Marriage can put women at higher risk of HIV

Marriage can put women at higher risk of HIV, meeting told

SPC headquarters, Noumea, New Caledonia, Thursday May 31, 2007: Women are most at risk of contracting HIV from the men they should trust the most – their husbands. And biological differences between the sexes mean that women, especially young women, are more easily infected.

This was the sobering message delivered to delegates at the 10thTriennial of Pacific Women, being held at Secretariat of the Pacific Community headquarters in New Caledonia.

Heterosexual sex accounted for 90.7 per cent of all HIV cases recorded in Pacific Island countries and territories to the end of 2005, said Robyn Drysdale, Behaviour Change Communication Specialist with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

“While married women can be at risk of HIV infection through their own sexual practices,"she said, “they are mainly vulnerable and at risk from the sexual relationships of their husbands, and from violence that happens within and outside of marriages, including rape and forced sex.

“In Papua New Guinea, marriage has been identified as a risk factor for women for HIV infection.”

Increasing numbers of women across the Pacific were becoming infected, Ms Drysdale added. “Reported new infections in Papua New Guinea, for example, are now higher among women than men, especially among younger women”.

Women often had little power in sexual relations, and were unable to demand their partners used condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV.

Studies had identified coerced sex and rape in Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Federated States of Micronesia(FSM), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Samoa and Tonga.

Ms Drysdale says that group rape was revealed across Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, FSM,Nauru, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu.

Biological reasons increased women’s risk, especially that of younger women. The amount of body fluid exchanged during sex made women vulnerable, she said.

In addition, the skin of women’s genitals was more easily torn, which gave the virus a direct path to the bloodstream.

“If sex is forced or rough this further increases the chance of transmission,” said Ms Drysdale.

ENDS

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