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Women's Lives: Preventing and Treating HIV/AIDS For more information or to contact a spokesperson, call Cecilia Snyder 202-326-8711 csnyder@ccmc.org June 21 — 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. The situation - At the end of 2000, more
than 36 million people were living with HIV/AIDS - 50 percent more than the
World Health Organization projected in 1991. Of the total, 16.4 million are
women and 1.5 million are children. More than 90 percent of all cases occur
in developing countries.1 - Fully two-thirds of all
HIV/AIDS cases (almost 26 million) are in sub-Saharan Africa, where women account
for 55 percent of adult cases. 5 - Eastern Europe and Central
Asia have suffered a rapid increase in reported cases, with infections in 2000
at 700,000, up from 420,000 in 1999.1 - More than 6 million people
live with HIV/AIDS in South, Southeast and East Asia, where experts are concerned
about the potential spread of the disease, particularly among the more than
2 billion people in China and India.1 - Women are disproportionately
impacted biologically, economically and socially by HIV/AIDS: - Young women are especially
vulnerable to HIV transmission for biological reasons, such as the fragility
of vaginal tissue. - Mother-to-child transmission
is the overwhelming source of infection for children under 10. Women with HIV/AIDS
may transmit HIV to their babies during pregnancy, delivery or breastfeeding.4
- Many women maintain high-risk
relationships for economic reasons. Women may suffer economic hardship when
wage-earning family members fall ill or die, and may be forced into high-risk
behavior such as prostitution.3 Social mores also make
women less able to control or negotiate where, when and how sexual relations
occur. - Women may bear a heavy
social burden in caring for family members infected with HIV. Women also play
a special role in caring for the more than 13 million AIDS orphans, who face
daunting challenges in terms of nutrition, abuse, exploitation and illness.
5 - Women were 40 percent
of HIV/AIDS-infected adults in 1995 and are 47 percent today.1 - The global response to HIV/AIDS has three elements: 1) prevent people from becoming infected, using education, provision of services and development of vaccines; 2) treat people with HIV/AIDS, providing therapies such as anti-retroviral drugs, and 3) offer more care--to prevent secondary infections in those with the disease, and to help orphans. Developments - Momentum is building for
a major new international trust fund to finance HIV/AIDS responses. Proposed
by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and endorsed by the World Bank, International
Monetary Fund and the G-7, the fund would support prevention, treatment and
care worldwide.6 - Thirty-nine pharmaceutical
companies dropped a lawsuit against South Africa that sought to prevent it from
producing generic drugs to make AIDS treatment cheaper and more accessible.7 - The International AIDS
Vaccine Initiative has raised more than $230 million to speed development of
a vaccine against AIDS, including millions leveraged by a major foundation's
challenge grant.8 - HIV/AIDS is increasingly recognized as a security issue, with the potential to destabilize countries and regions. The UN Security Council has held four sessions on it in the past year. UNAIDS and the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations have signed an agreement to help prevent the spread of the disease among peacekeepers and vulnerable populations during conflict.9 - Research continues on
women-controlled prevention methods. Of special promise are microbicides, a
virus- and bacteria-killing substance that can be applied in the vagina, enhancing
women's protection, particularly in situations where women have little say in
sexual relations and matters of contraception.10 - Experience shows that anti-retroviral drugs during pregnancy and delivery, combined with other strategies, can reduce the incidence of mother-to-child transmission by up to 66 percent.4 Examples - Since 1987, a Ugandan
public education campaign has encouraged young people to discuss HIV/AIDS, condom
use and sexual behavior. New infections dropped from 239,000 that year to 57,000
in 1997, and HIV prevalence among pregnant women dropped 40 percent.11 Where
14 percent of adults were infected in 1990, only 8 percent are now.12 - A 1992 program to inform
Calcutta sex workers in one district about safe sex, HIV/AIDS and their rights
to treatment reduced the rate of new infections, while rates rose in similar
districts without the program.11 - The Brazilian government cut AIDS deaths in half and has treated thousands with low-cost generic medicines it provided by analyzing expensive U.S. drug manufacturers' products and reproducing them.13 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 2001 Prepared by Family Care International
(NY) and the Communications Consortium Media Center (DC) for use among organizations
supporting the Programme of Action adopted by the 1994 International Conference
on Population and Development in Cairo.
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