Poor most likely to get HIV; Blacks and gays likely to be poor

Since the HIV epidemic began in 1983, many have been eager to label the HIV/AIDS epidemic by who's most affected, but the fact remains that HIV is a universal problem that has devastating effects on all communities. What's of particular concern are the social-economic factors that make some communities more vulnerable to HIV infection than others.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) released a poverty study at the 18th International AIDS Conference titled "Communities in Crisis: Is There a Generalized HIV Epidemic in Impoverished Urban Areas of the United States" that examines the impact of poverty on HIV infection rates. What they found is that in poorer communities, incident rates among Whites and Hispanics is just as high as blacks in the same community. Infection rates among females and males also matched.

This is the first time in the U.S. that HIV is being looked at through the lens of poverty. According to the numbers, poorer people are more likely to be infected with HIV. Previous studies say blacks are more likely to be poor. And, according to the 2009 LGBT Poverty Report by The Williams Institute at UCLA, poverty rates for LGB adults are as high or higher than rates for heterosexual adults. The think tank found that 24 percent of lesbians and bisexual women are poor compared to 15 percent of gay men, strikingly high numbers given the gay wealth misconception.