sisyphusshrugged | W is for... um... er...

bad

IDS virus infections have reached a record high in the world this year, and the number of women with H.I.V. has risen in every region of the world, the United Nations said today.

An estimated 39.4 million people are living with the virus, up from 38.1 million in 2003, the United Nations said in issuing its annual report on AIDS in advance of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

The report focused on women, who make up nearly half of infected adults. The steepest increases in this group over the last two years have occurred in East Asia, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

In Africa, the most heavily affected continent, women account for nearly 60 percent of infected people.

The increasingly female face of H.I.V. in the world "has major implications" because it means that treatment and prevention programs must focus on women if the world wants to stop the epidemic, said Dr. Peter Piot, the director of the United Nations AIDS program in Geneva.

The new trend "touches at the deepest and most profound societal norms that are driving the AIDS epidemic," Dr. Piot told reporters in a telephone news conference.

Often, when a woman becomes a widow, "she loses everything and is pushed to extreme poverty" and forced to sell her body, Dr. Piot said.

So, he also said, "concrete action is necessary to prevent violence against women, and ensure access to property and inheritance rights, basic education and employment opportunities for women and girls."

But even if property rights are protected, new laws need to be passed to protect women against male sexual violence within marriage. Many women cannot refuse to have sex with their infected husbands.

Also, a disproportionately small number of women are receiving anti-H.I.V. drugs. Even if their husbands can afford the anti-retroviral drugs, many refuse to buy them for their wives. And fewer women than men seek anti-retroviral treatment.

not helping

Bush and pro-life forces scored another triumph by securing $25 million to fight sex trafficking that had been withheld last year by Congressional appropriators.

Sex trafficking -- we all want to stop that, right?

Alas, there's a catch:

Half of the $25 million came from money originally intended for the "family planning account" of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

This is in addition to the funds we've already cut off from the UN because they work on family planning with China, only not on abortions or forced sterilization. Just family planning. Which reduces abortion and sterilization.

I guess once they're old enough to make hoodies for Old Navy Chinese babies are not our problem any more.

ed: via