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Women now account for about half the world’s HIV-positive population, a dramatic turnabout from the epidemic’s early days when few women or young girls were diagnosed with the virus. And the toll of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on women is increasing.
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Over the past two years, the number of women and girls infected with HIV has increased in every region of the world, with rates rising particularly rapidly in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America. |
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In sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls already make up almost 60% of adults living with HIV, and three quarters of young people living with HIV on the continent are women aged 15-24.
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Biologically, women are two to eight times more likely than men to contract HIV during vaginal intercourse. |
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As the epidemic progresses, young women are at particularly grave risk. Among young people aged 15-24, women are 1.6 times more likely than men to be HIV-positive. In Cambodia, for example, three times as many young women are living with HIV than men. In some parts of the Caribbean, young women are more than two times as likely to be HIV-infected than young men. |
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Coerced sex and societal stigma make women more vulnerable to HIV infection. Some studies have found that women often decline to get an HIV test themselves, or to ask their partner to get one, due to fears of violence or rejection. Economic and social inequalities also can inhibit women from refusing sex or asking a partner to use a condom.
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Meanwhile, in many resource-poor countries, access to health care, including antiretroviral drugs, is particularly difficult for women. Only 33 percent of pregnant women are currently receiving antiretroviral drugs to prevent transmission of the HIV virus to their babies.
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When a woman falls sick with AIDS, the ripple effect on the community is far-reaching, as women are often a family’s main caregiver and also significant wage earners. More than 15 million children around the world have been orphaned by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a number that is projected to spiral in the coming years. The consequences for these children are often devastating, limiting their ability to get basic necessities such as housing, food, clothing, and education.
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