Health rights for women in the age of AIDS

Abstract

Gender inequality continues to fuel the 20-year old HIV/AIDS epidemic in many countries. In sub-Saharan Africa the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimated that the prevalence of HIV in men and women are 10.1 and 12.2 million respectively. In view of this Zena Stein and colleagues concerted their attention towards the particular problems of women and AIDS. Since the efforts of Zena and others in the late 1980s women have clearly been the focus of much work on HIV/AIDS. Health educators and community activists have concentrated on women for education about prevention. In spite of this the 1:1 prevalence sex ratio of women to men found at the outset has now risen to as high as 3:1 in the 15-29 age groups. In this perspective many concerned health leaders are calling the attention to men as those generally wielding greater power in heterosexual relationships. It has been shown that an appropriate address to the HIV/AIDS epidemic requires understanding evolving visions of gender and sexuality among women in southern Africa. Moreover the evidence of mens flexibility such as change their images of masculinity; helping with child care and limited their sexual partners also suggests hopeful directions for HIV/AIDS prevention. Finally but of considerable importance are responses to the threat of HIV/AIDS in which communities adapt collective strategies locally and social movements may grow in broader scale and thus transform the available options for prevention and treatment.