(BLACK PR WIRE) As World AIDS Day approaches on December 1, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that HIV/AIDS remains a serious health crisis among African American women and men. In response, state and local health departments are working with the CDC to increase access to HIV prevention, testing, and treatment programs in African American communities. Many local health departments are also increasing access to the female condom, a woman-initiated HIV prevention method that was first introduced 15 years ago.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognized the safety and effectiveness of the female condom as a dual method for HIV and pregnancy prevention in 1993, but its high cost relative to the male condom has limited access in the United States until recently.

HIV prevention programs from New York City to the Mississippi Delta have significantly increased their distribution of female condoms to provide women with access to the only safe and effective method of woman-initiated HIV prevention produced since the start of the AIDS epidemic.

Health advocates have also launched a global campaign - Prevention Now! - to demand increased access to the female condom in communities heavily impacted by HIV/AIDS. While public health programs around the world distribute 6 to 12 billion male condoms every year, just 26 million female condoms were distributed in 2007, roughly equal to one female condom for every 62 women between the ages of 15 and 49.

Unlike the male condom, the female condom can be inserted before sex starts. It also provides women with an alternative HIV prevention method if their husbands or partners refuse to use a male condom. Because women wear the female condom, men don't have to wear protection during sex, a factor that can help prevent "male condom fatigue."

Numerous scientific studies have shown that acceptability rates for the male and female condom are comparable, and research has shown that when people have access to both male and female condoms, the rate of unsafe sex and new sexually transmitted infections decreases.

Charles Myles, who directs Community Impact, Inc., a community-based organization in Yazoo City, MS, believes that the female condom enjoys strong demand among women in communities in the Mississippi Delta.

“The whole attitude toward female condoms is changing,” Myles said. “Initially, women did not know what to think about them. But over time, education and reinforcement have made a difference. In some communities, we now get more requests for female condoms than male condoms.”

New York City has also witnessed a significant increase in female condom usage since it expanded its efforts to distribute female condoms to public clinics in the city's five boroughs with the purchase of two million units. City health officials recently reported that female condom usage has risen 37 percent, and the city's commitment to broadening access to HIV testing, prevention methods, and treatment may account for a recent decline in the number of newly reported AIDS cases.

HIV/AIDS experts and advocates agree, however, that much more work must be done in addressing health disparities and expanding access to HIV prevention resources. While African Americans account for 12 percent of the U.S. population, they represent more than half of all HIV/AIDS cases, according to the CDC. African American women are also 33 times more likely than white women to be living with HIV/AIDS, and AIDS has become the leading cause of death among African American women aged 25-34.

“African American women must have increased access to HIV prevention methods that give them the power to make the choices and the decisions about their health,” said Eleanor Hinton Hoytt, president and CEO of the Black Women's Health Imperative, the only national organization dedicated solely to the health and wellness of Black women. “African American women want and need a better way to protect themselves. The female condom gives them that option.”