WOMEN’S VULNERABILITY TO HIV AND AIDS IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA 2010

This publication has been developed within the framework of the Project “Agenda for Accelerated Country Action for Women, Girls and Gender Equality and HIV” financed by the Joint United Nations on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and implemented by the National Center for Health Management. The opinions expressed by authors in the present publication do not reflect necessarily the opinion of the donor.

 

Globally the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age is HIV/AIDS. Women are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection due to a combination of biological factors and gender-based inequalities that make women engage involuntarily in high-risk behaviour. Gender inequalities specific to HIV often arise from women’s limited power of negotiation of safer sex due to gender norms of patriarchal societies.

 

The Republic of Moldova is no exception and since year 2002 the HIV epidemic process is characterized by an increase in heterosexual mode of transmission, feminization of the epidemic and geographical spread in all administrative units of the country, including rural areas. In order to perform an analysis of the HIV epidemic through gender-sensitive lenses, the UNAIDS Country Office Moldova, with the support of the UNAIDS Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, commissioned a study on women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in the Republic of Moldova. The desk review analyzed gender policies and gender statistics in the country, while the quantitative study has explored women’s vulnerability to HIV by using WHO’s framework of gender inequality factors that might put women at higher vulnerability for HIV compared to men. These factors are gender norms related to masculinity and feminity; violence against women; gender-related barriers in access to services; women assuming the major share of care-giving; women lacking education and economic security.

WOMEN’S VULNERABILITY TO HIV AND AIDS IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA 2010

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