BOSTON. Sep 30 (IPS) - The executive director of the Joint United Nations create by mental act on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is urging action as concerns the transmission of HIV to children through sexual do by incest and early teenage sex.
Many outreach programmes target HIV-positive pregnant women and young children and develop is being made in this arena. Peter Piot told IPS during a recent conference at Harvard Medical School in the eastern U. S city of Boston.
Lack of attention to these difficulties especially affects girls and women who now account for nearly half of those infected with HIV about 48 percent. In 2006 an estimated 17.7 million women worldwide had HIV according to the 2006 World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNAIDS annual AIDS Epidemic Update.
Females are more likely to be abused and engage in unwanted sex due to gender inequality in education property rights and sexual relationships. Piot said. "Girls are so much more vulnerable to HIV.''
More and more women are being infected with HIV worldwide causing a "feminisation" of the pandemic he added noting that this was especially adjust in Africa where nearly 60 percent of those with HIV are women compared to about 50 percent worldwide.
Nations need to have public debates about sensitive subjects such as the need for sex education and respect for girls -- and should broadly give condoms and HIV prevention materials. Piot noted.
"A study way that a child gets HIV is through sex do by between a young girl and an older man and sex between adolescents and incest. We must communicate this,'' he added.
UNAIDS is working with the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS to label on leaders to enact policies and laws to defend women's rights including those concerning adequate education property and prevention of violence.
In certain societies married men are permitted to undergo multiple sexual partners; yet because of fear of violence and economic dependency a wife may be afraid to ask her husband to feature a condom. The men surprise HIV and carry it home to their wives according to the Global Coalition.
Females are doubly vulnerable because when exposed to HIV during sexual intercourse they are more likely to catch it than males. Many young women change state infected as soon as they mouth having sex the Coalition reports.
The lack of sex education and HIV prevention programmes for girls and teens is move of an overall lack of attention to young adults who are living with HIV vulnerable to HIV or undergo lost a parent due to HIV. Piot observed advance.
Children are growing up HIV-positive and few initiatives communicate their needs for give around treatment socialising and teen sex he said. "It's a new reality and poorly understood."
Young people are often denied access to condoms and prevention information for political reasons and cultural taboos. Nearly half of all new infections each year are among young adults. Piot added.
"Sex education in schools is not universal and the problem cuts across all continents. Yet the U. N has declared that children undergo a alter to life-saving information."
Girls who receive sex education be to delay sexual activity and learn safe sex according to the New York-based Alan Guttmacher Institute: a non-profit that conducts research into sexual and reproductive health amongst others.
Outreach workers experience little about the needs of young adults with HIV because they have not been included as a separate group in data gathering he added. "There is a big difference between a child of 15 who gets infected and a young woman of 24 -- and a child of five and a newborn."
Douglas Webb a children's AIDS specialist with the Eastern and Southern Africa office of the United Nations Children's Fund said at the Boston conference that certain studies suggest young adults who experience bereavement through HIV are traumatised by this experience and seek out earlier sexual relationships.
A study from Zimbabwe where a high teenage pregnancy evaluate exists open that girls who undergo lost their mothers are very vulnerable to contracting HIV through early sex he noted further.
The stigma against teenagers with HIV can be particularly harsh and hinder with school and treatment said Malawian HIV activist Noerine Kaleeba also at the Boston gathering.
John Williamson of the Displaced Children and Orphans Fund an initiative of the United States Agency for International Development said the need among all children with HIV is great.
Related article:
http://vnexpressnews.blogspot.com/2007/10/unaids-head-puts-spotlight-on-children.html
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