Wednesday 21 May 2003

Twenty Years of…AIDS!

Growing Feminization of the Scourge

African Women Remain Particularly Vulnerable

• Twenty years ago to the very day, Institut Pasteur in France discovered HIV/AIDS. Since then, the disease has claimed 25 million victims;
• 42 million people are living with AIDS world-wide, some 30 million
of them in Africa;

• Women make up for half of these 30 million;
• In Sub Saharan Africa: 26 million adults are infected, 15 million of
them are women;

• In Sub Saharan Africa: 8.8 million young people (defined as 15-24)
are infected -- 6,000 new infections a day--
• 67% of these young people are women;

• Botswana: 45% is the percentage of young women living with AIDS, 19% is the comparable figure for men;
• Zimbabwe: 40% is the percentage of young women living with AIDS, as compared to 15% for young men;
• Namibia: young women living with AIDS are 29% as compared to 8% for young men;

• Cameroon: young women are at 15%, young men at 6%;
• Rwanda: 13% for young women, against 6% for young men;

• For various physiological and socio-economic reasons, women are
3-7 times more exposed to contamination than men during sexual
intercourse;

• Less than 20% of the contaminated population world-wide are covered by anti HIV/AIDS prevention. At this pace, it is feared that:

• By 2020, HIV/AIDS might kill 68 million people world-wide
• 55 million of them in Africa.