Women push for HIV status disclosure law

Zimbabwean women have called for legislation that compels spouses to reveal their HIV status to their partners.

Delegates at a meeting on gender violence and human rights this week in the capital, Harare, expressed concern over the dangers that could result from a married person's HIV status being considered 'private and confidential' by the country's current Sexual Offences Act.

"When a man is treated for a sexually transmitted disease, health workers are is quick to inform him to bring his wife along to also be treated. The same should be done in the case of HIV - we have many men who are HIV-positive and as women we are sitting ducks for whatever they want to bring into the home," one of the meeting's participants told the local Herald newspaper.

Research shows that globally the vulnerability of women to HIV infection is primarily due to their inability to negotiate safer sex.