The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is an infection that typically shows up on one pap smear and is gone by the next without any threat to a woman’s health, but researchers are finding that the infection tends to last longer in college-aged black women and this lingering could lead to a higher risk of cervical cancer.

“African American women are more likely to have persistent high-risk HPV infection,” said study author Kim Creek, vice-chair and professor of pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences at South Carolina College of Pharmacy, in Charleston.

“If you are infected [with HPV], your body recognizes it as a viral infection and usually clears the virus within one or two years,” he said. “It is those women who have difficulty clearing it that are at higher risk of cervical disease and cervical cancer.”

The researchers assessed HPV infection and persistence in college-age women enrolled at the University of South Carolina beginning in 2004, and followed the women throughout their college years. HPV status was evaluated every six months in Pap test samples from 326 white women and 113 black women.

The rate of new high-risk HPV infection was similar between the two groups of women, but at any visit, black women were 1.5 times more likely to test positive for high-risk HPV infection. About 56 percent of black women were also still infected with the virus two years after they were first diagnosed, compared with 24 percent of white women.

Creek is unsure why black women have difficulty clearing the virus from their bodies but he said, “We think that it likely has something to do with the immune system.” He added that black women are 40 percent more likely to develop cervical cancer and two times more likely to die from the disease than European or American white women. This study suggest that the difference may not just be a result of lack of access to medical care but that there may be a biological basis behind the varying rates. Considering how much is at stake for black women who become infected with HPV, Creek said the HPV vaccine may be even more beneficial in this population.

While this study certainly warrants further investigation, Dr. Diana Contreras, director of gynecologic oncology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, said it’s too soon to determine how to to effectively handle HPV in black women:

“We are beginning to understand that HPV may behave differently in different ethnic groups,” she said. “This study is very provocative, but the jury is still out on screening and treatment, and we have to be careful about drawing too many conclusions.”

Until researchers come up with a more definitive approach, it seems skipping an annual pap smear may not be as applicable to black women. If anything, we might need to be even more diligent about gynecologic testing.

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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All of you who cry foul whenever a new study points out the “alarming” rates of STDs among minorities may be on to something. A new study by researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute has found that young minority women are screened for chlamydia at a significantly higher rate than young white women, and this discrepancy may contribute to nationwide reporting of higher rates of this sexually transmitted disease among black and Hispanic women.

In the study, which is published in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics, researchers looked at the screening rates for 40,000 young women ages 14 to 25 and found black women were 2.7 times more likely to be screened for chlamydia than white women. For Hispanic young women that rate was 9.7 times higher. Race wasn’t the only thing that led to higher testing rates, though, women with public insurance also had greater odds of chlamydia testing, compared with women with private insurance.

“For some common conditions like breast cancer, white women are more likely to receive a screening test like mammography. For chlamydia infections – which are highly stigmatized STDs – white women are less likely, while minority women are more likely, to receive screening,” said the study’s first author Sarah E. Wiehe, MD, MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine and a Regenstrief Institute affiliated scientist. “This may mean that providers make judgments about a woman’s likelihood of infection based on her race or ethnicity. Yet in an asymptomatic condition like chlamydia, all sexually active young women should be screened.”

It’s definitely true that you always find what you’re looking for, and if doctors are sticklers for testing minority women it’s no wonder they find STDs at the rates that they do. While they’re spending time profiling minority women, they may want to pay a little more attention to what’s going on in white people’s backyards as well. These results obviously don’t take away from the fact that we still have an issue with STDs in our community, but healthcare advocates may need to slow down on making chlamydia and other sexually transmitted diseases “black issues” and start screening white women at equal rates.

Are you regularly asked to be tested for chlamydia and other STDs?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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With diabetes affecting one in four African American women over the age of 55, now is the perfect time to make sure you won’t be one of them when you get there. While race, age and family history can greatly influence your chances of developing the condition, there are certain lifestyle choices and behaviors that can reduce the risk. So if you have relatives who are living with disease or if you are in jeopardy of developing diabetes, check these tips out and you’ll be well on your way to controlling your sugar.

(LATimes.com) — Reporting from Washington – The Obama administration will announce Friday a new screening system for flights to the United States under which passengers who fit an intelligence profile of potential terrorists will be searched before boarding their planes, a senior administration official said.

The procedures, which have been approved by President Obama, are aimed at preventing another attack like the one attempted by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian suspected of ties to Al Qaeda who allegedly tried to blow up an airliner Christmas Day with a bomb hidden in his underwear, the official said.

After that attempt, the administration began mandatory screening of airline passengers from 14 high-risk countries, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria.

Under the new system, passengers on flights from all countries could be subject to special screening before boarding if they have personal characteristics that match the latest intelligence information about potential attackers, the senior official said.

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