Saving Women's Lives

Preventing and Treating HIV/AIDS

REPORTERS: Click here to contact an expert/spokesperson using ACallTo technology HIV/AIDS FACTS: Number of HIV/AIDS infections: 60 million Number of people living with HIV/AIDS: 37 million Number of HIV/AIDS deaths: 23 million Number of HIV/AIDS orphans: 13 million Number of HIV/AIDS infections in the year 2000: 5 million Click here for more basic HIV/AIDS stats Related Links Latest Media Coverage on HIV/AIDS from May-June 2001 PLANetWIRE's Health database

June 12 - The explosive growth and changing nature of the HIV/AIDS epidemic are cause for the June 25-27 United Nations Special Session on HIV/AIDS in New York. Among the many changes in the direction of the epidemic, is its increasing impact on the lives of women. Where women once accounted for only a fraction of infections, almost 50% of all persons living with HIV/AIDS are women.

Accordingly, there is increasingly attention to the special gender dimensions of the HIV/AIDS crisis – which include everything from women’s low social status in many nations to the importance of basic education and continued research on women-controlled methods of guarding against sexually transmitted infections like HIV.

The global pandemic of AIDS is now taking women’s lives at an unprecedented rate. In developing countries, the virus that causes AIDS is spread chiefly through heterosexual contact. Women are especially vulnerable where they are powerless to negotiate the terms of sexual relations. HIV also passes from women to their infants through pregnancy, delivery or breast-feeding.

HIV-positive women may face discrimination, ostracism and violence, and may have less access to medical care than men. But free or low-cost services to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS can be an integral part of all primary health care programs, while education and counseling can promote open discussion, responsible sexual behavior, and equal treatment for men and women.

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