Increase of AIDS Among Women Seen
AIDS among women is likely to increase dramatically over the next 10 years, with three out of four infections resulting from heterosexual contact, the World Health Organization said today.
It estimated that of the 9 million to 11 million adults and children now carrying the HIV virus, 3 million are women. Most of them live in the Third World.
WHO said the share of global HIV infections resulting from sex between men and women will rise from 60% now to 75% to 80% by the year 2000.
This will mean “dramatic increases in HIV infection among women,” WHO said.
It forecast that by the end of the decade, the number of carriers will rise to between 25 million and 30 million worldwide, including 10 million children born to infected mothers.
Scientists say women who have sex with AIDS-infected men are much more likely to catch the virus than are men who have sex with infected women.
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