UN Population Fund urges action to protect women, youth from HIV infection

With women and young people facing heightened risk of HIV infection, much more must be done to enable them to protect themselves against catching the virus which causes AIDS, an official from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) told the XIV International AIDS Conference in Barcelona today.

“We know what to do, but we must do so on a broader scale,” Suman Mehta, UNFPA’s HIV/AIDS Coordinator, told reporters during the launch of a new report on the agency’s support for HIV prevention efforts in developing countries.

Women are physically more vulnerable than men to HIV infection, while poverty and gender discrimination often put them at greater risk, she stressed. Young people of both sexes suffer from stigma, discrimination, misinformation and denial of access to services.

To counter this, UNFPA supports hundreds of projects around the world aimed at ensuring that young people know how to avoid infection and have access to services, helping pregnant women protect against HIV, and guaranteeing that condoms are readily available and are used consistently and correctly.

Funding for HIV prevention efforts, as for treatment programmes, is far short of global needs, according to UNFPA. The agency cited statistics showing that at least 8 billion condoms are needed annually for protection against HIV/AIDS in developing countries and Eastern Europe, but wealthy countries contribute fewer than 1 billion condoms - less than a decade ago.