African Women More At Risk of HIV Infection -- UNAIDS Report.

(From New Vision (Uganda) - AAGM)

WOMEN are increasingly at great risk of HIV infection. The United Nations 2004 Report on the global AIDS Epidemic indicates so.

In what it calls the rising female face of the epidemic, the report released on Tuesday says fighting the feminisation of the epidemic is one of the leading challenges that countries and organisations need to focus on in their anti-AIDS strategies.

The report tilted Changing history shows that as of December 2003, women accounted for nearly 50% of all people living with HIV worldwide and for 57% in sub-Saharan Africa.

It shows that African women are at greater risk, becoming infected at an earlier age than men. The report says that there are on average 13 infected women for every 10 infected men in sub-Saharan Africa up from 12 for 10 in 2002.

The difference is even more pronounced among 15 to 24-year-olds. A review compared the ratio of young women living with HIV to young men living with HIV; this ranges from 20 women for every 10 men in …