In the U.S., 25 percent of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses are women, and is 15 times more prevalent in African American women than in Caucasian women. Around the world, over half of all people currently living with HIV/AIDS are women, and HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death for women in their reproductive years. Among those ages 15-24, young women are twice as likely to contract HIV/AIDS as young men. Physiologically more vulnerable to contracting HIV/AIDS when exposed and sociologically more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS exposure, HIV/AIDS poses a grave risk to the health of women and girls around the world. Thankfully, new research and treatment paradigms are slowing the rate of maternal to child transmission and increasing the number of people on treatment, slowly stemming the tide of the disease.