Earthsky Interviews
Private: AIDS tied to poverty, discrimination, violence
03-15-2006 - Human World
_DB:_ At the United Nations Millennium Summit in the year 2000, world leaders pledged to halt and begin to reverse the spread of AIDS. “Maria Jose Alcala”:http://208.96.63.114/?p=2204 is an expert on women and reproductive health for the U.N. She told us that, in developing countries, the spread of AIDS is fueled by poverty, discrimination and violence against women.
_Maria Jose Alcala:_ There are alarming levels of sexual violence against women. A woman who lives in a situation of domestic abuse is obviously not in a good position to discuss, much less insist on, condom use issues or discuss faithfulness and all the issues being promoted for prevention.
_JB:_ Women and girls in poverty may also engage in what’s called “survival sex” – risky relationships that allow them to feed their families, go to school or be protected from violence. Alcala said that, to stem the AIDS epidemic, women in developing countries need more economic and educational opportunities.
_Maria Jose Alcala:_ The good news is that there are some very, very strong and good initiatives that are showing how when you address . . . attitudes about gender, both working with men and women, you can see change for the better, you can see young men taking responsibility. You can see young men seeing that they need to respect women’s choices . . .
_DB:_ For “more”:humanworld come to earthsky.org. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth and Sky.
Read Earth & Sky’s “full interview with Maria Jose Alcala”:http://208.96.63.114/?p=2204.
Alcala says that there’s a bonus to improving women’s reproductive health in the developing world – it will help reduce poverty. And poverty reduction is itself another goal of world leaders who met at the Millennium Summit.
According to the “State of World Population 2005″:http://www.unfpa.org/swp/swpmain.htm report, “In sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 60 to 80 percent of HIV positive women have been infected by their husbands – their sole partner.”
In June 2000, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), convened a workshop to evaluate the published evidence establishing the effectiveness of latex male condoms in preventing STDs, including HIV. A “report”:http://www.niaid.nih.gov/ from that workshop was completed in July 2001. According to a “summary”:http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/facts/condoms.htm of the workshop findings, “Latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, are highly effective in preventing transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.”
More Links:
Read a fact sheet about “violence against women”:http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/presskit/factsheets/facts_vaw.htm.
Read a fact sheet about “youth and HIV/AIDS”:http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/presskit/factsheets/facts_youth.htm.
To learn more about HIV/AIDS, come to the “World Health Organization”:http://www.who.int/hiv/en/.
Read about the 8 U.N. “Millennium Development Goals”:http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/.
Our thanks to:
Maria Jose Alcala
UN Population Fund, UNFPA
New York, NY