Sangaramoorthy on HIV disparities
Erin Blakemore writing for The Washington Post reports on women diagnosed with HIV in 2016, of whom 61 percent were black. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV is one of the health disparities than tend to affect black women more than women of other races. During the past five years Faculty Associate Thurka Sangaramoorthy has conducted ethnographic and oral history interviews with 45 women telling their stories of stigma and survival. Dr. Sangaramoorthy notes that “HIV for African-American women has never been a single issue, separate from histories of addiction, trauma and poverty.” Even when mortality rates have been declining thanks to new medications, social and health concerns remain for black women that make it harder for them to manage the disease. “Many worry about how their health, disability, and eventual death will impact their roles as mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters and wives,” Sangaramoorthy remarked.