March 10th is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is observed annually to highlight the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls. In 2013, one out of five new HIV infection diagnoses were among women and girls over the age of 13. HIV/AIDS remains a significant health issue for women and girls, who comprised 23% of  the people living with HIV in the United States in 2011.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), African American and Latina women continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV. The rate of HIV infection among African American women remains the highest among all women – 19 times that of white women, and 4 times that of Latina women. There have been encouraging trends about HIV among women: The rate of HIV diagnoses among adult and adolescent women decreased from 8.3 per 100,000 in 2009 to 6.9 per 100,000 in 2013, due in part to a 21% reduction in the number of HIV infections among African American women from 2008 through 2010.

Here are resources, including many freely available fact sheets, that you can use to learn about HIV/AIDS and its impact on women and girls.

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IN THE AIDS LIBRARY

Here are some titles we have in the Library (for more titles, search our catalog here)

BOOKS

• A Place Called Self: Women, Sobriety, and Radical Transformation, Stephanie Brown, Yvonne Pearson
• A Woman’s Guide to Living with HIV Infection, Rebecca Clark; Jill Hayes Hammer; Robert Maupin
• Baking Cakes in Kigali, Gaile Parkin
• Does Your House Have Lions?, Sonia Sanchez
• Health First!: The Black Woman’s Wellness Guide, Hilary Beard; Eleanor Hinton Hoyt
• Hey, Shorty!: A Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment and Violence in Public Schools and on the Streets, Girls for Gender Equality, Joanne Smith; Mandy Van Deven; Megan Huppuch
• Our Bodies, Ourselves: a New Edition for a New Era, Boston Women’s Health Book Collective
• Positive/Negative: Women of Color and HIV/AIDS: a Collection of Plays, Imani Harrington; Chyrell Bellamy
• Push, Sapphire
• Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More, Janet Mock
• Sistahfaith : Real Stories of Pain, Truth, and Triumph, Marilynn Griffith
• Surviving HIV/AIDS in the Inner City: How Resourceful Latinas Beat the Odds,
• The Black Women’s Health Book: Speaking for Ourselves, Evelyn White
• The Kid, Sapphire
• The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful, and HIV Positive, Marvelyn Brown; Courtney Martin
• The Secret: Love, Marriage, and HIV, Jennifer Hirsch
• Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, Julia Serrano
• Women’s Experiences with HIV/AIDS: Mending Fractured Selves, Desiree Ciamborne
• Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power & a World Without Rape, Jaclyn Friedman; Jessica Valenti

DVDs

• 3 Needles
• Born in Flames
• For Colored Girls
• Gia
• Girl Positive
• Holiday Heart
• Life Support
• Rent
• Yesterday

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THE BASICS

For a brief introduction to this issue, see the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Women and HIV/AIDS in the United States

For a longer introduction, see:

• MedlinePlus’ HIV/AIDS in Women 
• The Body’s HIV/AIDS Resource Center for Women
• Nam Aidsmap’s HIV & Women
• The Office of Women’s Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Women and Girl HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

For statistical introductions, see:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s webpage on HIV among Women – for basic factsheets, podcasts, and other resources
• New Mexico AIDS Education and Training Center’s Women and HIV

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SPECIFIC ISSUES

For considerations of HIV/AIDS and pregnancy/reproductive justice, see:

• HIV/AIDS and Pregnancy, a comprehensive resource including factsheets, videos, and links to additional resources by Medline Plus
• HIV and Gynecological Care, factsheets with information including HIV and menstrual cramps, yeast infections, cervical cancer, cervical dysplasia, pelvic inflammatory disease, and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)
• HIV and Pregnancy, a report by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
• Pregnancy and Childbirth, by AIDS.gov
• Pregnancy and HIV, by New Mexico AIDS Education and Training Center
• Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV after Birth, a factsheet by AIDSinfo
• Reproductive Justice and HIV, a factsheet by the Positive Women’s Network-USA
• Unspoken: Sexuality, Romance, and Reproductive Freedom for Women Living with HIV in the United States, a report by Positive Women’s Network-USA

For considerations of HIV/AIDS among African American Women, see:

• Black* Women and HIV/AIDS: Findings from Southeast Regional Consumer and Provider Focus Group Interviews, an issue brief by the National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors
• Ryan White Providers Address HIV/AIDS among African American Women, a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration
• Women and HIV/AIDS, review this page by Avert featuring information about HIV/AIDS among African American women
• Transgender People and HIV/AIDS, review this page by Avert featuring information about HIV/AIDS among African American transgender women

For additional resources, contact the AIDS Library of Philadelphia FIGHT.