Planned Parenthood is trying to help combat the staggering rise of HIV cases among minority women in Brooklyn.
The most recent numbers from the city's Department of Health show that in 2012, more than 90 percent of women infected with new cases of HIV were black or Latino. Cherone Whitehead, who has been HIV-positive since 1998, helped craft Planned Parenthood's "Your Body Needs You" campaign, which encourages women to not be afraid to know their status.
Marcella Tillett, of the New York City HIV Prevention Planning Group, says the campaign is about speaking to women "who are often ignored, or demonized or talked down to when it comes to health services." Tillett says one thing her organization sees when it comes to HIV among Brooklyn women is that there is a high rate who are diagnosed with AIDS at the same time they are diagnosed with HIV, meaning they are taking too long to get screened.
Planned Parenthood has set up mobile units in Brooklyn so that women can get screened right in their neighborhoods.