REGINA – Barb Bowditch was discouraged after 19 years of educating people about HIV/AIDS.
“When I got involved I went to a lot of funerals of young, gay men. Today we see that has changed into young women dying all over the world.”
Bowditch, who works for AIDS Programs for South Saskatchewan, said she was recharged by meeting people and listening to presentations at the world AIDS conference held in Toronto this past summer.
“It’s not a disease people want to talk about, but AIDS is more than drugs and sex. It’s about poverty and women’s inequality.”
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Bowditch said the companies that make condoms and AIDS treatment drugs aren’t willing to fund research into microcides contained in pastes and gels that woman can insert. That leaves women vulnerable to husbands who won’t use condoms.
She told a recent meeting of the Associated Country Women of the World that women represent 56 percent of all new cases of AIDS in the world. For Canada, women are 24 percent of all new cases, but in Saskatchewan they are 64 percent. In the United States, she said, AIDS is the leading cause of death for black and latino women.
She said the AIDS stigma remains 25 years after the disease was first uncovered. In rural communities, people would be unlikely to tell their neighbours if their son or daughter had AIDS, but they would tell everyone if the child had cancer.
