Alcohol increases risk of HIV infection in women â€œItâ€™s a toxic cocktailâ€

<p>
<strong>By Ramatamo Wa Matamong</strong><br />
ramatamos@greateralextoday.co.za</p>
<p>
Generally, women are more vulnerable than men and this is even worse when you are a poor black African woman. The study called “Alcohol in the context of HIV among young women in South Africa” conducted on behalf of the Soul City Institute revealed that young women between the ages of 15 – 24 are at risk of contracting the HIV virus. The other structural drivers are poverty, lack of opportunities, unemployment and gender equality.</p>
<p>
Addressing the media, Dr Leane Ramsoomar from the Wits School of Public Health and who did the study said factors that expose women’s vulnerability to HIV via alcohol are sex work, unsafe drinking and transactional sex where women often exchange sex for money, alcohol or food.</p>
<p>
“And often their powers are limited in negotiating a safe sex,” she said, globally and nationally, women drink less than men but they are harmed both by their own drinking and that of men.</p>
<p>
Interventions that need to be adopted include developing integrated alcohol-sexual risk reduction policies, responsible beverage service and effective implementation of education policies that keep girls in school. There is also a need to engage men in activities that foster respect for women, and their reproductive health and other rights.</p>
<p>
Education and employment opportunities need to create a situation where more women gain control over educational choices and economic income in the home.</p>
<p>
Recounting experiences of young women in rural areas, Thoko Budaza, Eastern Cape Provincial manager at Soul City Institute acknowledged that women sometimes resort to alcohol as form of entertainment, given the lack of alternative recreational spaces available. She also called on authorities to take issues of alcohol abuse seriously.</p>
<p>
“Alcohol addiction is not viewed as seriously as other drugs; we know that women drink. We need the spaces that where they drink at to be safer for them,” added Budaza.</p>

Alcohol increases risk of HIV infection in women â€œItâ€™s a toxic cocktailâ€

By Ramatamo Wa Matamong
ramatamos@greateralextoday.co.za

Generally, women are more vulnerable than men and this is even worse when you are a poor black African woman. The study called “Alcohol in the context of HIV among young women in South Africa” conducted on behalf of the Soul City Institute revealed that young women between the ages of 15 – 24 are at risk of contracting the HIV virus. The other structural drivers are poverty, lack of opportunities, unemployment and gender equality.

Addressing the media, Dr Leane Ramsoomar from the Wits School of Public Health and who did the study said factors that expose women’s vulnerability to HIV via alcohol are sex work, unsafe drinking and transactional sex where women often exchange sex for money, alcohol or food.

“And often their powers are limited in negotiating a safe sex,” she said, globally and nationally, women drink less than men but they are harmed both by their own drinking and that of men.

Interventions that need to be adopted include developing integrated alcohol-sexual risk reduction policies, responsible beverage service and effective implementation of education policies that keep girls in school. There is also a need to engage men in activities that foster respect for women, and their reproductive health and other rights.

Education and employment opportunities need to create a situation where more women gain control over educational choices and economic income in the home.

Recounting experiences of young women in rural areas, Thoko Budaza, Eastern Cape Provincial manager at Soul City Institute acknowledged that women sometimes resort to alcohol as form of entertainment, given the lack of alternative recreational spaces available. She also called on authorities to take issues of alcohol abuse seriously.

“Alcohol addiction is not viewed as seriously as other drugs; we know that women drink. We need the spaces that where they drink at to be safer for them,” added Budaza.