This is correct that experts all around the globe are constantly fuelling the fight against HIV/AIDS, while a majority of women with this deadly disease, still remains neglected despite the fact that almost half of the adults living with HIV and AIDS today are women.
This is really a startling fact that was put forth during an international AIDS conference. Unfortunately, there are around 40 million people living with HIV worldwide, while 17.7 million are women, and the revelation depicting lackadaisical treatment being meted out to women living with HIV is enough to add to the concern.
Actually, sidetracking focus from women patients is likely to paralyze the ongoing fight against HIV/AIDS, as during sexual intercourse women are comparatively more exposed to sexually transmitted infections. Moreover, HIV medications work in quite a different way over women because their body mechanism works in a different way. Therefore, special attention is required to protect them against HIV/AIDS. Expressing similar opinion Sharon Walmsley, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, said:
HIV medications can affect women differently than men.
Here it must be mentioned that major part of the study conducted on HIV so far, has been focused on men, while little heed had been paid to know the way it affects female mechanism, blunting the edges of achievements, accrued against deadly HIV/AIDS.
We can’t keep a blind eye to the fact that there has been noticed constant rise worldwide in the number of women with HIV/AIDS with many Asian and African countries fast turning into the hub of AIDS afflicted women. This rise has specially been noticed in Asia (where 30 per cent of the adults are living with HIV), Latin America and Eastern Europe. Moreover, the situation is quite worst in sub-Saharan Africa where around 60% of the women and girls are grappling with HIV. Unfortunately, 76 per cent of all HIV-positive women live in sub-Saharan Africa.
If we look at the achievements, accrued against HIV/AIDS in the light of the facts mentioned above, then we could say that still there remains a lot to be tided over, before we could claim that the fight against HIV/AIDS has reached its acme.
Via: Earth Times
