Women living with HIV/AIDS need specifically targeted services, information and support, the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA) has said.

“While women make up only a small percentage of HIV-positive people in Australia, globally HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects women and girls,” said NAPWA President Ms Gabe McCarthy. “And women are affected by HIV in different ways to men.”

Women may experience more rapid HIV disease progression, different opportunistic infections, different and more severe treatment side effects, and may respond less well to anti-HIV treatment than men.

“HIV-positive women in Australia often find themselves simultaneously managing illness, work, and parenting responsibilities — yet they have few services specifically targeted to their needs,” said NAPWA Director Katherine Leane.

Recent calls for routine HIV screening of pregnant women will do little to improve the lives of positive women, the organisation said. Nor will they address the reasons why women may be at risk of HIV in the first place.

“Both in Australia and internationally, experience has shown that increasing access to support and information leads to better results than mandatory HIV testing, which can worsen the stigma and discrimination already faced by positive women,” said McCarthy. “HIV testing without genuine informed consent is an infringement of basic human rights. We don’t want to see that in Australia or anywhere else.”

“By providing better information, better support and counselling, and by supporting rather than eroding women’s rights, the government can ensure that women at risk choose to come forward for testing, secure in the knowledge that they can get the support and care they need.”

NAPWA applauded the Prime Minister’s recent calls at the APEC summit for leadership on HIV/AIDS, but called on Mr Howard to back up his words with action.

“Australia has been a leader in responding to HIV/AIDS for more than two decades,” said McCarthy, “but lately we’ve started following where once we led. With the federal government about to sign off on a Fifth National HIV/AIDS Strategy, the opportunity is there for us to regain some of that lost ground. All it takes is leadership.”

For more details contact:

• Gabe McCarthy — NAPWA President — (0407) 892 446
• Katherine Leane — NAPWA Director — (08) 8293 2339 or (0410) 707 923
• Paul Kidd — NAPWA Media Officer — (03) 9285 5358 or (0438) 203 754