The Hindu : National : Women affected disproportionately by HIV/AIDS

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Saturday, Dec 01, 2007
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Women affected disproportionately by HIV/AIDS

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Women and girls in the developing world are disproportionately affected by HIV and AIDS because they face systemic and persistent discrimination, claims a new report from ActionAid and Voluntary Service Overseas. The report calls on donors and national governments to fund programmes that reduce the vulnerability of women and girls to AIDS as a matter of urgency.

‘Walking the talk: Putting women’s rights at the heart of the HIV and AIDS response’ argued that governments and international donors too often ignore the vital steps needed to turn the tide for women in the fight against HIV and AIDS. In India and other developing countries, the crisis was acute.

Nearly 40 per cent of those now contacting the HIV virus were women, including housewives. In rural India, less than half of women had heard of AIDS, let alone how to protect themselves from HIV infection.

Legal and economic inequalities and limited access to health and education services only deepen the crisis. Prevention methods frequently ignore the violence and lack of control many women experience around sex. Culturally, women face significant barriers in getting support if HIV positive, while the burden they bear as care-providers often leaves them in poverty.

Donors continue to fund prevention programmes that do not reflect the realities faced by women. Some disproportionately focus on abstinence and fidelity, which fails to recognise that some married women lack the power to make their husbands use condoms and reinforces stigma and discrimination for those living with HIV.

Too little money is spent on the development of female-centred prevention methods such as microbicides and female condoms. Research shows that 2.5 million HIV infections might be prevented if just 20 per cent of women in poorer countries could regularly use a microbicide.

Even though women were slightly more likely than men to receive AIDS drugs, they were less likely to continue taking them. Many sacrifice medicines to their partners whilst others fear stigma, violence and abandonment if drugs are found. Often, they also do not have access to the right diet needed to enable the drugs to work properly, particularly in poor rural areas.

Failing health systems mean women overwhelmingly shoulder the burden of providing care and support to people living with HIV and AIDS in their families and communities. Girls frequently drop out of school to care for sick parents, while women lose employment opportunities and carry the huge psychological and financial burden of caring for the sick and dying without training, recognition or financial support.

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