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AIDS In Rural Heterosexual America

© Neal Rolfe Chamberlain

About 16,000 people in the world are infected by the AIDS virus each year. More than 3,800 people are infected in Africa alone. This disease has killed thousands and thousands of people all over the world. It manifests itself in different ways depending on what part of the world you live in.

If you live in Africa the most common means of spread of this disease is by heterosexual contact. In the United States and Europe the most common means of acquiring AIDS is by homosexual contact. AIDS is also more commonly found in large urban areas. Therefore, heterosexually active people from rural areas in the U.S. and Europe do not believe they could possibly get AIDS. This makes people careless.

A recent report in the Centers for Disease Control's Morbidity Mortality Weekly Report describes their investigation of a cluster of young men and women in rural Mississippi that were infected with the AIDS virus (HIV virus). Seven young people were infected with HIV and had a sexually active network of 122 young men and women. Results from the investigation indicated that of 78 people tested for HIV, five young women (median age, 16 years) and two men (median age, 25 years) were infected. All 7 are believed to have acquired HIV through heterosexual sex. Interviews with the seven infected persons and 22 uninfected sexual partners reveal a network of young people at high risk for HIV. Over half (52%) had a history of STDs and almost all (97%) reported multiple sexual partners. The young people infected were more likely to have initiated sex at a younger age than their uninfected counterparts, and the young women infected reported having had sexual partners much older than themselves (at least 10 years).

This investigation demonstrates that the HIV virus is not just restricted to urban dwelling male homosexuals. This disease can infect and kill anyone. Certain heterosexual behaviors place urban and rural peoples at higher risk for acquiring AIDS. Can you answer YES to any of the following?

1. Have you had multiple (more than 1) sexual partners?
2. Have you had a sexually transmitted disease?
3. Did you start having sex at an early age (less than 18 years of age)?
4. Are your sexual partners a lot older than you?
5. Do you trade drugs/money for sex?
6. Do you share needles when using intravenous drugs?
7. Do you rarely if ever use a condom during sexual relations?

If you can answer yes to any one of these questions then you are also at higher risk of getting AIDS no matter whether you live. AIDS is spreading and if you are not careful you could also become

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