A generation ago, one in 10 of new AIDS patients in the United States was a woman. It’s now one in four.

Worldwide, women made up nearly half of the adults living with HIV/AIDS in 2003, up from 41 percent in 1997.

In sub-Saharan Africa – which has the world’s highest rates of HIV/AIDS with an estimated 25 million cases – there are, on average, 13 HIV-positive women for ever 10 HIV-positive men – up from 12 infected women for every 10 men in 2002.  In session after session at the XV International Conference here, delegates are coming to this conclusion: The biggest single cause of the gender epidemic is faithful women being infected by men who are injecting drugs and/or having sex with multiple other women or other men. [21 JUL04, Abst Clearinghouse; Argus Leader, 07/14/04]