BANGKOK (AlertNet) - Efforts to prevent the spread of HIV in Asia-Pacific must be urgently adapted to target a greater number of women as they are getting infected at a faster rate and pass on the virus that causes AIDS to their children, a U.N. gender expert said.
Women accounted for 35 percent of new infections in Asia-Pacific in 2007, up from 18 percent in 1990, according to U.N. agency UNAIDS.
"Given the volume of the population in the region, a 1 percent increase in prevalence means many, many people," UNAIDS' Asia-Pacific gender adviser Jane Wilson told AlertNet in an interview.
"If China and India's national responses don't include effective engendered AIDS response, then millions of women will be needlessly infected."
The main drivers behind the spread of HIV among women in the region are unprotected sex and infection by their long-term male partners, particularly if the men are drug users who use contaminated needles, have sex with men or buy sex. Women in abusive relationships are many times more likely to get the virus from their partners, the United Nations has found.
Moreover, cultural restrictions on women's freedom of movement and their lesser standing in society in Asia-Pacific mean that they do not get tested as regularly as men and many can't afford health services at all. And HIV/AIDS is still seen as a predominantly male problem.
"Between 32 to 40 percent of women are tested (for HIV) only because their husbands become sick," Wilson said. "And 75 percent don't have enough money to access (health) services."
An estimated 1.6 million women were living with HIV in Asia-Pacific in 2009. Moreover, more than 50 million are at risk of catching the virus from their high-risk partners but are largely ignored in HIV prevention programmes because they are married or in long-term relationships, according to the Independent Commission on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. For example, the commission estimated in 2008 that up to two-thirds of male injecting drug users in the region were married or had regular female partners.
"The need (for gender-specific services) is so evident we can't ignore it anymore," Wilson said. "This is not to say we take away money from the programmes for most-at-risk populations, but to integrate the consideration for the female sexual partners."
Early this week, the United Nations launched a report to address, as it says, "the persistent gender inequalities and human rights violations that put women and girls at a greater risk and more vulnerable to HIV".
"Women are disempowered to actually take control of their lives and their bodies, particularly in south Asia," Wilson said.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
