Women are seven times more likely than men to acquire the HIV virus, a Margaret Sloss Women’s Center official said at a Tuesday afternoon discussion on Latinas and AIDS.

The discussion was part of the center’s Tuesday Topics program.

Vikki Carnine-Irwin and Maria Lopez, educational coordinators of the Women’s Center, focused the discussion on how HIV and AIDS are currently affecting Hispanic women.

The majority of people who are HIV positive or have AIDS are women, Carnine-Irwin said.

“It’s a real problem,” she said, “especially for people who have been marginalized by their culture.”

“Marginalized” people generally includes intravenous drug users, gay men and women of color. But some experts say nearly all women have been marginalized or ignored by their cultures when it comes to AIDS.

“I perceive in most of the literature that I read as women being marginalized,” Carnine-Irwin added.

She said this marginalization creates problems for women when they try to get adequate health care. It also, she said, lowers their self-esteem.

When AIDS was first brought to the forefront of society, it was mainly a disease of gay men, but now in the second decade of this epidemic, AIDS has become focused on women and children, Carnine-Irwin said.

Lopez said: “Latinas, Hispanic women, are the fastest growing group in HIV and AIDS infection.”

She said that’s because many Latinas are brought up in environments that do not allow them to ask questions, especially about sexuality.

“It is really hard for Latina women to open the discussion,” Lopez said.

One discussion attendee said it is embarrassing to ask questions on topics such as sex, adding that Latinas are not supposed to be asking questions.

Lopez said religion is also partly to blame for the high number of Latinas who are HIV positive or have AIDS. She said some religions don’t condone the use of birth control and that many women will not seek information about AIDS.

Carnine-Irwin said women are blamed for getting and transmitting the disease, and that there is an inevitable negative stigma attached to women who are HIV positive. She said that stigma has prevented culturally sensitive programs from being developed.

“It’s like all these people are expendable and it’s OK to call women ‘vectors of disease’ because we’re expendable,” she said.

Even though it has been difficult for certain groups, such as Latinas, to get information on HIV and AIDS, officials agree that it’s important to get the facts.

Carmine-Irwin stresses that AIDS is not something to take lightly.

“It only takes one time. It’s hard for people to comprehend … if you get it you die,” she said.

The Women’s Center is a safe place where questions and concerns on subjects such as HIV and AIDS can be addressed, Lopez said.

“It’s a safe place to talk to someone and sort things out,” she said.

The center also provides free condoms and houses a lot of printed information on AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.