WOMEN AND HIV IN NEW YORK CITY

By Barbara Gause

Nyema Clarke, 34, contracted HIV approximately 7 years ago. Looking back, she says she would’ve done things differently. She wasn’t aware of the disease until it was too late. “I never knew that there was counseling to help prevent me from catching the disease,” says Ms. Clarke, who lives uptown. “I just thought that I should get tested and that I might be infected, and I didn’t find out until the disease had become AIDS. ”

Though HIV used to be thought of as mainly a disease of gay men, it is now fast becoming a problem for women, especially women of color like Ms. Clarke. According to the Women’s HIV Collaborative of New York, in New York City 30,000 women are HIV positive, the largest number in the country. Most—90 percent—are black or Hispanic and nearly half contracted the virus through heterosexual activity.

  Experts worry that many, many others, both women and men may have the disease but not know it. Being tested helps prevent the spread. HIV testing is free and it is confidential at facilities like Heritage Health Care located on 145th and Amsterdam Avenue in Harlem. “Typically we get less than ten people a day that come in for free testing,” says Ena Gonzalez, an HIV testing counselor at Heritage. “Out of that ten, usually one person is infected with HIV.”

Why don’t more people in the Harlem as well as other areas in New York find out their HIV status? There aren’t enough testing sites, and of the ones that exist many people are unaware of their location. People like Ms. Gonzalez try to spread the word free testing and counseling services, but they need help getting the message out there. “We sometimes pass out fliers to let people know that we offer free testing for women but that’s just not enough,” she says. “If more people knew about us, we are confident that we would service many more New Yorkers. We are just not reaching enough people.”

In addition to the lack of services, even those that are available are sometimes inconvenient to get to. Between work and taking care of children, many women in the Harlem community put their health aside. They make children and work their priority rather than themselves. 

Most women who are newly diagnosed with HIV contracted the disease from having unprotected sex with a man. “I wasn’t using protection,” says Yolanda Williams. A single mom, in her forties, living in Harlem who contracted HIV at age 33. “I knew that I should but I didn’t. I thought everything would be ok.”

The best way for women—and everyone—to avoid getting HIV is to take care of themselves and to care about themselves. For more information, visit the New York City Department of Health website: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/ah/ah.shtml