Combat HIV and AIDS
MDG Goal #6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
AIDS has a woman's face. HIV is spreading fastest among women. Of the estimated 39.5 million people living with HIV, 48 percent are women – nearly 19 million people - and half of all new infections occur among women. Cultural factors drive the pandemic but interventions targeted at women could slow the spread of HIV.
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Facts at a Glance
HIV is spreading fastest among women. Of the estimated 39.5 million people living with HIV, 48 percent are women – nearly 19 million people – and half of all new infections occur among women.1
Young women age 14 to 24 in parts of Africa and the Caribbean are up to six times more likely to be HIV-positive than young men their age.2
In sub-Saharan Africa, 57 percent of all people living with HIV are women.3
Women are more vulnerable than men to HIV infection – for biological, economic and cultural reasons (such as discrimination, gender inequality and violence).4
A 2005 UNFPA report found that only about 8 percent of pregnant women and 16 percent of sex workers worldwide were being reached with prevention efforts.5
In 2005, only 15 percent of those in need of anti-retroviral drugs were receiving it. Six in ten of those receiving treatment were women.6
Cultural factors drive the pandemic
The stigma surrounding AIDS is a major obstacle to curbing it, especially for women, who avoid testing and treatment for fear of abandonment, violence or ostracism.
In many of the worst-hit countries, frank discussion of gender equality, HIV prevention, contraception, or any other sex-related issue is taboo, yet ignorance of positive HIV status is death – for both infected people and their partners.
Only 5 percent of all HIV-positive people in the world are aware of their status.7
While one person dies every 11 seconds from AIDS, one person is infected with HIV every six seconds – so the total number of infections is growing.8
HIV-positive women are often denied health care, information and services to prevent pregnancy and HIV transmission because health workers assume or believe that they do not have sex and will not (or should not) have children. This is a violation of their human rights.
In many countries, having sex with many women is a measure of male virility and prestige. Where extra-marital affairs are common, marriage can actually raise a woman's risk of contracting HIV.
Interventions targeted at women could slow the spread of HIV
Every year of education for a girl lowers her risk for HIV infection.9
A survey of 24 sub-Saharan African countries found that two-thirds of young women lacked understanding of HIV transmission. Men's knowledge was greater.10
Most people become sexually active during adolescence, yet most young people have no access to prevention programs.11
Family planning and maternal care clinics are often a woman's only contact with a developing country's health system, but "stovepiping" approaches by donors, which restricts funds to HIV/AIDS uses, has led to parallel care systems in some areas. This is inefficient, reinforces stigma and creates a cadre of health care workers uninvolved in meeting basic needs.12
Programs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV must as a matter of human rights treat both mother and child.
Saving women also saves the next generation
Treatment for HIV-positive mothers as well as their children is the most cost-effective approach, as motherless children are far less likely to survive to adulthood.
In 2005, more than two million children 14 or younger were living with HIV.13
By 2006, at least 13 million children – 12 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa – had lost one or both parents to AIDS. Such AIDS orphans are likely to number 15.7 million worldwide by 2010.14
For Further Information
HIV Prevention Now – UNFPA Programme Briefs
UNAIDS Gender & AIDS fact sheets
References
1 Population Resource Center, "World AIDS Day: December 1, 2006," (accessed 10/3/07), p. 1
2 UNICEF, The State of the World's Children 2007, UNICEF, New York, 2007, p.5
3 UNFPA, State of World Population 2005: The Promise of Equality, UNFPA, New York, 2005, p. 37
4 World Health Organization, "Women and HIV/AIDS," 2007, (accessed 10/3/07)
5UNFPA, p. 37
6World Health Organization Bulletin Vol 84 #2, Feb. 2006, (accessed 10/5/07)
7 UNFPA, p. 40
8 UNFPA, p. 52
9 Herz, Barbara, and Sperling, Gene B., What Works in Girls' Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, 2004, p. 5
10 UNICEF, p. 5 and 11
11 UNFPA, p. 52
12 Garrett, Laurie, "The Challenge of Global Health," Foreign Affairs, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, Jan-Feb 2007
13 UNICEF, p. 5
14 UNICEF, p. 30-31
