WUNRN
HIV/AIDS IMPACTS REFLECT WOMEN'S
INEQUALITY
By James
Welsh | March 26, 2013
While
the impact of HIV/AIDS is highly publicized, what often receives less attention
is the unequal effect this disease has on women. In 2011, the World Health
Organization (WHO) estimated that 30.7 million
adults were living with HIV globally. Of those, approximately half were women. Yet that
percentage remains far higher in certain regions.
In
sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, women make up 60 percent of infected adults.
In the Middle East and North Africa, women account for 54 percent. These two
regions are the only regions where infected women outnumber infected men—a
major regional disparity that casts the gender divide in a new light,
considering the fact that women constitute 37 percent or less of HIV-infected
people across seven of the 10 regions worldwide. Therefore, the majority of
people infected with HIV, which includes an overwhelming majority of women,
live in Africa and the Middle East.
Inequality is a function of this uneven distribution, because access to medical
care and treatment in these two regions tends to be poor. In addition, cultural
biases often keep women from reporting their disease or seeking treatment.
Women who report their disease are at times labeled as promiscuous and immoral,
or as sex workers when this is often not the case. This can lead to a loss of
social standing and ostracism.
Power
imbalances between men and women in these patriarchal societies usually
translate into limitations in access to services and resources. In these
regions, barriers restrict women’s access to education; both material and
immaterial preventive measures, such as condoms and knowledge about the
benefits of abstinence; and treatment services, such as antiretroviral
treatment. Typically, these women have fewer resources than men to seek
prevention and treatment, and those who do may face stigmas.
Profound
Gender Bias
Property rights laws in many areas of the world leave women with little if their husbands die. When HIV/AIDS is added to the inherent sexism of this picture, another major hurdle for women with the disease becomes evident. If a husband dies from AIDS, there is a chance his wife is also infected. Already possessing fewer personal resources even with a living husband, the newly widowed wife now has no resources available to find treatment.
Women also face high instances of rape and arranged marriages. Having sexual
partners forced upon them leaves women—frequently young women—without the
ability to choose their sexual partners. Few men have an HIV-infected partner
forced upon them, but for women, this is an all too common occurrence.
Social norms about femininity in these regions prevent young women from seeking
knowledge about HIV. “Only about…20 percent of young women in developing
countries have comprehensive and correct knowledge about HIV,” said Bertil
Lindblad, director of the UNAIDS New York Office, in a statement last year to
the Commission on the Status of Women.
Norms about masculinity often drive men of all ages to find as many sexual
partners as they can, usually among young women. This is why HIV rates among
young adults are higher for young women than for young men.
“Women and girls continue to suffer from gender inequality and violence that
put them at risk of HIV. For women living with HIV, this includes denial of
their sexual and reproductive rights, including forced sterilization,” said
Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS executive director, in a statement to a UN panel on HIV.
“This is all the more tragic in a world where we can, and must, achieve the
elimination of mother-to-child transmission in the developing world, as we have
in high income countries. In many places, young people continue to have the
highest infection rates and are denied the information, education and services
they need to avoid HIV.”
According to UNAIDS estimates, women between ages 15-24 account for 26 percent
of all new HIV cases worldwide, and more strikingly, this group accounts for 64
percent of young people globally. Worse, these numbers are higher in parts of
Africa and the Middle East. An unfortunate result of the inequality regarding
treatment, resources, social norms and stigmatization is the fact that HIV/AIDS
is the number one killer of women of reproductive age.
Ending Inequality, Ending the Disease
Because HIV disproportionally affects women, its prevention and treatment have become salient women’s rights issues. UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) works to reverse the spread of HIV by coordinating a global response. An umbrella organization heavily involved with efforts and organizations combating this epidemic, UNAIDS represents perhaps the best chance to defeat HIV/AIDS; it brings a global focus and coordination to the fight, while helping specific local programs make a difference on the ground with support, general care and treatment for those infected.
UNAIDS also advocates for proper HIV prevention and treatment and supports
research to help ameliorate the epidemic. An outcome of UNAIDS’ efforts has
been an estimated 20 percent decline in new HIV infections in the last decade.
The UNAIDS strategy for 2011 to 2015 is called “Getting
to Zero.” This strategy seeks to achieve universal access to HIV
prevention, treatment, care and support, and to halt and reverse the spread of
HIV worldwide. The future vision of the strategy is to reach zero new
infections, zero AIDS-related deaths and zero discrimination.
To end discrimination, the goal is to see that HIV-specific needs of women and
girls are addressed in at least half of all national HIV responses by 2015. An
additional objective is to reduce by half the countries that maintain punitive
laws and practices around HIV transmission that impede effective responses.
On the Local Level
As a means of empowering women infected with HIV, UN Women supports
local community-based organizations that provide a network of supportive
friends and fellow women hurt by the disease. Such organizations fight to
provide these marginalized women with renewed and strengthened voices, both for
themselves and for HIV-positive individuals as a whole. These groups work to
dispel myths about HIV/AIDS and stereotypes that demean women with HIV. They
also highlight the positive contributions that those affected by the disease
can make to their communities.
UNICEF, in its goal to protect children, highlights another important issue
pertaining to women and HIV. Prevention of
Mother To Child Transmission, or PMTCT, is an integral objective in
achieving its mission. According to UNICEF, in 2009, an estimated 1,000 babies
were infected with HIV every day by their mothers during pregnancy, birth or
breastfeeding. Furthermore, an estimated 1.4 million pregnant women were living
with HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries. Of these women, only 26
percent received tests for HIV.
These chilling numbers are why, in conjunction with UNAIDS, UNICEF launched
the Countdown
to Zero campaign in 2011. This campaign strives both to eliminate new HIV
infections among children and to keep the mothers of those children alive.
Furthermore, the campaign is trying to ensure that all women, but especially
pregnant women, have access to quality life-saving HIV prevention and treatment
services.
Along with increasing respect for the rights of infected women and empowering
them within their communities to seek HIV prevention and treatment, Countdown
to Zero helps ensure that adequate resources are available to women with
families affected by HIV/AIDS.
This campaign works with national and global leaders to achieve its goals and
has built itself upon successful past programs. These programs from 2000 to
2010 reduced the number of newly infected infants per year by over 100,000.
While there are still many hurdles, with international support, women can gain
greater respect and be empowered to defend their children and families from the
depredations of this terrible disease.
WHO’s Role and Treatment 2.0
A champion of the fight against HIV/AIDS, the
WHO is a cosponsor of UNAIDS and has led the global health sector’s response.
WHO’s Department of HIV/AIDS provides support to UN member states attempting to
improve treatment, prevention and care services to their citizens. WHO also
helps supply HIV commodities to countries dealing with the epidemic.
In their quest to assist, organize and enhance states’ responses, WHO and
UNAIDS have launched Treatment 2.0.
This initiative attempts to quicken the next phase of HIV treatment by
promoting techniques that improve innovation and efficiency. The initiative
focuses work in five areas: optimization of drug regimens, provision of
point-of-care diagnoses, cost reduction, adaption of delivery services and
mobilization of communities.
Such efforts are enabling people around the world to access better, cheaper
care. In particular, cheaper care helps women in lower-income countries who are
often poorer and cannot afford care at its current price. These programs help
remove social pressure and stigmas that denigrate and marginalize women
infected with the disease. These organizations advocate for laws that respect
the rights of HIV-infected individuals, especially women in middle- and
lower-income countries.
The impact of HIV/AIDS on women is disproportionately harsh due to inequalities
of care, but with the help of these organizations, women can empower themselves
to defeat such inequalities. In the process, women can help defeat a terrible
disease and correct the state of global human rights.
