AIDS Rate for Women Approaches Men’s

Women are being infected with HIV at increasing rates in all regions of the world, and their numbers are now nearly equal to men, according to the United Nations and World Health Organization’s annual report on AIDS released today.

The increase among women has been especially steep in East Asia — which has experienced a 56% climb in the past two years — and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where rates have risen 48%.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 57% of adults living with HIV are now women.

“The whole face of AIDS is changing,” said Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of the United Nations’ AIDS program, known as UNAIDS. “We’ve got to really put women at the heart of the response to AIDS if we want to stop this epidemic.”

The annual AIDS update reported that an estimated 39.4 million people are now infected with the HIV virus, up from 36.6 million in 2002. More than 3 million people died this year.

The report also noted that the world has become a patchwork of AIDS epidemics in different stages of development, with the steepest increases during the past two years occurring in East Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Some of the fastest growing epidemics are in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

In sub-Saharan Africa, which has the highest infection rate in the world, the number of infected people appears to have stabilized at 25.4 million, or 7.4% of the population.

But report coauthor Karen Stanecki of UNAIDS cautioned that the statistic is not cause for optimism. The epidemic has simply reached a balance point where the same numbers of people are dying as are becoming infected, she said.

“This stabilization disguises the worst phases of an epidemic,” Stanecki said.

A mix of factors are contributing to increasing infections among women worldwide, according to the report.

For biological reasons, women are more likely than men to contract HIV during sex. In many parts of the world women are less educated and more vulnerable to being coerced into unprotected sex. Women are also less likely to receive access to antiretroviral drugs once infected.

Researchers have been working on microbicide chemicals that can be used by women to block HIV infection during unprotected sex, according to the report. Three such chemicals are in advanced clinical trials.

Piot said other societal factors must be tackled too, such as greater legal protections for women and increased access to education.

Female infections are also on the rise in the United States, disproportionately affecting African Americans and Latinos. These groups also have the poorest survival rates, probably because they seek treatment late or have inferior healthcare, Stanecki said.

Piot said that funding for tackling the AIDS epidemic has increased significantly, with an estimated $6.1 billion used to tackle the problem in developing countries this year.

However, he said, that money still falls short of the $10 billion that is needed. A lack of coordination between aid groups, and difficulties in implementing education programs, delivering drugs and training healthcare workers has hindered efficient use of the money.

“The key challenge now is to make the money work,” Piot said.