What are health disparities?
Learn how HIV, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, and tuberculosis affect people in Asia.
Health disparities are differences in disease incidence, prevalence, mortality, and associated adverse health conditions that exist between specific population groups. These groups may be characterized by gender, age, race or ethnicity, education, income, social class, disability, geographic location, or sexual orientation. These health disparities are one reason why HIV, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, and tuberculosis affect some population groups more than others. Find information about how these diseases affect people in Asia.
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HIV
In 2018, Asians made up 6% of the U.S. population and 2% of new HIV diagnoses. Asian Americans have very low rates of HIV infection compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Of the 37,968 people newly diagnosed with HIV in the United States and its territories in 2018, 2% were Asian.
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sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
chlamydia
In 2018, the reported chlamydia infection rate among Asians was 132.1 per 100,000 population. The overall rate of chlamydia cases reported among Caucasians was 1.6 times the rate among Asians.
gonorrhea
In 2018, the number of gonorrhea cases reported in Asians (35.1 per 100,000 population) was 0.5 times higher than in Caucasians. This difference was larger for Asian women (0.3 times the rate for white women) than for Asian men (0.7 times the rate for white men). In 2018, gonorrhea prevalence among Asians was lower than that among whites in all four regions of the United States.
Primary and secondary syphilis
In 2018, the number of P&S syphilis cases reported in Asians was 0.8 times higher than in Caucasians (4.6 vs. 6.0 cases per 100,000 population, respectively). This disparity was larger for Asian women (0.3 times the rate for white women) than for Asian men (0.9 times the rate for white men). Similar disparities were found in all regions of the United States.
congenital syphilis
From 2014 to 2018, the rate of reported congenital syphilis among Asian/Pacific Islander populations increased by 31.4% (from 7.0 to 9.2 per 100,000 live births). In 2018, the incidence of congenital syphilis in Asian/Pacific Islanders was 0.7 times higher than in Caucasians (9.2 vs. 13.5 per 100,000 live births, respectively).
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viral hepatitis
In 2018, 1,649 death certificates for U.S. residents listed hepatitis B as the underlying cause or contributing cause of death. Asians/Pacific Islanders have historically had the highest hepatitis B-related mortality rates, and age-adjusted mortality rates for this group increased from 2015 to 2017. Of the 1,649 hepatitis B-related deaths in 2018, 760 (46.1%) were: Asian/Pacific Islanders have the highest mortality rate of any racial/ethnic group, at 2.1 deaths per 100,000 people.
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Tuberculosis (TB)
In 2018, 87% of all reported tuberculosis cases occurred in racial and ethnic minorities. Tuberculosis disease has been reported in 3,190 Asians in the United States, accounting for 35% of all reported cases of tuberculosis disease in the United States. The incidence of TB among Asians is 17 per 100,000 people, which is 31 times the incidence of TB among non-Hispanic whites (0.5 per 100,000 population). In 2018, Asians born outside the United States accounted for 48% of tuberculosis cases. Overall, 9,025 tuberculosis cases were reported to CDC in 2018 from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
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