Married to AIDS: Women in jeopardy

NST: The latest data on HIV/AIDS spotlights a startling increase in the number of women infected, the Malaysian AIDS Council tells ANNIE FREEDA CRUEZ.
THE number of women infected with HIV and AIDS is on the rise in Malaysia, and the majority of those diagnosed with the disease are housewives.
This will come as a surprise since many think that those women infected are mainly sex workers, says Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC) president Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman.
Between 1986 and June last year, 4,841 women were diagnosed with HIV and AIDS (Health Ministry statistics).
An estimated 582 women died of AIDS.
This figure, according to many in the health field, is conservative as many of those infected suffer in silence and succumb to their illness.
Women with AIDS make up an increasing part of the epidemic. In 1994, women accounted for an estimated 0.9 per cent of adults and adolescents living with AIDS. By the end of 2004, this percentage had grown to seven per cent.
The public has always perceived that majority of the HIV-positive women were sex workers, but studies proved otherwise, says Dr Adeeba.
Among the women infected whose occupations were known, 1,628 were housewives and 406 were sex workers.
By the World Health Organisation definition, Dr Adeeba says, Malaysia’s HIV/AIDS situation is now considered a concentrated epidemic.
"Looking at the trend, the number of women being infected is on the rise and is a cause for concern," she says.
Dr Adeeba attributes the increase to men diagnosed HIV positive being asked to bring their spouses for tests, detection through the antenatal screening programme by the Health Ministry, pre-marital testing and women coming forward for voluntary counselling, testing and screening.
There are women who were unaware of their male partners’ risk for HIV infection. Men who engage in sex with men and women can acquire HIV from a male partner and then transmit the virus to female partners.
Between 1986 and June last year, 62,597 men and 4,841 women were infected with HIV and 9,106 men and 938 women with AIDS. During the same period, 7,091 men and 582 women died of AIDS.
The MAC is working to increase awareness among women on HIV and AIDS and its mode of transmission, says Dr Adeeba.
Empowering women is important, she says, as nothing is better than having peer group education and mobilisation.