AIDS Among Women in North Carolina

Abstract

This paper focuses on the diffusion of AIDS among women in North Carolina. Heterosexual women are the fastest-growing category of people with AIDS in the United States. In 1990, women comprised less than 10% of United States AIDS cases. As of June 1999, however, women were more than 16% of all AIDS cases in the country and one-quarter of new cases.This paper investigates two primary hypotheses: (1) that over time, increases in the number of cases of AIDS have diffused from North
Carolina's urban centers to its rural areas; and, (2) following a nation-wide trend, HIV/ AIDS in North ????arolina has ma!°ly impacted African American women.Analysis of new cases of AIDS among women in Nort???? Carolina from 1987 to 1999 is performed via assessment of the mapped patterns. The cumulative totals through 1999 show that only seven of North Carolina's 100 counties had yet to report a case of AIDS among women. Although the dominant urban areas of North Carolina (including cltles su????h as Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham) have the highest AIDS totals, AIDS cases among North Carolina women have occurred also in the small, rural communities.