Observing World AIDS Day

Since today is the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, "Happy" would definitely be the wrong greeting to put in front of the title.

HIV stands for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus -- the virus that leads to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

HIV attacks the body’s immune system, our defense against infection and disease, and weakens it over time. A person who has HIV gradually loses the protection of his or her immune system and begins to experience health problems. These may be fairly small problems at first – skin problems or yeast infections – but over time the illnesses become more serious. The amount of time that it takes HIV to begin to affect a person’s health varies widely from one individual to another.

When a person is diagnosed with one of the serious illnesses or cancers which are “AIDS-defining,” the person is then said to have AIDS.

Since the early 1990s, the rate of new HIV infections has declined among men who have sex with men and among injection drug users. This is good news.

But in contrast, infections arising from heterosexual contact have risen steadily, from 13% in 1993 to 43.8% in 2003. And the greatest increase in new infections has been among young women, aged 15 to 29. At present, heterosexual transmission accounts for nearly 75% of all new infections in women.

Physiological differences between females and males – sex - place women at greater risk of infection. But social roles and cultural expectations - gender - are critical factors in women's heightened vulnerability to HIV infection. Because women often have less power - social, economic, political - than men in our society, it can be difficult or even impossible for many to refuse sex or negotiate safer sex.

Gender roles and stereotypes also hinder women's ability to manage HIV and AIDS-related infections. Women diagnosed with HIV tend to, according to Health Canada "have a lower survival rate than men" in part due to "late diagnosis and delay of treatment because of misdiagnosis of early symptoms; exclusion from drug trials and lack of access to antiviral treatment; lack of research into the natural history of HIV in women; higher rates of poverty among women and lack of access to adequate health care; and the tendency of many women to make self-care a lower priority than the care of children and family."

While women as a group are more vulnerable than men to HIV infection and AIDS-related illnesses, some populations of women face significantly greater risks. For example, HIV affects more than twice as many Aboriginal as non-Aboriginal women in Canada. As elsewhere in the world, women in Canada who are most disadvantaged and marginalized are also most vulnerable to HIV.

On the whole, policies and programs aimed at HIV prevention, treatment, care, support and impact mitigation have not focussed on, nor - in some cases - even taken account of the differential needs of women and the gender dimensions of the epidemic.

If you've made it this far, I'd encourage you to observe World AIDS Day by seeking out and supporting an organization committed to providing support for some of the more marginalized members of our society.

In Toronto, three excellent organizations that I know of are: Voice of Positive Women (www.vopw.org), The Teresa Group (www.teresagroup.ca) and Casey House (www.caseyhouse.com).