Content Type
FOUND 651
Even in the 'era of treatment' successful HIV prevention remains an enormous challenge. This article argues that there is a need to pay more attention to sex and desire in the design of HIV prevention programmes. The paper highlights how perceived "dirty" issues, such as sex between men and anal intercourse between men and women, are often overlooked by HIV prevention programmes. It also explores how reasons why people may "choose" not to place…
This research article describes the results of a community-based cross-sectional study conducted among brothel-based sex workers of West Bengal, eastern India, to understand sex-trafficking, violence, negotiating skills, and HIV infection in them. The study highlights that the trafficked victims faced violence, including sexual violence, to a greater magnitude, and that sexual violence was associated with acquiring HIV.
This research article describes an evaluation of adolescent school girls' knowledge, perceptions and attitudes towards STIs/HIV and safer sex practice and sex education and explores their current sexual behaviour in India.
This article considers the impact of AIDS on women's roles and responsibilities within the household 'care economy.' It emphasizes that all interventions aimed at reversing the epidemic need to take into account the excessive work-load that members of the household, usually women, shoulder in responding to the needs of sick family members. Most notably, gender equality and care economy issues need to be identified by development programmes…
This article examines some of the reasons why women are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. These reasons include: violations of their economic rights, violations of their political rights, and cultural beliefs, such as the cultural value placed on virginity, fertility and the subservience of women to men in marriage. The article also discusses the role of the international community in protecting women's rights with special attention paid to the UN…
A brief describes the linkages between young age, sexual violence, and HIV/AIDS and describes policy and program responses.
This fact sheet reviews women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, focusing particularly on young women. Many women and young people do not have access to the information and services they need to protect themselves from HIV infection. Women's vulnerability is increased by marriage, sex work, injecting drug use, being the partner of an injecting drug user, a student, and violent or coercive sex.
There is now greater urgency for global policy action because child brides are increasingly more vulnerable to HIV infection. This policy guide is part of a wider advocacy strategy to raise awareness on child marriage and its effects on communities. It is also part of the wider initiative on preventing HIV infection, particularly among adolescent girls and it aims to stimulate decision- makers worldwide, in particular government policy-makers,…
This article looks at HIV/AIDS, poverty and gender, and focuses on young girls and old women. It starts with some basic facts about HIV/AIDS and then provides a framework for analyzing vulnerability to the infection and to its impact in relation to gender and age. It briefly outlines institutional responses and ends up with conclusion and recommendations for development planners to combine gender and age analysis in any development or…
This is a fact sheet on AIDS among women in the U.S. It provides a breakdown of rates of infection among specific populations and regions and explores why women are particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Also available in Spanish.
Testing pregnant women in labor for HIV and counseling them is a challenge, particularly where resources are limited. This article describes a research study on the feasibility and impact of introducing round-the-clock, rapid HIV testing and counseling in a busy labor ward in a rural teaching hospital in Sevagram, India.
This report summarizes information on male circumcision as an HIV prevention strategy and the policy and prevention implications of its implementation. It examines: adult male circumcision and its health benefits; implications for women's health; biological mechanisms responsible for reduced susceptibility to HIV infection and other medical benefits among circumcised males; medical professional group policy statements pertaining to male…
This guide discusses the challenges involved in ensuring that violence is addressed in HIV programmes and gives a detailed understanding of violence in relation to sex work and challenges some common assumptions. The guide also provides examples from real programmes that illustrate ways in which HIV and AIDS projects can help reduce the incidence of violence against sex workers and provide support to those who experience violence. This guide is…
This paper summarizes the results from an experiment conducted with unmarried young women aged 15-21 in rural southern Malawi, during which respondents were randomly assigned to either an audio computer-assisted self-interview or a conventional face-to-face interview. In addition, biomarkers were collected for HIV and three STIs: gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis. Before collecting the biomarkers, nurses conducted a brief face-to-…
In many parts of the world, sex workers have been among the groups most vulnerable to and most affected by HIV since the beginning of the pandemic. The toolkit is intended as a resource to guide the development and implementation of effective HIV interventions in diverse sex work settings. It outlines key steps and issues and provides links to many documents, manuals, reports and research studies containing more detailed and in-depth information…
This advocacy note aims to highlight the specific vulnerabilities and challenges women and girls face with respect to HIV/AIDS. It provides background on why women and girls remain vulnerable and answers the question 'What can be done?' by laying out a strategy for prevention, access and impact.
This report highlights programs that work through legal and cultural mechanisms to prevent women from being dispossessed and impoverished due to HIV and AIDS. Evidence shows that a complex, comprehensive strategy is needed to link women's property rights with HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, counseling and care services.
This article describes the findings of a survey of women in Welkom, South Africa, to evaluate the impact of a service provision programme targeting women living with HIV/AIDS and gender based violence.
This project brief looks at a pilot project conducted by the ACQUIRE Project to integrate family planning within HIV care and treatment services. ACQUIRE worked with The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) in Uganda to implement a number of strategies, such as:
* Determining the fertility desires and reproductive health issues of HIV-positive women and couples, including how women accessing HIV care and treatment service met their family…
This article highlights the progress in building a knowledge base on effective ways to increase access to justice for women who have experienced gender-based violence, offer quality services to survivors, and reduce levels of gender-based violence. While recognizing the limited number of high-quality studies on program effectiveness, this review of the literature highlights emerging good practices.