Number of Women Living with HIV on Rise


By Nancy-Amelia Collins
A new United Nations report says women
living with HIV and AIDS have
increased in each region of the world over the past two years.


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Nov 24, 2004 (AXcess News) Bangkok - A new United Nations report
says women living with HIV and AIDS have
increased in each region of the world over the past two years. The
report warns that many countries must act now to prevent
disaster.


The report says women living with HIV have increased
globally with the sharpest rise in East Asia, followed by Eastern
Europe and Central Asia.
Now nearly half of all those infected with the virus that causes
AIDS are women, up from 41 percent in 1998. In Sub-Saharan Africa,
nearly 60 percent of infected adults are women.
Early in the AIDS epidemic, far more men than women were
infected with HIV.


In cities around the world on Tuesday the United Nations Program
on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization released a report
detailing the spread of the disease. The report says women are more
susceptible to HIV infection than men, with male-to-female
transmission during sex about two times as likely to occur as
female-to-male transmission.
Doctor Swarup Sarkar, from the UNAIDS Southeast Asia and Pacific
Intercountry Team says women in many developing countries are
particularly vulnerable to HIV infection through sexual violence,
the sex industry and unfaithful partners.Advertisement
"Some of the current strategies we practice which is not
necessarily effective for women because many women do not have
control; being faithful for a married woman may not solve their
problem of prevention of HIV if they get it from their husbands,
and condom use is often not controlled by women," said Dr.


Sarkar.
According to the report, an estimated 39 million people are
infected with HIV, up from 37 million in 2002.Although the report
says there have been modest declines in HIV infection rates in East
Africa, the epidemic is far from being reversed there.
There is cause for hope.

The report says that many countries
could prevent massive epidemics if they immediately begin to
educate the public, encourage condom use and help protect sex
workers. It encouraged
governments in such countries as
the Philippines and Bangladesh to adopt the aggressive methods
used in Thailand, which cut its infection rate by more 85
percent in the 1990's.
Southern Africa continues to be the worse hit region, with as
many as 25 percent of adults infected.The Caribbean is the second
worst affected region in the world; AIDS is the leading cause of
death there among adults aged between 15 and 44.


The report says that in the past two years, HIV infections rose
50 percent in East Asia, largely because of growing epidemics in
China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Central Asia also is seeing a rise
in cases.In North America and Europe, the report says an increasing
number of people are becoming infected through unprotected
heterosexual sex. Eastern Europe in particular faces a surge of
cases among young adults.

Source: Voice of America
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