In Baltimore, and five other cities in the U.S., African American women are becoming infected with HIV much more than any other race. In these locations the infection rate is five times higher than the rest of the country. The rates are so high they’re being compared to those of third world countries that are currently fighting HIV epidemics. The Baltimore Sun reports:

African-American women in Baltimore and five other U.S. cities are becoming infected with HIV at a rate five times the national average for black women, and closer to the rates of some African countries, according to a new study.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University and around the country who made the findings suspected the rates were higher in these “hot spots” that have battled the epidemic for decades, but the numbers still came as a surprise in a field that tends to focus more on black and gay men.

“This is why it’s important to remind people that this is going on right here in our hometown,” said Dr. Charles Flexner, the principal investigator for the Baltimore part of the study and a clinical pharmacologist and infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins.

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