The devasting facts about HIV/AIDS for women - Women and Health - Statistical Data Included

WIN News, Spring, 2002

FROM 'POPULATION REPORTS'

POPULATION INFORMATION PROGRAM

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

111 Market Place, Suite 310, Toronto ON M4L 1Z1 CANADA

fax: (410) 659-2645

e-mail: Orders@jhuccp.org

website: http://www.jhuccp.org

"Of the over 60 million people who have been infected with HIV in the past 20 years, about half became infected between the ages of 15 and 24. Today, nearly 12 million young people are living with HIV/AIDS. Young women are several times more likely than young men to be infected with HIV. In nearly 20 African countries 5% or more of women ages 15 to 24 are infected. Such statistics underscore the urgent need to address HIV/AIDS among youth...

Societies often compound young people's risk by making it difficult for them to learn about HIV/AIDS and reproductive health. Moreover, many youth are socially inexperienced and dependent on others. Peer pressures easily influence them - often in ways that can increase their risk.

ADDRESSING THE EPIDEMIC

Recent declines in incidence of HIV/AIDS in a few countries, accompanied by signs that young people ore changing their risk-taking behavior, give hope. AIDS today is widely seen as a social crisis as well as a problem of individual behavior... It is increasingly clear, however, that youth must be at the center of strategies to control HIV/AIDS.

Building support for AIDS prevention. Until more leaders speak out about the AIDS crisis among youth and give it top priority for funding and action, there is little hope of a solution... HIV/AIDS education should begin early, even before children become sexually active.

Addressing cultural and social norms. Many traditions and cultural practices increase risks for young people more than adults and for young women even more than young men. Efforts to involve communities and to change social norms are as crucial as efforts to reduce individual risk-faking.

Promoting condoms for dual protection. Condoms -- the only contraceptive method that can protect against HIV as well as against pregnancy -- are vital to controlling HIV/AIDS among youth. Condoms should be widely accessible, and their use promoted among sexually active people of all ages.

Reaching out. Programs need to reach out to street children, sex workers, and other vulnerable youth, including the millions of young people orphaned by AIDS...

SOME FIGURES OF THE EPIDEMIC

An estimated total of over 22 million people have already died of AIDS. Worse yet, more than 40 million people are living with HIV. Thus the number of people now living who will die of AIDS exceeds the number who have already died. The crisis has become a catastrophe.

HIV/AIDS is the fourth largest cause of death globally and the leading cause of death in Africa. Despite its widespread reach, the epidemic is still in its early stages. Public health officials estimate that the illnesses and deaths to date represent only 10% of the eventual impact. Researchers project that by 2010 HIV/AIDS will reduce average life expectancy in southern African countries to around 30 years. Over a period of 20 years, more than 60 million people have been infected with HIV.

YOUTH MOST AFFECTED

Half of those infected are between the ages of 15 and 24. An estimated 11.8 million people between the ages of 15 and 24 are living with HIV/AIDS. In some African countries more than one young woman in every five is living with HIV/AIDS.

The epidemic among youth remains largely invisible, both to young people themselves and to society as a whole. Young people often carry HIV for years without knowing that they are infected. Many men believe, probably correctly, that younger girls are less likely to be infected with HIV.

GENDER DIFFERENCES

In most of Africa infection rates among young women are at least twice the rates among young men. In certain regions adolescent women are as much as six times more likely than adolescent men to be infected. In some parts of Kenya and Zambia, for instance, teenage women have HIV prevalence rates of 25% compared with 4% among teenage men. In Botswana about one-third of women ages 15 to 24 are estimated to be HIV-positive, twice the proportion among men the same age.

In the US HIV/AIDS was first reported among relatively wealthy white adult men who had sex with men. Now AIDS has become the leading cause of death among African Americans ages 25 to 44. . .

YOUNG WOMEN FACE SUBSTANTIAL RISK

The risk of becoming infected with HIV during unprotected sex is two to four times greater for a woman than for a man. Male-to-female transmission is more likely because during vaginal intercourse a woman has a larger surface area of her genital tract exposed to her partner's sexual secretions than does a man. HIV concentration is generally higher in male semen than in a woman's sexual secretions.

Adolescent women are at even greater risk than adult women. The vagina and cervix of young women are less mature and are less resistant to HIV and STIs, such as chlamydia and gonorrhea. Changes in the reproductive tract during puberty make the tissue more susceptible to penetration by HIV. Also, hormonal changes associated with the menstrual cycle often are accompanied by a thinning of the mucus plug, the protective sealant covering the cervix. Such thinning can allow HIV to pass more easily. Young women produce only scant vaginal secretions, providing little barrier to HIV transmission.