HIV/AIDS Now Leading Cause Of Death For Black Women Read more: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/health/28037669/detail.html#ixzz1OATkHIM9

ROXBURY, Mass. -- According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, women now account for more than 1 in 4 of all new HIV/AIDS cases in the state.

Of them, more than half are African-American women, and black women are 38 times more likely to contract the disease than white women.

"It's certainly an epidemic," said Dr. Bela Bashar, clinical director of HIV services at The Dimock Center in Roxbury, Mass. "It is one of the leading causes of death in African-American women."

"I was in a steady relationship. We were using protection, and one day, in a heated discussion, you know, he yells out, 'That's why I'm HIV positive!'" said Chevelle, who wanted her last name withheld.

That bombshell shocked her system, and led to her own diagnosis.

"How long to do I have?" she had asked at the time. "Who's going to look after my kids? What are people going to think?"

Her diagnosis challenged what she thought she knew about the disease.

"It's not about drug use. It's not about risky behaviors," Chevelle said. "You can be, you know, thinking that you're doing everything safe, but you never know what the other partner is doing."

Her story is all to familiar to Bashar.

"Really a lot of women, African-American women, don't really know what their partners are doing or their partners are keeping certain aspects of their life shielded from their female partners," said Bashar.

So much so that it's now the No. 1 cause of infection among black women. According to the Health Department, 60 percent are unknowingly infected by their partners, boyfriends and husbands who either didn't know or didn't come clean about their HIV status.

"If a person who doesn't know they're infected, who is completely asymptomatic, which a lot of people are in the early stages of disease, they may go about with their regular behaviors," said Bashar. "They're putting tremendous amount of risk to the general public."

According to the Health Department, the leading cause of infection among white women is injection drug use.

To help increase HIV/AIDS awareness, The Dimock Center offers medical care, education, and rapid, confidential HIV testing, free of charge, to the community they serve.