Hat tip – NewsOne and The Root

CDC’s shocking report last month that nearly half of all black women were infected with Herpes turns out to have a few problems. It appears that the data group utilized in the survey was limited to one economic strata, with a high incidence of drug use. Ergo, what the study did was to select 890 poor black women from an urban environment instead of selecting a representative sample across economic lines.

The second issue is that the study only looked at exposure to the virus, which doesn’t necessarily mean that the women in the study would develop the disease. As such, there wasn’t a count of women who actually had developed Herpes.

Behind the Herpes Numbers

The March reports of sky-high levels of the genital herpes virus among black women set off a firestorm of disbelief and recrimination. The numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gave many black women an all-too-familiar feeling: shock, concern and an overwhelming sense of fatigue in the face of yet another study bringing bad news and fear.

African-American men and women often seem to be under siege when it comes to the ongoing flood of research trumpeting our higher rates of nearly everything, including sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). No doubt, disparities exist, but in this case, it’s reasonable to take a step back from the anger and take a closer look at what the statistics are really telling us.

The new research should not be seen as an indictment of the sexual behavior of African Americans. The numbers–though startling (48 percent of African-American women have been exposed to the virus that causes genital herpes)–are not so much about sex, as they are about circumstances, and, possibly, the way information is gathered for medical research…

The current herpes statistics were based on a group of 893 African-American women, but the 48 percent number has been misinterpreted in most reports. “These women were only tested for antibodies to the HSV-2 virus,” explains Dr. David Malebranche, an assistant professor at Emory whose research focuses on STDs in African Americans. “This means that they have been exposed to the herpes virus, but it does not mean that these women have actually developed the disease or have active herpes. In fact, they may never develop active herpes.”…

The 2010 report is also not a harbinger of a growing epidemic. “The herpes numbers for black women have remained relatively the same over several years at 46 percent to 51 percent,” Douglas said. In the 1988-94 NHANES sample, the prevalence of herpes among black women was 51.3 percent, in the 2004 survey the number was 46.1 percent. That places the current rate–48 percent–right in the middle. “NHANES is less than perfect, but without a doubt the best that we have,” Douglas adds, a point that is shared by the majority of STD researchers…

Douglas and other experts say the numbers have very little to do with high-risk sexual behavior. “STDs are shared among people in sexual networks,” explains Dr. Irene Doherty, who is part of a team of researchers at the University of North Carolina who explore how STDs spread. “The theory of sexual networks is simple: It’s not what you do; it’s what your partners do and what your partner’s partners do. Our data shows that black women do not have more sex or more high-risk sex than other women. It’s fairly well-established that they select partners from a small pool that has a high rate of STDs.”…

Several African-American scholars, and other scientists, express concern about how research–even the highest quality research–is conducted when it comes to African Americans. In short, where are the millions of middle-class African Americans who are not living in poverty, using drugs or incarcerated in these numbers?

Dr. Velma Murry, a sociologist at Vanderbilt who studies the black middle class, found, for instance, that “adolescent, middle-class, African-American girls delayed having sex two years beyond the national average,” a contradiction of other national reports. “When we look at research, middle-class African Americans are almost excluded,” Murry said. “Most research looks at middle-class whites and low-income African Americans. Then the two are compared and a disparity is reported. But there are far more differences within racial groups than between racial groups, so it’s very important to know who is in a study and how they were identified.”…

“There is a problem right now with CDC,” says Malebranche, who has had CDC funding, but does not intend to repeat the experience. “A lot of their statistics are myopic and flawed. I don’t think it’s a concerted effort to ignore the black middle class, but you don’t often see research on poor, white populations with high rates of STDs. I’m not in denial that disparities in STDs exist, but researchers often look for the easiest population to track and find,” which often means studying poor, urban areas.

“We can’t make any conclusive remarks about African Americans because middle-class African Americans are still an invisible population in most research,” Murry adds, noting that this not only leads to inaccurate reports about African-American life, “but we miss the positive practices of black families–the practices that work for us, that lead to better physical and psychological health.”