When first diagnosed in the United States, the disease mainly struck gay men, intravenous drug abusers, and those who had received tainted blood or blood products. Today, its targets have changed. AIDS thrives in poverty and among those who are disenfranchised. Increasingly, it is becoming a disease affecting women and children: worldwide, in 2000, 2.2 million of the 4.7 million new HIV infections were in women.1
In the United States, "it continues to disproportionately [strike] communities of color," says Helene Gayle, the outgoing director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention. "Almost 70 percent of new HIV infections are among African Americans and Latinos." Moreover, the prevalence of AIDS in gay men in the United States is no longer declining, after years of decreasing. "It's not enough to tell people that this is AIDS and how you get it," says Karungari ...
