ZAMBIA: AIDS treatment forgets women

There has been no systematic attempt to inform Zambian women about HIV/AIDS or even encourage them to go for testing and access anti-AIDS treatment, a former government official has said.

Although Health Minister Brian Chituwo recently boasted that 6,000 out of a targeted 10,000 HIV-positive people had access to government-subsidised AIDS drugs, research shows that women constituted less than 10 percent of that number.

"Women are not being specifically targeted - as usual, all the activity is focused on men. Why don't medical people insist that a man brings his wife when he is being given antiretrovials?" former health minister Nkundu Luo was quoted as saying by the news service, PANOS.

According to the National AIDS Council (NAC), which monitors the provision of AIDS drugs, only 800 women have accessed treatment since March 2004.

Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews, Other,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]