HIV infections among women and girls in nine countries in southern Africa are increasing at an alarming rate, a new report commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has found, with many young women being infected almost as soon as they start having sex.

Action against HIV/AIDS that does not confront gender inequality is doomed to failure, according to a report released today by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

The Joint United Nations Programme (UNAIDS) welcomes the decision taken by women health ministers today to form an international network to address the growing inequalities women face in accessing basic health services, including HIV care and prevention services.

Concerned by the growing AIDS burden faced by women in developing countries, women health ministers from around the world agreed to form an international network to address the persistent inequalities women experience in accessing basic health services, particularly HIV prevention and care services. The ministers were gathered at an unprecedented meeting organized by the Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL) on the occasion of the 57th World Health Assembly.

Discrimination against women, both legal and de facto, renders them disproportionately vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Women's subordination in the family and in public life is one of the root causes of the rapidly increasing rate of infection among women. Systematic discrimination based on gender also impairs women's ability to deal with the consequences of their own infection and/or infection in the family, in social, economic and personal terms.

The rate of HIV infection in the Mekong Region is rising faster among women than men. “Lack of attention to women’s rights is fuelling the HIV epidemic,” said Dr Kathleen Cravero, Deputy Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), speaking at the Mekong Leaders’ Consultative Meeting on Women and AIDS on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

Women in Lao PDR are at an unacceptably high risk of contracting HIV and AIDS, according to a UN expert.

Across the world, between one-fifth and half of all girls and young women report that their first sexual encounter was forced. Too many women are unable to refuse sex or insist on a condom because they lack social and economic power, according to the film “Women Are”, being premiered in Geneva today to mark International Women’s Day.

Existing HIV prevention and protection efforts are failing to stem infections among women and girls because they do not take into account such issues as gender relations and sexual behaviour, according to the United Nations AIDS programme.

The escalating global struggle against AIDS cannot afford to neglect women, and special efforts will be needed to ensure it is not allowed to. To that end, UNAIDS has pulled together a high profile group of men and women -- the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS -- which gathers activists, government representatives, celebrities, and community workers who are committed to improving the lives of women and girls.