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New statistics released by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services more clearly describe the disproportionate impact the AIDS epidemic is having on African Americans in the state. The statistics show black men were 14 times more likely than white men to contract HIV in 2010, and black women were 36 times more likely than white women to be diagnosed with the disease.

This year’s version of annual statistics released by the department’s AIDS/HIV Program incorporated new national data allowing analysts to differentiate between HIV patients who moved to Wisconsin from another state (where they were diagnosed) and those who were diagnosed in this state. According to Casey Schumann, an epidemiologist for the program, patients who move to the state are predominately white, and sorting them out of the statistics provides a clearer picture of how many infections are originating in Wisconsin.

(illustration by Adrian Palomo)

The resulting statistics show even more clearly the disproportionate impact on African Americans in the state. “Now, what’s happening looks even starker,” she says.

There were 265 new HIV cases diagnosed in Wisconsin last year, down from 300 in 2009. Despite the overall decline, the number of African Americans diagnosed rose from 119 in 2009 to 125 in 2010. The vast majority of the new African American cases were reported in Southeastern Wisconsin, where the increase was sharpest among young men who have sex with men (MSMs), so called because some don’t identify themselves as homosexual.

The increase prompted an investigation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control last year. The investigation found that in Milwaukee County, the number of HIV diagnoses among men ages 15 to 29 increased almost 150 percent between 2000 and 2008.

Nationally, cases are on the rise among African American MSMs, who now account for about 25 percent of new HIV diagnoses every year. “You’ve got a very small percentage of people who are very disproportionately contracting HIV,” says Jeff Kelly, director of the Center for AIDS Intervention Research at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Theories on why African American men are getting HIV at such an elevated rate are varied. Kelly says studies have ruled out previous assumptions: that there is less information on AIDS prevention available to black MSMs or that they engage in riskier behaviors. “A lot of studies have shown there aren’t a lot of differences in risky behavior,” he says.

Kelly and other researchers says homophobia in the black community and less access to health care are factors in the rise in the cases. They say African American men are less likely to get tested for HIV and then less likely to have conversations with partners about such testing. “Everything becomes much more hidden,” Kelly says.

Another factor, according to Kelly, is that black MSMs tend to have sexual partners from a smaller network of people than non-minority MSMs. This appears to be worsening the rates at which they’re contracting the illness, he says, because the network from which they select partners already has such a high rate of infection.

All told, the result is that the racial disparities in HIV cases are becoming “even more pronounced,” he says.

Bill Keeton, spokesman for the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin, says the organization, which provides AIDS health services, tells people who come in for testing to encourage friends or partners to get tested as well. “That’s an extremely effective way of identifying new patients,” he says.

The disproportionate impact on the black community in Wisconsin extends beyond MSMs. Although women accounted for a minority (20 percent) of the new HIV cases in 2010, African American were 36 times more likely than white women to be diagnosed with the disease.

Some have speculated that increased HIV rates among heterosexual black women are due to contact with bisexual men, but Schumann says the reasons aren’t fully explained yet. “We don’t know for sure. Possibly some of these men who are in relationships with women are having sex with men on the side.”

The state also reports that more patients are being diagnosed in the earlier stages of HIV, before the virus leads to the AIDS syndrome. “We’re catching people earlier,” she says.

Keeton says the Aids Resource Center is aggressively testing at-risk populations and expanding its public information campaigns to social media.

Even though the media have changed (from TV commercials to Facebook), the message has stayed the same. “The message has always been protect yourself, use a condom, know your partner,” he says.

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