Source: Swazi Observer
Lowering the number of girls and women who are infected by HIV is key to ending the epidemic in Swaziland. Worldwide, women account for half of people living with HIV and AIDS, and in Swaziland the figure is more than half. 

This has changed since AIDS first appeared in the 1980s, when most people living with the disease were men.

The United Nation’s organisation UNDP notes, “Most of the women living with HIV today are in the prime of their productive lives. Simply being identified as living with HIV may result in discrimination, gender-based violence, unemployment and abandonment.”

Further identifying the trauma that accompanies women who are HIV-positive, the organisation says, “The death of women from AIDS deprives families and communities of these women’s love, care, resourcefulness and enterprise. 

The epidemic affects young and old alike. HIV injures those who fall ill and those who survive, from a teenage girl who barters sexual favours for school fees to a grandmother who toils to care for a household of orphans.”

Health workers from all over the world have confronted ways to reduce HIV transmission amongst women and girls. They have come up with five important preventions:

ONE: An educated girl and woman is less likely to be infected with HIV
According to UNAIDS, illiterate women are four times more likely to believe there is no way to prevent HIV infection, while in Africa and Latin America, girls with higher levels of education tend to delay first sexual experience and are more likely to insist their partner use a condom.
Educating girls has the added advantage of delaying their marriage and increasing their earning ability, both of which reduce their vulnerability to HIV. 
Educated women are also more likely to access health services for themselves and their children, and to oppose negative cultural practices that can compromise their health.

TWO: A clinic nearby is a life saver
In many developing countries, women have very limited access to vital reproductive health services. A combination of biological and social factors means women are more vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which, if left untreated, increase their vulnerability to HIV.
Women living in humanitarian crises are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence and require services such as free, easily available condoms and safe blood for transfusions.
Improving access to reproductive health services enables women to make informed choices in determining family size and preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission.

THREE: Ending violence against women and girls is essential
Throughout the world, one in three women has been beaten, experienced sexual violence or otherwise been abused in their lifetime, according to the UN.  One in five will be a victim of rape or attempted rape. More often than not, the perpetrators are known to the women.
Practices such as early marriage and human trafficking all increase women's vulnerability to HIV, but more accepted forms of violence, such as marital rape, also play a large part in increasing women’s HIV risk.
According to UNAIDS, investment in HIV programming policies and addressing gender inequality and gender-based violence will help to achieve universal targets of HIV prevention, treatment and care.

FOUR: The economic empowerment of women boosts their health
When it comes to labour, women do two-thirds of the world's work but receive only 10 percent of the world's income and own just own 1 percent of the means of production.
Poverty prevents poor women from controlling when sexual intercourse takes place and if a condom is used, and often forces women into risky transactional sex to feed themselves and their families.
According to a study conducted on the subject, empowerment activities such as micro-finance give women access to and control over vital economic resources, ultimately enhancing their ability not only to mitigate the impact of HIV, but also to be less vulnerable to HIV.

FIVE: Men’s concern with women’s health is beneficial
Men cannot be bystanders when it comes to the health of their wives, daughters and female family members. They must get involved. More often than not, men control the dynamics of how, when and where sex happens. Encouraging more men to use condoms consistently has the knock-on effect of protecting their sexual partners from unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
By looking after their own health, men can boost the health of their wives. Men are less likely than women to seek health services; in the case of men involved with multiple women, this means that sexually-transmitted infections remain untreated for long periods while their female partners are also at risk of infection.
Teaching boys and young men to respect women, to be more involved in family activities and to avoid negative behaviour such as gender violence and alcohol abuse helps groom a generation of men who are less likely to take risks that endanger themselves and their families.

 

 

• Swaziland