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Homemakers at High Risk for AIDS, Doctors Say
Suvendrini Kakuchi
5 July 2005
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Abstract (Document Summary)
Pharozin, a member of the Cambodian People Living with HIV/AIDS Network
supported by UNIFEM is in Kobe to tell her story and also call for more
support for HIV-infected women like herself.
The increasing feminization of AIDS in the Asia Pacific region has been
highlighted at the regional congress where a new report by UNAIDS
revealed that the number of women living with HIV in the region has
increased by 20 percent since 2002 to around 2.3 million and that AIDS
has claimed some 540,000 lives in 2004.
Sneha Samaj was abandoned by her family after she was found HIV positive
and sought refuge in a shelter run by nuns till she met Sumi Devkota,
from Caram Nepal, a women's organization supporting HIV positive sex
workers.
KOBE, Japan, Jul. 4, 2005 (IPS/GIN) -- Pheng Pharozin, 25, a soft spoken
Cambodian woman was happily married with an infant daughter when she
tested positive for HIV two years ago.
"I never thought I would be infected because I had sexual relations only
with my husband," explained Pharozin at the 7th International Congress
of AIDS in Asia and the Pacific that ends Tuesday after five days of
deliberations.
Pharozin, a member of the Cambodian People Living with HIV/AIDS Network
supported by UNIFEM is in Kobe to tell her story and also call for more
support for HIV-infected women like herself.
As a member of the Asia Pacific Network (APN), an advocacy group
supporting HIV-positive people in the region she is here to lobby for
urgently needed protection for Asian women who are now categorized as a
high-risk sector despite being homemakers or innocent young women
married off to men they hardly know.
"I was devastated when I discovered I was infected by my husband who
later died of AIDS," said Pharozin who only found solace after she was
helped by APN.
The increasing feminization of AIDS in the Asia Pacific region has been
highlighted at the regional congress where a new report by UNAIDS
revealed that the number of women living with HIV in the region has
increased by 20 percent since 2002 to around 2.3 million and that AIDS
has claimed some 540,000 lives in 2004.
In Cambodia, for example, the number of HIV positive women have inched
over men in recent years- there were 67,500 women compared to 65, 000
men reported in 2004.
While the majority of women infected were sex workers, national
statistics also indicated that 45 percent of new HIV infections among
women indicate infections were from husbands to wives this year.
Medical doctors and activists, who included infected women, spoke about
the pressing need for more programs geared to help this sector who face
severe stigma, social inequality and are economically marginalized.
Said Sneha Samaj, an infected Nepalese woman, "Life for HIV positive
women is terribly hard because we face double discrimination - we are
women and are also infected. It is only through building our confidence
that we can survive."
Samaj was abandoned by her family after she was found HIV positive and
sought refuge in a shelter run by nuns till she met Sumi Devkota, from
Caram Nepal, a women's organization supporting HIV positive sex workers.
"Our program is geared to help women realize there is hope and Sneha was
the first to speak about being positive. Her courageous step has helped
her to get treatment and made her an advocate for other women,"
explained Devkota.
Experts pointed out the plight of Nepalese sex workers who travel to
India and other neighbouring countries and are in need of urgent
attention.
Statistics gathered by activists reveal that more than 60 percent of
Nepalese sex workers who return from Mumbai are HIV positive and,
despite many of them being the main breadwinners for their family, have
no support and are abandoned by their families when testing positive for
HIV.
Experts also spoke out about the need to protect female Asian domestic
workers who are also at high risk when they travel to other countries
for work.
Surveys show female domestic labour face discrimination in the countries
where they are employed, are not protected by laws and have no health
insurance, a situation that makes them extremely vulnerable to sexual
abuse by their employers.
Statistics also show female domestic labour are lonely being away from
home leading to risky sexual activity - only 13 percent of migrant
Filipino workers in Hong Kong use condoms.
A presentation by Pravina Gurung, an expert at the Institute of
Development Studies based in Nepal, focused on the subject of infection
by spouses.
"Women in Asia are cloistered and hardly have any information on HIV and
how to protect themselves from infection. They rarely speak to their
husbands about using a condom or ask about their sex lives if their
husbands are male migrants such as truck drivers," she explained.
Overall experts stressed the need for the empowerment of women as the
best protection. To achieve this, they also called for men to be
educated which is expecially important in male-dominated Asian
societies.
Amudha Hari, an Indian gynaecologist, explained that infection of
spouses is a sign of how AIDS has now reached the general population in
Asia and indicative of the critical situation facing Asian countries.
"Globalization has changed Asian societies rapidly along with sexual
practices among single and working women. More information and open
attitudes towards talking about sex and disease is crucial now to
contain the HIV problem," she said.
Source: Global Information Network. New York: Jul 5, 2005. pg. 1
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