National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
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March 10, 2006
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March 10, 2006, is the first annual National Women and
Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Sponsored by the Office of Women’s Health, this
is a day to raise awareness among women and girls about HIV/AIDS, to stress the
importance of knowing your HIV status, and to promote healthy behaviors
that reduce the risk of HIV infection.
Although the number of people diagnosed with AIDS in the U.S. each year has
decreased by 50% over the past two decades, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) reports that the yearly incidence of AIDS in women has
increased at a menacing rate. (See Table 1
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The HIV/AIDS epidemic has grown into a formidable health
threat to women in the U.S., particularly young women and women of color.
According to the CDC’s
2004 Surveillance Report of Cases of HIV Infection and AIDS in the
United States, there were 42,514 new AIDS cases reported in 2004. Of those new
AIDS cases, 11,442 (27%) were in women. In 2004, of all estimated cases of AIDS
in U.S. women, an estimated 82 percent of these new cases were in
African-American (67%) and Hispanic (15%) women. (See
Table 2 ).
The following links are resources related to National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS
Awareness Day, including information on HIV/AIDS in women and girls, HIV
prevention, clinical trials and more. We hope you find this page helpful in
your efforts to educate, motivate, and mobilize your community in the fight
against HIV/AIDS.
Table 1: This graph shows the incidence of AIDS
among women for the years 1988, 1994 and 2004. The number of women diagnosed
with AIDS compared to the total (men and women) has been steadily increasing
over the past two decades.
Source:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Surveillance Report
.
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Table 2: This graph shows the incidence of AIDS
among women by ethnicity. Black and Hispanic women account for the greatest
number of AIDS cases; the prevalence of Black and Hispanic women diagnosed with
AIDS has been consistently increasing over the past two decades.
Source:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Surveillance Report
.
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