AIDS Virus Leading Cause Of Death In Women

The World Health Organization said Monday that the AIDS virus is the leading cause of death and disease among women between the ages of 15 and 44. 

The WHO said that unsafe sex is the leading risk factor in developing countries for these women of childbearing age, with others including lack of access to contraceptives and iron deficiency.  This was the WHO’s first study of women’s health around the globe. 

According to the U.N. agency, one in five deaths among women throughout the world in this age group is linked to unsafe sex.

"Women who do not know how to protect themselves from such infections, or who are unable to do so, face increased risks of death or illness," the WHO said in a 91-page report. "So do those who cannot protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy or control their fertility because of lack of access to contraception."

The data was included in a report that highlights the unequal health treatment a female faces from childbirth through infancy carrying on into old age.

Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO’s chief, said that women enjoy a biological advantage because they tend to live six to eight years longer than men.  However, she said that throughout the world they suffer serious disadvantages because of poverty, poorer access to health care and cultural norms that put a priority on the well being of men.

According to the statistics from 2004, nearly 15 percent of deaths in adult women occur in maternity.  Chan said this was a "preventable tragedy," and that discrimination extends throughout a women’s life, from girlhood disease that are not identified because they are not sicknesses affecting boys, to clinical trials and medicines developed on the basis of curing adult males.

"We will not see a significant improvement in the health of women until they are no longer recognized as second-class citizens in many parts of the world," Chan told journalists in Geneva.

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