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Empower women to slow AIDS - UN

    JOHANNESBURG

    A senior UN official has warned that parts of Africa could be depopulated of women in 20 years as a result of HIV/AIDS.

    Stephen Lewis, the UN special envoy on AIDS in Africa, said: "Only a revolution in women's status can slow the epidemic there."

    Research shows that cultural and economic conditions encouraging transactional sex have made African women more vulnerable to HIV infection.

    Experts say it is difficult to fight these trends on the continent because women are biologically more susceptible to HIV; early sex is the cultural norm; and women have little say in sex or other important decisions.

    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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