| Show Rate a of HIV Increases r a aI aram Dramatics ram a I a ly for r Women m Rosie Los Angeles Times Women are being infected with HIV at increasing rates in all regions of the world and their numbers are now nearly equal to men according according according accord accord- ing to the United Nations and World Health Organizations Organization's annual report on AIDS released Tuesday The increase among women has been especially steep in East Asia which has experienced a 56 percent climb in the past two years and Eastern Europe and Central Asia where rates have risen 48 percent In sub-Saharan sub Africa 57 percent of adults living with HIV are now women The whole face of AIDS is changing said Dr Peter Piot executive director of the United Nations' Nations AIDS program program program pro pro- gram known as Weve got to really put women at the heart of the response to AIDS if we want to stop this epidemic The annual AIDS update reported that an estimated million people are now infected with the HIV HN virus up from million in 2002 More than 3 million people died this year The report also noted that the world has become a patchwork of AIDS epidemics epidemics epidemics epi epi- epi- epi in different stages of development with the steep- steep l f est increases during the past two years occurring in East Asia Eastern Europe and Central Asia Some of the fastest growing growing growing grow grow- ing epidemics are in China Indonesia Vietnam Ukraine and the Russian Federation In sub-Saharan sub Africa which has the highest infection infection infection tion rate in the world the number of infected people appears to have stabilized at million or 74 percent of the population But report coauthor Karen of cautioned cautioned cautioned cau cau- that the statistic is not cause for optimism The epidemic has simply reached a balance point where the s same me numbers of people are dying as are becoming newly infected she said This stab stabilization l disguises disguises disguises dis dis- dis- dis guises the worst phases of an epidemic said A mix of factors are contributing contributing contributing con con- to increasing infections infections infections among women worldwide worldwide worldwide world world- wide according to the report For biological reasons women are more likely than men to contract HIV WV during sex In Inmany many parts of the world women are less educated and more vulnerable to being coerced into unprotected sex Women also are less likely to HIV continued on page 3 HIv my continued from front receive access to ral drugs once infected Researchers have been working on chemicals that can be used by women to block HIV infection during unprotected sex according to the report Three such chemicals are in advanced clinical trials But Piot said other societal factors must be tackled too such as greater legal protections for women and andr r 1 increased access to tion Female infections also are on the rise in the United States disproportionately affecting blacks and Hispanics These groups also have the poorest survival rates probably because they seek treatment late or have inferior inferior inferior health care said Piot said that funding for tackling the AIDS epidemic has increased significantly An estimated 61 billion used to tackle the problem in hi developing countries this year However he said that money still falls short of the 10 billion that is needed A lack of coordination between aid groups and difficulties in hi implementing education programs delivering delivering delivering deliver deliver- ing drugs and training health care workers has hindered hindered hindered hin hin- dered efficient use of the money The key challenge now is isto isto isto to make the money work Piot said |
