Women victims of HIV crisis

THE United Nations warned of a global health crisis among women due to a dramatic rise in HIV infections among them, largely because poverty has robbed them of the confidence to demand safe sex.

Since 1985, the percentage of HIV/Aids sufferers who are adult women has risen from 35% to 48%. Young women now make up 60% of the 15- to 24-year-olds living with the disease, said the UN Development Fund for Women in Bangkok.

“Women are now firmly in the grip of the HIV/Aids epidemic,” Stephanie Urdang, UNIFEM’s gender and HIV adviser, told a news conference.