New Gilead Initiative Aims to Empower Organizations Tackling the HIV Epidemic forBlack Women in the United States
By EDWINA EYRE | In the rapidly evolving public health landscape, one stark reality has remained constant: Black cisgender and Transgender women bear a disproportionate burden of the HIV epidemic.
Black women, who constitute only 14% of the female population in the United States, accounted for a staggering 53% of new HIV diagnoses among women aged 13 and older in just 2021 alone.
Additionally, Black Transgender women have the highest rates of new HIV diagnoses among Transgender people and are more likely to go undiagnosed and untreated in comparison to their peers.
Although medicines like PrEP and PEP can help mitigate these disparities, structural and social factors like stigma, discrimination and economic inequality coupled with significant gaps in the delivery of culturally-competent HIV prevention information and care continue to exacerbate poor health outcomes for Black women and girls impacted by HIV. “Since the start of the epidemic 40 years ago, Black women have borne the brunt of annual HIV diagnoses and premature deaths, largely due to the social determinants of health that impact us long before we even get a diagnosis,” said Vanessa Johnson, Co-Executive Director at Ribbon – Center of Excellence, a nonprofit providing support for individuals in need of services for HIV and chronic diseases. “Black women are the caretakers of our communities, but structural and social barriers like poverty, violence and trauma continue to fuel disparities within HIV outcomes, which disproportionately impact us more than any other population group.” Last year Gilead Sciences launched the Setting the P.A.C.E. (Prevention, Arts and Advocacy, Community, Education) Initiative to help address these critical issues.
