Women with AIDS

For a long timewomen with HIV were ignored because the focus was totally on HIV men.The gaycommunity was very much in sight and vocal and successfully got support

for its cause.Now weare rapidly approaching the point where about one half of all AIDS cases in theworld are women .But no one is taking this dangerously high level of

infection amongwomen seriously enough.

Women usually have aworse time dealing with HIV than men do.In most cases,the woman is taking careof children as well as her sick partner. She may not even have time

to take care ofher-self. The HIV- positive woman ends up shouldering the family as well as herown personal prob- lems.Men,however,are usually the ones who have

insurance income andaccess to doctors.They get care.Women often do not.

The discriminationagainst HIV-positive women is simply terrible.They are likely to be moreinactive than men in home and workplace because too many people think that

women are the causeof the discase .This is not at all true.They get it from a man.They don't justsimply have HIV.Of cause,there's a social discrimination against all people

with HIV.They arescared that other peo- ple will know they are HIV-positive and that theywill,therefore be discriminated against.For ex-ample,it's very difficult forpeople

with HIV totravel.They are not allowed to enter many coun- tries,including the United States,Chinaand Russia.

The biggestdifficulty an HIV-positive woman must face is the isolation.Once the womanknows she's HIV-positive,she lives in fear that other people will find out.She's so

frightened she willgo into hiding,into an isolated place by herself. It's not at all uncommon tomeet a woman who has been HIV-positive for nearly 10 years and has never

told anyone,excepther doctor. And the resulting stress is enough to make her sick.ButHIV-positive women who get support,who can discuss their trouble and then do

something aboutit-whether that means taking better care of them-selves or going to the UnitedNations to struggle for their rights-are likely to live longer. Active women

don't die out ofshame in a corner. This happens to too many HIV-positive women.HIV-positive womenmake up nearly half of all AIDS cases in the world.

A.Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned