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.

The rising rate of infections among women is due largely to the fact that they are much less likely to be financially independent, are fearful of violence by men and, in many parts of the world, are regarded as socially inferior.

Widows trying to provide for their children are frequently driven into the sex trade, the UN says. However, because they desperately need the money, they are in no position to demand their customers wear condoms.