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pinto

(106,886 posts)
Wed Jul 25, 2012, 02:20 PM Jul 2012

AIDS experts: Women need more help in AIDS battle (AP via Yahoo)

AIDS experts: Women need more help in AIDS battle

By Lauran Neergaard | Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — AIDS specialists heard fresh appeals Wednesday to expand assistance for women far beyond a global focus on pregnancy.

Many countries have increased treatment of HIV-infected pregnant women to lower their chances of infecting their babies. But UNICEF's Dr. Chewe Luo said that most countries don't automatically continue anti-AIDS drugs for those women after their babies are weaned — important for keeping them healthy long-term. She praised Malawi for starting to do just that.

And she said adolescent girls — the 10- to 18-year-olds — are too often ignored by global HIV testing, prevention and treatment programs. Without protecting them, Luo said, all the investment for healthy babies was for nothing.

<snip>

Giving women tools to protect themselves when their partners won't use a condom is crucial for battling the AIDS epidemic. Women already make up half of the 34.2 million people worldwide living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS; even more — 60 percent — in hard-hit Africa are women.

http://news.yahoo.com/aids-experts-women-more-help-aids-battle-152245005.html
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