Jared Ferrie

Women focus of AIDS talk

Social, physical factors behind rising infection rate, B.C. expert says

Women were in the spotlight at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto yesterday, as new study results revealed that Canadian women are suffering from HIV/AIDS at a growing rate.

At a panel entitled Women at the Frontline in the AIDS Response, Melinda Gates called for increased testing of microbicides — an odourless, clear vaginal gel — and oral prevention drugs.

Those products would give women the power to avoid being infected by men who refuse to use condoms.

Worldwide, almost half of all HIV positive adults are women. In Canada, the figure is 27 per cent.

Gates' call to action came as details of a new study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information were released, showing that the proportion of females hospitalized with HIV/AIDS almost doubled to 23 per cent over the past decade.

Paul Lewand, chair of the BC Persons with AIDS Society, said the increase reflects the fact that women are physically and socially susceptible to the disease.

New Canadians are most at risk, he explained, because many face intolerable pressure to act out roles prescribed to them by men.

Frank Yang of the Asian Society for the Intervention of AIDS agreed. He added that sex workers are another group in need of help and empowering them is crucial to controlling the spread of the disease.

He gave the example of a woman who became infected with HIV last year while working as a prostitute. A refugee from China, she didn't speak English and had limited job skills when she was recruited to work in a Lower Mainland massage parlour.

The woman sometimes complied with men who wanted condom-free sex, because she needed the money to feed her two children and pay the rent, said Yang.

Gates accused many governments of ignoring such women.

"It's a group that's part of society," she said. "If we don't acknowledge that, we can't begin to tackle the problem."