Recorded presentation

Adaora Adimora, Division of Infectious Diseases, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 547 Burnett-Womack, CB #7030, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7030, (919) 966-2536, adimora@med.unc.edu and Victor J. Schoenbach, PhD, Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2104D McGavran-Greenberg Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7435.

Background: Heterosexual HIV transmission among African Americans in the rural southern United States has climbed in recent years. Concurrent partnerships and bridge populations have emerged as key elements in the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Goal: Examine published empiric data and other literature concerning the extent of these network patterns and their relationship to the socioeconomic context among African Americans in the rural South. Study Design: Review of public health, medical, and social sciences literature. Results: In areas of the rural South with high STI rates there is extensive concurrency, with evidence of dense sexual networks and bridging between the general population, core group members, and high-risk subpopulations. Qualitative research reveals socioeconomic factors that support these network patterns: low ratio of men to women, economic oppression, racial discrimination, and disproportionate incarceration of black men. Conclusion: Concurrency and bridging likely contribute to increased heterosexual HIV transmission among blacks in the South; contextual factors help sustain these network patterns in this population.

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