rising cases of HIV infection in women

Worried by the upsurge of gender-based violence, which is directly responsible for the rising cases of HIV infection in women, health writers and advocacy groups have gathered to drum support for women living with HIV and AIDS. The women are battling with stigma, ridicule from the public, discrimination, dismissal from place of work, segregation and loss of inheritance.

The forum, held in Lagos was organised by Journalists against AIDS (JAAIDS) and it featured lectures on women health rights.

Programme Officer, Human Rights Education, Mrs Kate Ibeanusi, decried the rate of gender-based violence against women and stated that statistics show that more women are exposed to HIV infection, supporting her argument with a 2008 UNAIDS report on global AIDS pandemic which shows that in sub-Saharan Africa, 60 per cent of people living with HIV are women.

She argued that this rising number of HIV infections among women and girls is directly related to violence against women and their unequal legal, economic and social status.

Ibeanusi, who spoke on gender based violence and the consequences for women, said coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty to women, whether occurring in public or private life is both a cause and consequence of HIV.

She noted that sexual violence and harmful traditional practice such as female genital mutilation, early marriage, widowhood right that predisposes the victim to contracting HIV, the myth that sex with a virgin cures HIV have increased the incidence of sexual assault among some groups.

She said: "Violence and threat of abuse increases the vulnerability of women and girls to infection with HIV by making it impossible for women to negotiate safe sex e.g. abstain from sex get their partners to be faithful or to use condom."