Editing Misconceptions about HIV/AIDS (section)

====The distribution of AIDS cases casts doubt on HIV as the cause. Viruses are not gender-specific, yet only a small proportion of AIDS cases are among women====
The distribution of AIDS cases, whether in the United States or elsewhere in the world, invariably mirrors the prevalence of HIV in a population. In the United States, HIV first appeared in populations of [[injection-drug]] users (a majority of whom are male) and [[gay]] men. HIV is spread primarily through unprotected sex, the exchange of HIV-contaminated needles, or cross-contamination of the drug solution and infected blood during intravenous drug use. Because these behaviors show a gender skew—Western men are more likely to take illegal drugs intravenously than Western women, and men are more likely to report higher levels of the riskiest sexual behaviors, such as unprotected [[anal intercourse]]—it is not surprising that a majority of U.S. AIDS cases have occurred in men.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/population/international/ |title=U.S. Census Bureau }}</ref>

Women in the United States, however, are increasingly becoming HIV-infected, usually through the exchange of HIV-contaminated needles or sex with an HIV-infected male. The [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|CDC]] estimates that 30 percent of new HIV infections in the United States in 1998 were in women. As the number of HIV-infected women has risen, so too has the number of female AIDS patients in the United States. Approximately 23% of U.S. adult/adolescent AIDS cases reported to the CDC in 1998 were among women. In 1998, AIDS was the fifth leading cause of death among women aged 25 to 44 in the United States, and the third leading cause of death among African-American women in that age group.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/aidsstat.htm |title=AIDS/HIV Statics }}</ref>

In Africa, HIV was first recognized in sexually active [[heterosexual]]s, and AIDS cases in Africa have occurred at least as frequently in women as in men. Overall, the worldwide distribution of HIV infection and AIDS between men and women is approximately 1 to 1.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/population/international/ |title=U.S. Bureau Census }}</ref> In [[sub-Saharan Africa]], 57% of adults with HIV are women, and young women aged 15 to 24 are more than three times as likely to be infected as young men.<ref name="UNAIDS, 2005">{{Cite web |url=http://www.unfpa.org/upload/lib_pub_file/308_filename_women_aids1.pdf |title=UNAIDS, 2005 |access-date=2005-08-24 |archive-date=2013-12-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202144406/http://www.unfpa.org/upload/lib_pub_file/308_filename_women_aids1.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>