Women and HIV/AIDS: the challenge continues.In July of this year, over 14,000 activists, academics, health professionals and other experts committed to confronting the HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome pandemic pandemic /pan·dem·ic/ (pan-dem´ik) 1. a widespread epidemic of a disease. 2. widely epidemic. pan·dem·ic adj. Epidemic over a wide geographic area. n. met in Barcelona, Spain for the 14th International AIDS Conference Education, networking and the promotion of best practice are essential to enhancing the response to HIV/AIDS. IAS conferences provide opportunities to share experience, and increase the knowledge and expertise of professionals working in HIV/AIDS. . Representatives of international agencies and civil society, government officials, women and men living with HIV/AIDS, sex workers, media specialists and many others added their global and interdisciplinary perspectives to this renewed attempt to address the social, economic, humanitarian and public health challenges of HIV/AIDS. This burgeoning attendance also dramatically illustrated the continued importance of prevention efforts since a similar number of women and men of all ages become infected with HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. each day, primarily in developing countries where rates of HIV transmission are higher, life expectancies are dropping and development is being threatened. As the conference participants demonstrated, HIV/AIDS does not discriminate: it affects women and men, heterosexuals, homosexuals and bisexuals, young and old, rich and poor. Nonetheless, there is clear evidence that certain sectors of the population are more vulnerable: rates of transmission are accelerating among women and young people and among those living in poverty or facing marginalization mar·gin·al·ize tr.v. mar·gin·al·ized, mar·gin·al·iz·ing, mar·gin·al·iz·es To relegate or confine to a lower or outer limit or edge, as of social standing. and social exclusion social exclusion Noun Sociol the failure of society to provide certain people with those rights normally available to its members, such as employment, health care, education, etc. . At the Barcelona conference, these and other aspects were analyzed and debated from a range of perspectives, and women's groups were among those who raised their voices to denounce abuses and lobby for change. In one such undertaking, a coalition of activists joined forces under the name Women @ Barcelona to develop a series of initiatives before, during and after the conference to raise public awareness about HIV/AIDS and women's rights The effort to secure equal rights for women and to remove gender discrimination from laws, institutions, and behavioral patterns. The women's rights movement began in the nineteenth century with the demand by some women reformers for the right to vote, known as suffrage, and . This group will continue their laudable efforts through the next two years leading up to the next conference to be held in Bangkok. The following section includes the complete text of the Barcelona Declaration of Rights drafted by Women@Barcelona, as well as two articles on women and HIV/AIDS and other useful references on the HIV/AIDS issue. |
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