A new study has shown that amongst the heterosexual population, poverty rather than race is the most important factor in determining infection rates of HIV.
Released today, the data suggests that HIV is becoming an epidemic in certain particularly poor neighbourhoods. More importantly, heterosexuals with low incomes were more likely to contract the infection that homosexuals with money living in the same area.
It has long been suspected that poverty plays a crucial factor in increasing rates of HIV infection in the West and in the developing world, where clearly poverty has hampered access to education services, protection and medication. However this is the first time that scientists have examined the relationship between poverty and HIV in the west.
The team involved used a survey taken in 2006 and 2007 of 9,000 heterosexual adults, who did not use intravenous drugs. They discovered that 2.4% of those living below the poverty line were carrying the infection, compared with 1.2% of people from the same neighbourhoods who made more money than the federal poverty guideline.
However, both groups had higher infection rates than the national average, attributed to the fact that they were living amongst higher numbers of people carrying the infection. Lead scientists Dr Jonothan Mermin, of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said that this was sheer ‘bad luck’, as in those particular communities new partners were more likely to be infected.