Cultural Taboos Increase Women's HIV Risk

An estimated 16.4 million women are infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and their situation is made worse by cultural taboos that make it difficult to discuss the disease. A group of the first ladies from Malaysia, Fiji, Tonga, Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan said that poverty and low social standing were also hampering education and treatment efforts for women throughout the region.

"There are cultural taboos that prevent the old and young, parents and children from getting this message across," said Princess Nanasipauu Tukuaho, the wife of the prime minister of the island of Tonga. "The barrier is inhibition to sex education. We need to get the information to village elders and religious leaders in rural areas," she said. Rural and islander women are also at risk for infection because they lack the power to negotiate for safer sex with their partners, said the first lady of Malaysia, Siti Hasmah Binti Haji Mohd Ali.

Fallout from economic crises in the region has also taken a toll. There are fears that in Fiji more women are turning to prostitution as a means to support their families following last year's coup, said the first lady of Fiji, Adi Salaseini Kavu Uluivuda. And in Papua New Guinea, women account for 45 percent of HIV cases. More than 89 percent of them were infected through heterosexual intercourse. Local health authorities in Papua New Guinea estimate that up to 15,000 people, or 0.6 percent, of the adult population have HIV. Among female sex workers in the capital, Port Moresby, the infection rate is 17 percent.

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