Through sexual slavery, rape, poverty, lack of education, vulnerability and so many other reasons of systemic gender based violence women are especially vulnerable to HIV AIDS and as primary carers in most cases, are the ones dealing with HIV/AIDS in children.

Read this year's address and report from UN AIDS - the site includes video, images and latest statistics.

UN AIDS estimates that around 30.8 million adults and 2 million children were living with HIV at the end of 2007.
In sub-Saharan Africa, women constitute 60% of people living with HIV. By the end of 2005, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 17.5 million women worldwide were infected with HIV. The percentage of women as HIV /AIDS sufferers globally has continued to rise over the past decade.
Women across the world are particularly vulnerable to heterosexual transmission of HIV (due to substantial mucosal exposure to seminal fluids). This is coupled with high levels of non-consensual sex, sex without condom use, and the unknown and/or high-risk behaviors of male partners.

War and violence

Rape continues to be used as a weapon of war and intimidation by those in power or those wanting to gain power. Single, widowed, young, elderly, married - all women are vulnerable to these brutal actions that increase risk of HIV/AIDS infection.

Poverty

Reports indicate that child brides are on the increasing in the less developed world and that the global food crisis is creating a situation where more families are sending young daughters into marriage to deal with poverty. Forced into sexual slavery or left with no option, prostitution becomes a means to providing food or security for some families. With very little education, no availability of condoms, or no decision making power by the woman - HIV/AIDS infection is a very real prospect for millions of women forced into prostitution all over the world.

Treatment

Women may face barriers in receiving treatment or even disclosing that they have HIV/AIDS due to their lack of access to and control over resources, child-care responsibilities, restricted mobility and limited decision-making power. The stigma associated with carrying HIV / AIDS can be a barrier to community and societal interaction. Women may be shunned from their community, and certainly be unlikely to find a husband - which in many countries is a certainty of a life in poverty and without choices.

Women Defending Health

Read these accounts of incredible women working in often very adverse situations to provide care, information, options to fellow women. The website includes women from Russia, Ethiopia and all over the world who have established clinics, worked around the system, defied norms and found ways to provide the assistance most needed to those suffering from HIV/AIDS and to prevent the further spread of HIV/AIDS.

The systemic abuse of women removes their rights, access to justice, to education, to choice, the ability to earn money and just one effect of this is increased exposure to HIV/AIDS.

UN AIDS latest information on women and HIV across the world.

World Health Organisation (WHO) overview of women and HIV.

Gender, Women and Health Reoprts by WHO

International Labour Organisation (ILO) 2004 report addressing the factors of HIV AIDS around the world and comparing statistics over the years.