Women are "fundamentally more affected by the [HIV/AIDS] epidemic than men," Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, writes in an opinion piece in the Christian Science Monitor.
China is strengthening the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS among women, according to a white paper titled Gender Equality and Women's Development in China, issued by the Information Office of China's State Council on Wednesday.
The world knows that Africans bear the brunt of the AIDS pandemic and that nearly two-thirds of the people infected with H.I.V. live here. The disease is devastating households and crippling economies across the continent. Though data show that girls and women are far more vulnerable to infection than men, we have yet to summon the courage and the political will to empower and protect them.
Since it was launched to such hype 13 years ago, the female condom has vanished without trace - from UK shelves, at least. But as Kate Burt discovers, in other parts of the world it has quite literally proved a lifesaver
Every morning, in the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP), a group of men and women are making change and making history. They are setting out to do something that most people do not normally do - talking about sex, sexuality and HIV/AIDS. V Samson and S K Sultana Begum are among some 48 peer counsellors who head towards schools, railway colonies, health units, railways hospitals, training centers, junior colleges, running rooms and mahila samitis (…
In my nightmares, I see the women we have failed to protect from AIDS. Women in South Africa do almost everything. When they cook, they harvest spinach, carrots and cabbage from vegetable gardens they have planted themselves. When they clean, they use brooms made from dried grass they walked miles to harvest. They wash their entire family's laundry by hand, wringing out clothes heavy with soapy water with hands that could break the neck of a…
This issue of Network describes the variety of means by which children, adolescents, and adults - men and women alike - are pressured to have sexual relations that they do not want. Non-consensual sex may be a major contributing factor to such reproductive health problems as unintended pregnancy and its complications, as well as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Transmission of these infections will persist - despite…
A Johns Hopkins physician and scientist who has spent a quarter-century leading major efforts to combat HIV and AIDS worldwide has issued an urgent call for global strategies and resources to confront the rapid "feminization" of the AIDS pandemic.
The new face of the AIDS virus is the heterosexual female in a long-term relationship, according to a report from Science magazine. It's not because more women are engaging in unprotected casual sex, Lori Heise of the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS told ABC News' "Good Morning America." "That's the biggest myth out there right now," said Heise. "Most women are getting infected in long-term relationships."
Breakthrough, an international human rights organization, is launching a 360 degree media campaign, What Kind of Man Are You? to bring public attention to the growing number of married women in India infected by HIV/AIDS. While a lot of effort has gone into spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS among high-risk categories like commercial sex workers, very little has been done to sensitize women in the general public who are vulnerable to the…
Text of a speech by Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, delivered at the University of Pennsylvania’s Summit on Global Issues in Women’s Health in April 2005.
Top officials at the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, at its yearly meeting are focussing on the negative effects of HIV/AIDS on population dynamics, including population losses and decreased life expectancy, as well as the pandemic's links to increased extreme poverty, stalled economic growth and poor reproductive health in many parts of the world.
Gender-based violence can result in many negative consequences for women's health and well-being as it has become a public health and human rights problem throughout the world. It can also affect their children and undermine the economic well-being of the societies. Gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS are…
This fact sheet addresses how HIV/AIDS have significantly increased the care burden for many women. Poverty and poor public services have also combined with AIDS to turn the care burden for women into a crisis with far-reaching social, health and economic consequences. The term 'care economy' is sometimes used to describe the many tasks carried out mostly by women and girls at home such as cooking, cleaning, fetching water and many other…
This report is based on interviews with managers and supervisors of care teams; carers on the staff of AIDS Support Organizations; community volunteers; primary carers within families; and individuals with expertise in this field. The report identifies who the carers are within the family and at community level. It then identifies the stressors associated with their care-giving roles. The quality of care they are able to provide and their…
On May 1, 2002, over 130 program managers, policymakers, service providers, and trainers participated in a day-long Technical Update, hosted by the USAID Interagency Gender Working Group (IGWG) with the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE). This summary of the Technical Update presents survey information and recent data used to define gender-based violence (GBV) and its negative impact on reproductive health outcomes. It also examines…
This article explores how the role of parents is so much more intensive, extensive, and different in the context of many developing country epidemics vis à vis epidemics in developed countries, and whether and to what extent the physical and mental health of older AIDS parents may decline from their close involvement with their ill children, relative to parents who do not suffer this unfortunate set of events. This article hypothesizes that…
The report highlights programmatic models that were presented at a conference on men and reproductive health that was attended by researchers, program implementers, evaluators and donors. The participants were particularly interested in those programs that could show through evaluations that gender-relat used by other practitioners.
This report sets out to answer some of the questions put to Amnesty women victims of violence. It looks at violence against women, particularly focuses on rape committed by both security officials and private individuals. Women subjected to violence are not adequately protected by the law and commit violence against women continue to operate with impunity. Gender-based violence not only exposes women to sexually transmitted diseases, but also to…
This report provides an assessment of the role of gender based violence in HIV transmission and the current prevalence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. It explains how the use of PEP can help prevent HIV infection and describes the policy the government has adopted to provide access to PEP and ARVs for all survivors of sexual violence. However, the government has not been fully implemented these initiatives, and this report provides…