AIDS - Killer Number One Amongst Women

If you had to think what the number one cause of death in women who are between the ages of 15 and 44 was, what would you answer? With October just having passed, and ribbons of pink cascading all over town, my first thought would be breast cancer. But haven’t I also heard about heart disease being the silent killer of women between those ages? Perhaps, it is some dreaded disease that I have not even heard of (cue the thumping of my hypochondriac heart and the frantic pounding of fingers on my keyboard as I race to my favorite bookmarked medical websites)! You might be surprised at the answer. The number one killer and contributor of disease to women in this age range is AIDS, according to the World Health Organization who recently concluded its first global study on women’s health.

Here is a statistic that may have you running out to buy a jumbo size pack of condoms. Worldwide, twenty percent of deaths in the above-specified age group are due to unsafe sex practices. In developing countries, worldwide, in fact, participating in unsafe sex has been deemed the number one risk factor. Other important risk factors include not having easy access to contraceptives like condoms and, surprisingly, having iron deficiencies. In its 91-page report of its findings, the WHO states, “Women who do not know how to protect themselves from such infections, or who are unable to do so, face increased risks of death or illness. So do those who cannot protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy or control their fertility because of lack of access to contraception.”

The recent report issued by the WHO was done in order to highlight the inequality a woman faces from birth to death in terms of health treatment options. The chief of WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan, notes in the report that biologically, being a woman is advantageous in that women usually outlive men six to eight years. However, in several regions of the globe, women are at a severe disadvantage because they are in poverty, have little to no access to health care options and are placed on a lower priority than men. Almost 15% of fatalities in adult-aged women occur during pregnancy and childbirth. Chan describes this as a “preventable tragedy.” In regions such as these, discrimination begins when a girl is born and goes on throughout her lifetime. Many young girls suffer from girlhood diseases that never get diagnosed or treated because boys do not suffer from them. Their diseases get pushed to the back burner as researchers and clinical trials strive to cure those diseases that ail adult men. Chan states, “We will not see a significant improvement in the health of women until they are no longer recognized as second-class citizens in many parts of the world.”