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Women, emerging countries targeted for reduction of HIV/AIDS
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Because women still carry the burden of HIV/AIDS in the epidemic, they must be a priority in research, care and treatment, according to experts presenting at the XIX International AIDS Conference.
“We cannot even begin to talk about ending AIDS when so much of the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to be so heavily skewered toward women,” Diane Havlir, MD, co-chair of the conference and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a press release. “The great strides we have seen in reducing mother-to-child transmission through antiretroviral drugs need to be replicated elsewhere to alleviate the female burden of this epidemic. New preventive technologies, such as post-exposure prophylaxis and microbicides are going to be the key.”
It is estimated that half of the 34 million adults living with HIV/AIDS worldwide are women, who are at greater risk for heterosexual transmission. In addition, women are also less likely to insist on condom use during sex and frequently face nonconsensual sex. Women also face the issue of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
During a regional session about the Middle East and North Africa, the focus was lessening the burden of HIV and AIDS in Arab states and getting it down to zero. In another roundtable session, the focus was on the role of emerging countries, including South Africa, Brazil, India and China, and their leadership of the epidemic.
“The response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in these countries has brought about some major innovations in their health systems, and in the case of India and Brazil in particular, spectacular results in the generic production of antiretroviral drugs,” Elly Katabira, MD, president of the International AIDS Society, said in a press release. “These countries are rightfully shaping their own domestic AIDS policies with less dependence on the international community, but it is to be hoped that in the future, they will play leading roles in the funding of international treatment, care and research programs.”