Women at risk of AIDS transmission

1993/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna

More than half of the women living in Soweto, South Africa, are at risk for AIDS. The risk derives from their men, who have sex with other women. According to a government report, women know nothing about their partner's customs and use no condom.

AIDS is rapidly expanding through South Africa. According to recent studies, more than 300,000 people are affected by AIDS, which means twice as many people as 12 months ago. Initially they were white homosexuals, but the disease spread rapidly to blacks, and in this group more women than men have become ill. According to the study carried out in Soweto, one of the main reasons for spreading AIDS is the lack of decision-making capacity of women in sex.

In this study, 300 women were analyzed. But in this study, we also analyzed the habits of life and the knowledge of AIDS of the truckers, of the immigrant workers who reside in the lodgings, of the university students, of the homosexual and bisexual human beings and of the prostitutes. The results showed the ignorance of the people. In the women of Soweto, 10% did not know any method to not spread AIDS. Among the people living in the lodgings, a room was considered to be a curable disease and another room thought that protection against AIDS could be achieved through medicinal plants. Half of the truck drivers knew nothing about AIDS.

The study report indicates that in order to address this problem, we must begin by informing the public. But there are also problems for this, since 45% of the population does not read newspapers, since only 20% see television and in South Africa there are more than twenty-seven languages.