IRVINE : Women and HIV Conference Opens
About 400 participants are expected at the fourth annual Women and HIV Conference at UC Irvine today.
Researchers say that U.S. women represent the fastest-growing population of people infected with the AIDS virus. In Orange County, women represent 8% of all reported AIDS cases.
“We know that women die quicker than men do,” said Amy Buch, a health educator with the Aids Service Foundation of Orange County. “It’s a question of whether the disease progresses more quickly or whether women have less access to health care than men.”
Among speakers for the conference are television news anchor and AIDS activist Kelly Lange, AIDS activist Dr. Lisa Herschhorn of Dimock Community Health Center in Massachusetts, and Rebecca Dennison, executive director of WORLD, or Women Organized in Response to Life-threatening Diseases.
The conference is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the UCI Student Center Crystal Cove Auditorium.
Within five years, the number of new AIDS cases among women will equal those of men, said Pearl Jemison-Smith, chairwoman of the Orange County HIV Planning Council and AIDS Services Foundation board member.
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