ETHIOPIA: Women leading with HIV rates

Ethiopian women are now more affected by HIV/AIDS than the general population, ministry of health officials have said.

In its national surveillance report for 2006, the ministry recorded an HIV prevalence rate of 5 percent among women, compared with 4.4 percent in the general population.

The Ethiopian Health Minister, Kebede Worku, attributed these increased rates to the low socioeconomic status of women, South Africa's Mail and Guardian newspaper reported.

Worku also noted that women were still inadequately targeted by treatment programmes, and that only 46 percent of the 35,000 people who had been receiving antiretroviral drugs from the government since January 2005 were women.

Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews,

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