* In 1997, women made up 22% of the total AIDS cases in the U.S.
* Heterosexual contact is the most risky type of exposure (38% of women became infected this way)
*29% of women having sex with men have been infected because their partner was a drug user
* Also, 32% of women obtain HIV through injection drug use
* Only a very few women who have sex with women get HIV exclusively from a lesbian encounter
* Women under the age of 30 make up 22% of the AIDS cases of the total for women.
* In racial proportions, black women make up 60% of the total cases among women, Hispanic women make up 20% and white women make up 19%.
* Women are at a higher risk than men are because male-to-female transmission is 8 times more likely than vice versa.
* The risk factor for women is so high because more men are infected than women in the US
* Women have an increased risk if they or their sexual partners abuse drugs that are injected and if a women has been physically or sexually abused
* Some common ways for women to protect themselves is through abstinence, condoms, dental dams
* Women must be assertive and self-reliant in order for their partners to comply with precautions such as condoms
* Some recent inventions are the female condom, which still has skeptics, and vaginal microbicides that prevents STDs but not pregnancy.
* However, these new products still need further development and more female-controlled prevention methods are needed in the future.