Women and HIV/AIDS - A WOW! e-Brief

 

WOMEN AND HIV/AIDS: AN OVERVIEW

Of the over 36 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, a staggering 95 percent are living in developing nations. Of all the regions in the world, sub-Saharan Africa suffers the most from the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Africa is home to only one-tenth of the world’s population but accounts for over 90 percent of new cases of HIV infection. No other area in the world comes close to the prevalence of this disease and the disparate impact on women—77 percent of all HIV-positive women in the world live in sub-Saharan Africa. In this same geographical region, young women aged 15-24 are now three times more likely to be infected than men of the same age range.

HIV/AIDS also devastates other regions in the world. In the next decade Asia, where 7.4 million people are now living with the disease, faces a potential AIDS crisis. In Asia, the primary mode of transmission of the virus is through intravenous drug use and sex workers, but the disease is now spreading within the more general population, mainly through unprotected heterosexual intercourse. In India alone, around 4 million people are infected with the disease, and Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand are currently experiencing serious epidemics, as determined by UNAIDS. In Latin America, nearly 2 million people between the ages of 15 and 49 were living with HIV/AIDS in 2003, with 49 percent of infected adults being women.

In the Caribbean, young women are 2.5 times more likely to be infected than young men. In North America, women’s infection rate jumped 5 percent between 2001 and 2003, the largest increase in any region in the world. In this area, the disease has increased most among African American and Hispanic women, who accounted for over 80 percent of all the cases among women in 2000.

Donate Now!

The high incidence of HIV/AIDS among women, especially in developing countries, has provoked a great deal of research looking for explanations. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, has, with his co-authors, stated that “recent evidence clearly indicates that AIDS is a disease of inequality.” In other words, research indicates that knowledge about prevention and behavior, treatment access, education, violence—both domestic and sexual—biological factors, sexual health and women’s rights are all linked to the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS among women in developing regions.

Many women in developing areas—both rural and urban—do not know how HIV/AIDS is transmitted or that consistent and proper condom use can drastically reduce the chance of becoming infected, according to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). In unprotected heterosexual intercourse, a female is about twice as likely to contract HIV from an infected partner as a male is because of certain biological characteristics. In a survey conducted by UNIFEM, only about 50 percent of women in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, both of which are locations in which World Neighbors operates, know about HIV transmission and safe-sex practices.

In rural villages and communities, much information about HIV/AIDS exists in the form of myths and legends. For example, in Cambodia and Vietnam, 30 percent of women surveyed believed HIV was contracted by supernatural means and 35 percent thought a healthy-looking person was immune to the disease. In addition to a lack of general, reliable knowledge about HIV/AIDS and its transmission, many of these regions lack testing and treatment facilities that are crucial in controlling the epidemic.

Out of the world’s 36 million people living with HIV/AIDS, only 1 million receive treatment, and those people mainly live in wealthy nations. In sub-Saharan Africa, only about 3 percent of infected people received anti-retroviral treatment in 2003. In the countries most heavily hit by the disease, only 1 percent of pregnant women had access to testing and treatment, while HIV infection rates among pregnant women in these countries hover between 10 and 30 percent. The risk of mother-to-child infection can be reduced significantly through such efforts as including the use of anti-retrovirals during pregnancy (and during a newborn’s first six weeks), Cesarean delivery and avoidance of breast feeding.

In addition to their biological vulnerability and lack of treatment resources, women are made more susceptible to HIV/AIDS contraction by gender inequality in their communities, such as lack of education for girls, violence against women and a general lack of women’s rights. Recent research has demonstrated that if all children received a complete primary education, about 700,000 cases of new infections could be prevented each year. Studies in Africa and Latin America show that better-educated girls tend to delay becoming sexually active and are more likely to insist their partners use condoms when they do begin having sex. Unfortunately, in many developing regions, education for girls is not a top priority. Approximately 85 percent of all girls who are not in school live in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, all of which are regions hard-hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Education helps women become better informed about the ways in which they can prevent contracting the disease.

Donate Now!

A recent study in South Africa found that women who are victims of abuse and violence, especially by their partners, are about twice as likely to contract the disease as those who are not. In some developing nations, 70 percent of women’s first sexual encounters are forced. In national surveys of young people in South Africa, 33 percent of young women reported being afraid to say no to sex and 55 percent have sex when they do not want to because the partner insists. Women’s lack of power to negotiate safer sex and their inability to refuse unwanted sex has been closely linked to the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among women. Unwanted sex, which can range from merely saying no to being forcibly raped, often results in abrasions and bleeding which make HIV transmission more likely.

A 2001 study in Tanzania reported that HIV-positive women are more than 2.5 times more likely to have experienced violence from their current partner than women who are HIV-negative. Tragically, the deliberate infection of women with HIV has also become a systematic tool of war in many conflict areas, such as what occurred in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Female genital mutilation, a practice in many parts of Africa and the Middle East, places girls at higher risk for infection through many routes, such as by the use of unsterilized razors and knives. Female genital mutilation also leaves the genitals more apt to tear during intercourse, which makes transmission of the disease more likely.

Societal treatment of women and girls and their general lack of basic human rights in many parts of the world also contribute to the increasing infection rates of women. Child marriage puts girls at a high risk for contracting HIV. Globally, approximately 82 million girls will be married before their 18th birthday. Many of these girls are pulled out of school at an early age and may be unfamiliar with basic reproductive health issues, including STD (sexually transmitted disease) and HIV/AIDS prevention. Child brides often experience isolation and powerlessness within their marriage, often having limited autonomy, which reduces their ability to negotiate safe-sex practices within their own marriage. Many parents view early marriage as a way to safe-guard their daughters but studies have shown it to have an opposite effect. In Kenya and Zambia, research demonstrates that teenage brides contract HIV at a faster rate than their sexually active, single peers. In addition to child marriage, the cultural tradition of wife inheritance in some rural communities further increases a women’s chance of becoming infected with HIV. In this practice, when a woman becomes widowed she is transferred to her husband’s brother or other male relative. Sexual intercourse is often forced and unsafe, and the possibility that either the wife or the new husband already has HIV increases the risk of transmission.

The key to reducing HIV infection rates among women is to focus on correcting all the factors that contribute to its prevalence. World Neighbors works to address not only safe-sex education practices and education and treatment access but also the social problems that contribute to a culture in which women are three times more likely to contract the disease than men.

                                                                                                                                                                       Read More . . .

Photo credits for this page (from top to bottom):

1. Photo by WN Staff-East Africa

2. Photo by Cat McKaig/World Neighbors

3. Photo of orphans in East Africa

Donate Now!

World Neighbors and HIV/AIDS Prevention, Care and Support

Learn More and Get Involved

A WOW! e-Brief

Work of Women @ World Neighbors

November 2007

back