Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - December 1, 2004
About 400 aid workers were at the Islamabad conference with a focus on empowering women in a region where men usually have a dominant role in society.
The three-day conference, which started Monday, was to mark World AIDS Day on Wednesday with a regional agenda for change in HIV/AIDS prevention.
A Malaysian delegate warned on Tuesday that AIDS will spread unchecked if the sex industry is ignored in the region, where even discussing sex is taboo in many countries.
"Sex work cannot be abolished. We must recognize these sex workers are human beings, too," Khartini Slamah of the Malaysian aid group APNSW said at the conference. "It's not just about providing condoms; it's also providing information in how to use them."
"The empowerment of women is the best vaccine we now have against AIDS," added Noeleen Heyder, the director of UNIFEM, the U.N. fund for women.
But that isn't easy in a region with conservative, male-dominated societies, where hundreds of thousands of women are forced or deceived into the international sex trade.
Slamah said that too often, government programs to find alternative professions don't create attractive options to the sex industry.
"We don't need any more sewing machines," she said. "What we need are equal jobs like other people."
Experts say females are 2.5 times more susceptible to contracting AIDS than males. The steepest increases in the number of women living with the AIDS-causing virus HIV in the past two years have been in East Asia - up 56% - and Central Asia and Eastern Europe, both up 48%, according to a new U.N. report.
The growing problem of intravenous drug abuse is a major contributing factor, with an estimated 65% of addicts sharing needles. Tariq Zafar of the Pakistani group Naizindagi said there has been a "tremendous shift" from smoking heroin to injecting it.
The need for money to finance a spouse's addiction often forces women into the sex trade, other officials said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz vowed his country "will fight with full strength against HIV/AIDS."
"It is painful reality that women in this region are generally more illiterate, having less mobility, a lower socio-economic status and less access to health care and education that men," Aziz said.
"This imbalance needs to be viewed as a key impediment not only to the prevention of AIDS, but also to development and good governance."
041201
AP041203
Copyright © 2004 - Associated Press. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the AP Permissions Desk.
AEGiS is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, tax-exempt, educational corporation. AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted funding from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Elton John AIDS Foundation, National Library of Medicine, and donations from users like you.
Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2004. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.
Copyright ©1980, 2004. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .