Organization:
Contact: David Harwood
Abstract: Since it was first noted 20 years ago in a 1981 informational bulletin issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV/AIDS has progressed from being a seemingly remote concern for gay men in the United States and emerged as a global pandemic of crisis proportions.
Projections from only a decade ago missed the diseases trajectory by 50%. Today, the death toll is approaching 25 million and the disease has become for many countries much more than a public health issue – extending to hopes for economic development, social progress and political stability. And tragically, the ravages of HIV/AIDS are most acute in many of the poorest nations on Earth, most especially in sub-Saharan Africa. 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. The implications of the feminization of the HIV/AIDS crisis are profound. In poor countries, women’s quiet, often unpaid work is crucial to meeting basic family needs – for food, shelter, fuel wood and water. There are also complex issues associated with women’s roles as caregivers to those infected with the virus, and to children orphaned by the disease. Responding to the global HIV/AIDS crisis is crucial to saving women’s lives.