I know 3% doesn’t sound that high for a rate of anything, but this is cause for concern. Let’s look at it as a number, 3% of DC is 15,120 people in DC. That’s up 22% since 2006. Yikes. The report says all modes of transmission, homosexual and heterosexual sex and injection drug use, are on the rise. The jump in the AIDS rate has affected all races and both genders. This is some scary stuff.
Please get tested, even if you don’t live in DC. And as always, if you’re going to have sex, use a condom. If you’re going to have oral sex, use a dental dam. Just be safe ladies.
peace,
e.
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Indeed, the numbers are actually greater in DC since those numbers were based off of those tested.
Ladies, be especially concerned. Transmission is much easier from Male to Female than it is from Female to Male. The population that is gaining the virus most rapidly is Black women. And even if you think you’re in a committed relationship, beware. Lots of men on the down low are infecting their partners. You can never be too sure.
I recommend you insisting that you get tested with your partner every six months and please use protection.
I support this message, but REALLY REALLY want to know how many women have ever used a dental dam when receiving/giving oral sex. Sassy talks a lot of good stuff, but the site is nearly amiss of sex talk and it’s something that many of us are doing. And in my experience, women of color tend to be too ignorant or prudish when it comes to matters of sex. Sex is a natural urge, just as natural as eating and breathing, so let’s deal with it.
Why is it that behavior that is so common sensical and relatively easy to follow so often ignored?
@ K.I.M. Black women don’t know about/don’t use dental dams? How is it that they don’t know, with all of the information available via the Internet, Planned Parenthood, local clinics, one’s ob/gyn?
Being ignorant and prudish can not only get a woman pregnant, but she can also get sick and die.