Women with Violent Partners Have Raised HIV Risk

[Guest guest]

Women with Violent Partners Have Raised HIV Risk

By Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - Women whose partners are violent and domineering

have a 50 percent increased risk of being infected with HIV, which

causes AIDS, scientists said on Friday.

In the first study to assess the impact of gender-based violence as a

risk factor for HIV/AIDS in South Africa, researchers found that

women in abusive relationships are more likely to be infected with

the deadly virus.

" Women with violent or controlling male partners are at an increased

risk of HIV, " Dr Jewkes, of the Medical Research Council in

Pretoria, said in a report in The Lancet medical journal.

Half of the 40 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, which

killed three million people last year, are women.

Jewkes and her team interviewed 1,366 pregnant South African women at

four clinics in Soweto about their partner, their sexual behavior and

violence in their relationship. The women were also tested for HIV.

More than one in five pregnant women are infected with HIV in most

countries in southern Africa, according to UNAIDS, the UN agency

leading the global battle against HIV/AIDS.

In South Africa the figure is between 22-25 percent.

The researchers found that women who had been physically abused or

whose partner had excessive control in the relationship had a 50

percent higher rate of HIV infection than other women.

AIDS experts promote the ABCs -- Abstinence, Being faithful and

Condom use -- to prevent HIV infection but it will have little impact

if women are forced to have sex.

" These ABCs presume that one has a certain level of control over

one's own behavior and one's partner's behavior and if that is a

complete fallacy, as it is for many women, you need to start thinking

very differently about how you intervene, " said Dr Dunkle, a

co-author of the report from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Fifty-five percent of the women questioned in the study reported

being physically or sexually assaulted by a male partner. More than

30 percent had been assaulted within the last 12 months and one in

five had been assaulted more than once within the last year.

" Just that prevalence figure is something people need to think about

in terms of HIV counseling and testing services, " Dunkle added in an

interview.

Earlier this year UNAIDS and equal rights campaigners launched a

coalition to improve prevention and treatment for young women and

girls with HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa where twice as many young

females are infected with HIV than men.

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