Adolescent girls more vulnerable to HIV infections
Mohammad Khairul Alam
The view of poor and developing countries is that women and
adolescent girls are more vulnerable to HIV infection on each
sexual encounter because of the biological nature of the process
and the vulnerability of the reproductive tract tissues to the
virus, especially in adolescent girls.
For example, young women are generally disadvantaged by gender
disparities in terms of food intake and access to health care.
Growth patterns of girls are often worse than that of boys. The
inequalities become evident soon after the birth, and by
adolescence many girls are grossly underweight. Social, cultural
and economic forces make women more likely to contract HIV
infection than men. Women are often less able to negotiate for
safer sex due to reasons such as their lower status, economic
dependence and fear of violence.
Adolescent girls in poor families in developing countries often
do not have the option to make real choices about their sexual
and reproductive lives, such as when and whom to marry, whether
and when to have children and how many to have, and whether to
use contraceptives. Women tend to marry very young: nearly two
thirds of adolescents in most South Asian countries marry before
18 years of age, and many even before 15 years, despite laws
prohibiting such early marriage.
The Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation identified four
major approaches in a groundbreaking study on spread out HIV in
Bangladesh. This study undertook by comparing of social-economic
norm, family pattern, economic dependency, cause of mounting sex
industries, gender discrimination status and global analysis
fact. There are four factors that appear to play a crucial role
in HIV transmission in Bangladesh: Injection/ intravenous drug
use (By sharing needle), female sex work (Due to lack of safe
sex knowledge), gender discrimination (which indirectly force
females commercial or non-commercial sex), Same sex/
homosexually/ Hizra (Due to lack of HIV/AIDS information,
because they act invisible in this society). Poverty and
illiteracy fueled it proportionally.
In many poor regions womens limited economic opportunity and
relative powerlessness may force them into sex work in order to
survive through household financial disaster. This exposes them
to HIV infection and they in turn transmit HIV to their clients.
In those areas girls are particularly vulnerable to HIV
infections because of intergenerational sexual relationships,
violence, and limited access to information. In addition,
discrimination and stigma obstruct adolescent girls access to
health services. Poverty causes increased migration to look for
work.
Gender analysis in relation to HIV/AIDS has tended to focus on
women of reproductive age, and infrequently on young girls,
because young women and girls are increasingly being targeted
for sex by older men seeking safe partners and also by those who
erroneously believe that a man infected with HIV/AIDS will get
rid of the disease by having sex with a virgin. So HIV/AIDS
epidemic has been fuelled by gender inequality or
discrimination. Unequal power relations, sexual coercion and
violence are widely faced by women of all age-groups, and these
have an array of negative effects on female sexual, physical and
mental health. In many developing countries poverty and gender
discrimination between women and men are both strongly linked to
the spread of HIV/AIDS. Gender and age analysis shows the ways
in which women and girls of different ages are vulnerable to the
infection, and it requires support to help the survivors
overcome the financial and social effects of the epidemic. The
approach for checking HIV/AIDS and that of poverty alleviation
are interconnected. Therefore health and development workers
should work on a set of integrated policies and programmes to
reduce poverty and address HIV/AIDS. They should emphasise the
need for special efforts to protect women and girls exposed to
the risk of HIV/AIDS and ensure that the legal, civil and human
rights of those affected and infected are duly protected and
that women have access to treatment, counselling and support on
an equal footing with men.
References: Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation, UNAIDS,
ARDS
About the author:
Mohammad Khairul Alam MSS (Master in Social Science) Date of
Birth : October 29, 1970 Father's Name : Al-Hajj Dr. Mohammad
Abdul Matin, Mother's Name : Mrs. Kadija Matin, Social Worker
Nationality : Bangladeshi by birth
Highlight of qualification - Experience in Gender issue, Non
Formal Education, Technology Based Education, HIV/ AIDS Project
Implementation. - Experience in training planning, workshop,
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