Cultural Influences on HIV/AIDS Prevention: Louisiana African-American Women: Sybil G. Schroeder

We have now experienced twenty years of HIV/AIDS infections in the United States. The total number of AIDS cases has increased each year from 1986 through 1995 and is now at pandemic levels. Although the number of cases among ethnic minorities began to decrease in 1994 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2000b), dramatic increases among African Americans have recently been reported in the number of cases of new HIV infections and cases of AIDS (CDC, 2000a,e).