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UN concerned over women and HIV/AIDS

    JOHANNESBURG

    At a special UN session to mark International Women's Day on Monday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said women were becoming the main victims of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.

    He said girls and young women worldwide accounted for nearly two-thirds of people below the age of 24 who were living with HIV/AIDS.

    The Secretary-General warned that the strategy of trying to combat the HI virus through abstinence and the use of condoms was not "realistic" for many women, who were suffering because of their inferior status in many societies.

    "All over the world, women are increasingly bearing the brunt of the epidemic. If these rates of infection continue, women will soon become the majority of the global total of people infected," Annan said.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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