*EPF311 12/01/2004
HIV/AIDS Spreading Fast Among Women in Latin America, Caribbean
(United Nations releases new figures for World AIDS Day) (530)

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- In line with global trends, women represent the fastest-growing segment of the population with HIV/AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean, warns the United Nations.

According to a statement released by 10 U.N. agencies, timed to coincide with World AIDS Day December 1, new efforts are "urgently needed" to halt the spread of the epidemic in the female population of the region.

Some 150 women are infected each day with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean, the United Nations said. Between late 2002 and 2004, the number of women with HIV increased from 520,000 to 610,000 in Latin America, and from 190,000 to 210,000 in the Caribbean, the United Nations said. This means, the organization explained, that almost half of all adults in the Caribbean with HIV are women, while women represent more than one third of all HIV-positive adults in Latin America.

Worldwide, women represent nearly half of the 37.2 million adults (aged 15-49) living with HIV, the United Nations said. In some regions, women and girls outnumber men in the ranks of the infected. In sub-Saharan Africa, close to 60 percent of adults living with HIV are women. In the United States, AIDS now ranks among the top causes of death for African-American women aged 35-44.

Young women in Latin America and the Caribbean are 1.6 times more likely to have HIV than young men, according to the United Nations, adding that women and girls also know less than men about how HIV is transmitted, often because this information is denied to them.

Even when women and girls do know how to protect against the infection, they are unable to use that information because of "machismo" (male domination), widespread gender discrimination, and violence, the United Nations said. According to the organization, sexual coercion and abuse are major factors contributing to the increasingly female face of the epidemic in the region.

In their joint statement issued November 30, the 10 U.N. agencies called on policymakers in Latin America and the Caribbean to promote new cooperative efforts to address the factors that make women and girls particularly vulnerable to HIV.

For his part, Tommy Thompson, U.S. secretary of health and human services, said in a November 30 statement that World AIDS Day is an "important opportunity to remember those lost to AIDS," as well as a reminder "to raise awareness of the global epidemic and efforts to halt the spread of this terrible disease."

Thompson said the Bush administration has committed $2.4 billion in 2004 to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which supports HIV/AIDS treatment in more than 100 countries around the world, including 15 focus nations in Africa, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia.

Thompson added that President Bush has requested $2.8 billion in fiscal year 2005 for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Global Fund is a public/private partnership involving governments, civil society, the private sector, and communities affected by HIV/AIDS.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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