The Oppression of Women Drives The AIDS Epidemic in Africa :: Disease AIDS Essays Africa Women

The Oppression of Women Drives The AIDS Epidemic in Africa Africa is facing a devastating crisis with respect to the AIDS epidemic, currently accounting for over 70% of the worlds human immunodeficiency virus-positive population. There be, of course, many factors that drive the explosive transmission of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, provided in the tangled web that is the epidemic in Africa, many of these issues deal a common thread. The oppression of women in Africa can be considered the virus ethnical vector. Females are rendered powerless in African societies, and brisk gender inequalities are largely responsible for the spread of the disease. Females disadvantaged position in parliamentary procedure is intrinsically linked to the subordination of women in their relationships with men. In order for relegate to be made, an examination of gender relations and empowerment for women must devour place. To be successful, AIDS campaigns must be built on the existing organizati onal skills of women, but must incorporate men as well. The blatantly skewed distribution of power in African patriarchal societies makes women extremely vulnerable but has dangerous implications for all.To examine the forces that steer the epidemic subdue its course, the epidemiology of HIV and AIDS in Africa must first be considered. more than 80% of all HIV infections in Africa are acquired with straightaway contact. This statistic is grossly out of balance with the 13% rate of infection through heterosexual contact in the United States. Vertical transmission from begin to child is the second most common route for the virus to calculate in Africa (Essex et al., 158). These rates are generally much higher than in the United States and Europe, where the use of a drug called neviropine has drastically reduced mother-to-child transmission. This dissimilitude is a direct result of differences in the nations wealth. African nations simply cannot turn over to provide the drug t o infected pregnant women. The continued transmission of HIV through contaminated blood during processes such as blood transfusions is some other dismal consequence of poverty and inferior health services in many African countries. This method accounts for the third most important modal value of transmission, one that has been virtually eradicated in many countries because the technology is available to sustain it (Essex et al., 159). Part of what makes the situation in Africa so devastating is that the primary roadstead the virus travels in Africa were shut down long ago in other countries. Much of the worlds population already takes many of the roadblocks for granted.