Growing number of world’s new HIV/AIDS cases are women

A GROWING number of the world’s new HIV/Aids cases are women, a “terrifying pattern” that widely used prevention measures are ill-equipped to stop, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said.

Annan, speaking at a United Nations conference marking International Women's Day, urged governments to fight the problems that put women at risk of getting the virus including abuse, coercion by older men, and their spouses taking on numerous sexual partners.

Statistics from 10 years ago indicated men were more affected than women, but within the last six years the percentage of the world's female HIV/Aids patients has gone from 41% to 50%. In sub-Saharan Africa, 58% of all HIV/Aids infected people are women.