Posted on 12/12/2004 7:42:49 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
This year, once again, the annual report from the Joint United Nations Program on H.I.V./AIDS and the World Health Organization tragically documents the way the global AIDS epidemic is still killing millions of people and spawning hot spots in Asia and Eastern Europe. The most striking news is that AIDS is fast becoming a disease that strikes younger women disproportionately. Ignorance is part of the problem, but the laws and social customs that keep women powerless and poor - and subject to sexual exploitation - are far more insidious.
According to the new report's eye-opening analysis, AIDS is spreading quickly into the ranks of women - both single and married - in regions where AIDS is already well established. In sub-Saharan Africa, women 15 to 24 years old are three times as likely to be infected as men the same age. In Thailand, 90 percent of AIDS transmissions a decade ago occurred between sex workers and their clients. More recent estimates suggest that 50 percent of the new infections are occurring between spouses, as men who picked up AIDS from prostitutes pass it on to their wives.
The soaring infection rates among younger women are driven partly by social customs that require the women to remain ignorant of sex and sexuality until they marry. Indeed, Unaids researchers have found that a majority of young women in some nations have no idea how to protect themselves from H.I.V. The root problem, especially in many developing nations, is a pervasive gender inequality that keeps women from amassing capital, asserting their rights under the law or even deciding when to have sex. A staggering number of women reported that their first sexual experiences came as a result of rape.
Marginalized in the economy and under the law, women in developing nations are often left with sex as their only marketable resource. In some parts of Africa, older men who take young lovers commonly help the girl's family by paying for school fees and food. Young women who are bartered this way have no standing to refuse sex or ask their partners to use condoms. Marriage and fidelity offer little protection from disease for these women, who typically marry older men who have been sexually active for decades. In some areas, infection rates for young married women who remain faithful are actually higher than for single women not yet in permanent relationships.
AIDS education is crucial in fighting the epidemic. But information alone is not enough. Countries with entrenched epidemics need to enhance women's rights under the law and end retrograde traditions that make them second-class citizens. Only then can women hope to protect themselves.
AIDS wouldn't be much of a problem if it weren't for homosexuals spreading it and expanding its reach. Bug chasers, too.
What do you mean the UN not taking action? I'm sure they've already passed hundreds of resolutions.
I agree it wouldn't be a problem in western nation if not for homosexuality. But in poor countries women and children in the womb are hit very hard. Often because the men are sleeping around and spreading the joys to their wives and families. The liberals are right that the "sexist" customs of these 3rd world nations are significantly a part of the problem. Funny thing is, the liberals won't call Africans or Muslim men what they are, "sexist." It's killing people. It's evolution in front of our eyes, and we should fear it in today's society. I know A SURE CURE for aids. It's called the "New Testament."
"Diversity!"
"Mebbe not......"
Goofusses.
The way to prevent AIDS is with moral behavior.
Supposedly transmission of AIDs has gone hetro in Africa, but I've yet to read an article that explains that. Americans seem to be largely immune to hetro transmission, but Africans are not. How can that be? Or is this stuff all made up to get rich liberals to open their bank accounts?
Marriage and fidelity may not help much in 3rd world countries at this point, but it sure would cut AIDS down significantly in the West. Why liberals can't see what's right in their face is beyond me.
--this is the annual plea for "more money and it will fix the problem" which has been going on for about fifteen-twenty years now--with of course the strong implication that is is just down the street from us, "in the schools," etc.---
Its funny that the times article doesn't mention anything about abstinence education being the only "awareness" or education program that has had much of an effect on AIDS in africa. It has dramatically reduced the rate of HIV infection in Uganda.
These are leftists and commies, they don't want solutions they want posession of the ISSUE.
They have seen how AIDS is a growth industry at the government trough, they now want a piece of the action.
I'v noticed AIDS is not yet a big problem in Islamic countries.
I daresay that there would be far fewer problems in the world -- medical, economic, political, etc., if we realized that they are essentially problems which can be ultimately traced to character defects in individuals and societies.
I agree 100%.
Welcome to Free Republic, care to explain?
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