Women Affected By Living with the Aids Virus

Women Affected By Living with the Aids Virus

Introduction

The sixth Millennium Development Goal pertains to reducing the damages caused by AIDS and HIV by the end of 2015. To counteract HIV and AIDS effectively it is vital that women and girls are empowered more and gender equality should be promoted by all means. HIV and AIDS have seriously affected more women than any other groups. Thus the consequences being faced by women in particular from HIV and AIDS have been manifold and devastating to a large extent.

Discussion

Facts about How HIV Affects People

HIV virus is ranked as the fourth leading disease to cause people to die (UNAIDS 2008). If we look at the global figures both women and men have been equally affected with AIDS, but the rising number of females living with aids is a serious cause of concern. 60% Adults above the ages of 15 which have been affected with AIDS and living in sub- Saharan Africa are females. When we talk about Caribbean, HIV virus amongst women has risen from 46% in the year 2001 to a level of 53% for the year ending 2008. Caribbean ranks as the second region where women are the most affected after Sub Saharan Africa (Care Resource, 2012).

Around 40% of the people to get affected from Aids in Central Asia and Eastern Europe for the year 2006 was women (UNAIDS 2007). According to a WHO report young women are most susceptible to HIV Aids. For people in the ages of 15-24, around two thirds of them are women.

In middle to lower income countries HIV Aids has been the major cause of death for women's in the age brackets of 15-24 (WHO, 2009). 1.7 million Women have been affected with Aids virus in Asia, with 90% of them getting affected from their husbands. Women are not aware of their husbands having unprotected sex with other partners or them injecting drugs in their bodies.

Aids Feminization

A variety of factors exist why women are getting affected by Aids Virus and why they are outnumbering their male counterparts. The factors range from economical, socio- cultural and biological (Florida Department of Health, 2012).In most of the societies a greater stigma is attached with women's get affected by Aids. This detrimentally affects women as they are unable to know about their Aids status and getting timely medical payments. A female with the presence of discrimination finds it hard to face the society with confidence and generally ignores the issue of HIV Aids because of the social stigma being attached to it.

The biological differences amongst men and women make women highly susceptible to disease being transmitted during sexual intercourse. When it comes to sex women are twice at risk to get AIDS virus as opposed to their male counterparts (International HIV Fund, 2012).

In poor societies economic hardships compel females to get indulge in sex in order to earn their bread and butter. With the rise in HIV pandemic ...