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VOL. 27, NO. 32, April 25, 2008 (Baishakh 13 2065 B.S.)
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Ominous Trend
The latest survey on HIV/AIDS infection shows that rural women who do not engage in risky behavior are falling victims
By SANJAYA DHAKAL
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Rural women: Vulnerable |
The biennial survey on HIV/AIDS infection estimation for 2007 by the National Center for AIDS and STD Control (NCASC) has shown that rural women, particularly from mid and far western region, have been increasingly falling victims of the HIV/AIDS infection.
"It is seen that many rural women from mid and far western region who themselves do not engage in any risk behavior are becoming victims of the infection because their husbands who go to India – to places with higher HIV/AIDS prevalence – and bring the infection back home and transmit the same to their spouses," said Dr. Padam Bahadur Chand, director of NCASC.
The survey of 2007 shows that of the 69,790 estimated infections across the country, 21 percent comprise of such rural female.
"Traditionally, men from the mid and far western region have been going to India for seasonal work. These migrant men engage in risky behavior when abroad," said Dr. Chand.
In fact, seasonal migrant laborers comprise of 41 percent of total estimated infections in the country.
Even urban female who do not exhibit risky behavior are falling victims of risky behaviors of their spouses. Of the total, 5.4 percent of the infected persons include such urban females.
"There is now a higher risk of monogamous women being infected because of the behavior of their husbands outside the family or home and here in Nepal it is getting to be an emerging issue, it is getting to be serious," said Dr. Maria Elena Borromes, Country Director of UNAIDS/Nepal.
"The latest survey exposes a new stark reality for us. While the people exhibiting risky behaviors such as unsafe sexual activities, injecting drug users, mobile population (truckers), female sex workers, clients of sex workers have been at risk for long, now we see that even population under low risk such as the housewives are falling victims," said Dr. Chand.
He said that the authorities now need to re-orient their programs to help address the increasing incidences of infection among such low risk population.
"There has to be comprehensive interventions targeting the migrant workers and their families. There has to be pre-departure, as well as reintegration packages," said Dr. Borromes.
The 2007 survey reveals that there are estimate 69,790 people with HIV/AIDS infection in Nepal – a figure which is relatively comparable with 70,352 shown by 2005 survey. "The number looks stable, which could be due to better survey technique employed this time. In fact, globally new surveys have shown that infection number has dropped from 39 million to 34 million. It has been accepted while the infections have not fallen so dramatically, better survey techniques have pushed estimations closer to reality," said Dr. Chand.
Of the total estimated infections, 64,585 comprises of adults between the age of 15 and 49 years of age (with 16,387 of them women). Likewise, 1857 were children below 14 years of age and 3348 were adults above 50 years of age.
The migrant workers, clients of sex workers, female sex workers and mobile population (truckers) continue to be in high risk zone. Almost one-half of the estimated patients come from highway belt region in Terai (49.7 percent). Kathmandu valley contributes to 15.7 percent of the total infections; far west contributes 16 percent with remaining hills contributing 18.6 percent.
