Women’s awareness vital to preventing HIV/AIDS

By, Saadia Khalid, Daily Times, March 4, 2008

ISLAMABAD: Women should be educated on prevention of HIV/AIDS as they are at increased risk of this deadly disease due to behavior of their male partners, said participants of a workshop “Women-Focused Capacity Building on Advocacy and Awareness Raising about HIV/AIDS and Gender” on Monday.

All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA) in collaboration with United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) organised the two- day workshop to provide a platform for capacity building of NGOs and civil society organisations on women HIV/AIDS related issues.

Vulnerability: The participants said women were more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection due to biological and socio-economic factors including poor personal hygiene, low literacy rate, less mobility, poor access to health facility and lack of decision making power for safer sex.

Unsafe sex: They said women should be educated on negotiation for safe sex as they could transmit the disease to foetus or newborn baby.

They were of the view that ignorance on part of male partner could be disastrous, as he could not only infect his spouse but also his children. “Unsafe sex by male partners with commercial sex workers, already HIV positive, could transmit the virus to their spouses,” they said.

Intravenous drug users: They pointed out that unsafe sex and intravenous drug use were main causes of the virus transmission to others including to their spouses. “As many as 17 percent wives had been diagnosed HIV positive as their husbands were injection drug users,” they said.

Registered cases: National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) Representative Dr Hassan Abbas Zaheer said there were 4,000 registered HIV/AIDS cases in Pakistan. However, the estimated number of these patients was 80,000 with 15,000 women, he added.

“The cases of HIV/AIDS are comparatively less in Pakistan as compared to other countries where it had been transmitted to general public, while in Pakistan this infection is confined to some specific strata of society,” he said.

“During a research in 13 cities the number of HIV infected patients was highest in Sargodha where 51 percent intravenous drug users were HIV infected and 17 women (wives of these drug users) were also found HIV positive,” he added.

High-risk country: He said four years ago Pakistan was one of the low HIV/AIDS prevalent countries but now it has turned into low HIV prevalent high-risk country.

Dr Ayesha Khan of NACP said that the research in different cities indicated that women were more aware of the disease and its preventive measures. “Sixty-three percent female sex workers use preventive measures in comparison with 52 percent males, 100 percent infected women seek care while only 37 percent male seek medical assistance,” she said.

Immigrants: Khan pointed out that immigrants, who were exposed to unprotected sexual contact with HIV/AIDS infected persons abroad, were another source of spreading the disease as they transmitted it to their spouses on their return to home.

UNIFEM Gender Advisor Meagen Baldwin said it was a misconception that HIV/AIDS did not transmit to a married woman. “Most of the HIV positive women are infected from heterosexual sex or through their marital partners,” she said.

Family planning policy: Baldwin said women in countries like Pakistan were not aware of sexually transmitted infections and hence were more vulnerable to such diseases. “The family planning clinics in Pakistan focus on birth control or birth spacing but impart less information to people on safe sex methods,” she said.

UNFPA Representative Dr France Douney said poverty and lack of economic opportunities were leaving women with no option to earn their livelihood except becoming sex workers and hence making them vulnerable to such diseases.

“The information regarding HIV/AIDS should be included into family planning policy and health workers should be trained to guide others about prevention of sexually transmitted infections.

Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C03%5C04%5Cstory_4-3-2008_pg11_1