, 2007)
AIDS rates fall in Milwaukee area (November 1, 2007)
Compassionate Care bill supporters to hold rally (October 17, 2007)
Board rooms in state lack women (October 10, 2007)

by Kate Thibault

Thursday, November 1, 2007

The rate of AIDS in Milwaukee decreased 15 percent from 1990 to 2000, according to a report released by the Wisconsin Medical Society last week.

Though general rates of AIDS dropped, the survey also found a dramatic increase in gender and ethnic disparity in rates of infection, specifically with black women showing the highest rate increase of any of the groups surveyed.

There are many different possibilities that could explain the disparity surveyed, University of Wisconsin sociology professor John DeLamater said.

“This reflects a continuation of long-term shifts seen over the last decade,” DeLamater said. “Rates are slowly falling among the percentages of cases with men-to-men transmission. Percentages of rates (of cases of HIV) between men and women have been increasing.”

Some causes for the increase in HIV transmission rates in the black population may be more drug use and needle-sharing in the black population, DeLamater said. The survey was written in order to raise awareness of the disparity of the health issues, said Utah State University sociology professor Eric Reither, who co-authored the report.

“It’s not just a racial and ethnic problem,” Reither said. “There are also educational disparities.”

Prevention has mostly focused in the last decade, or at least until the year 2000, on cases of male-to-male transmission, DeLamater said, and added there should be a greater support for prevention programs to the heterosexual and black communities.

Other prevention methods available include clean needle-sharing among drug users.

“In Seattle, there is a safe needle exchange [that] has had a big impact on transmission,” DeLamater said. “The federal government has not allowed [such a program], at least not allowed it to be paid with public money. Safe needles in Seattle have been a tremendous success.”

According to Reither, access of information to infected patients is just as important as education about prevention. Access is vital in order to delay the progression of the disease so people with HIV can live as long and as healthy as they are able, he said.

“Access to medicine is not always as good as it can be,” Reither added.

Though this survey found there was a large disparity among white and blacks, the research’s main goal was to raise awareness about the issue of AIDS in Milwaukee, Reither said.

“This survey was not intended to be a study between blacks and whites,” Reither said. “It was just the data that forced our hands.”

As a result of this survey, there are hopes that more people will be aware of the disparities concerning education and treatment of people with AIDS between different ethnicities and races, Reither said.

“The goal was to raise awareness, and eventually some political action may be taken,” Reither said.

Correction: Due to a reporting error, this article should have said the incidence of AIDS has decreased, gender disparities in incidence rates have dropped and AIDS incidence rate among men is still much higher than in women in Milwaukee. We regret the errors.

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