Yes, husband to wife infection is important, and ...
Cambodia has a similar, and more mature, HIV epidemic. Incidence has decreased to the point where only a few thousand new infections are occurring annually. Only half of them are between regular intimate partners: mostly widow to new husband and widower to new wife. In mature epidemics, transmission takes place in both directions in these partnerships. One quarter of new infections are from mother to child and one quarter of new infections still take place during transactional sex.
So when we look into the future we can expect more infections among regular intimate partners. As the article points out, they trust one another. New thinking about prevention is needed.
[him] moderator
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Rise in husband-to-wife HIV infections expected: NGOs
By Khin Myat
October 18 - 24, 2010
EXPERTS from non-government organisations working in the HIV prevention field say the proportion of new HIV infections attributed to husband-to-wife transmission is likely to increase over the next five years.
Dr Khin Zar Li Aye, a monitoring and evaluation officer at the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said that by 2015, nearly half of all new HIV infections would occur among women infected by their husbands.
UNAIDS estimates about two-fifths of all new infections in 2010 are the result of husband-to-wife transmission. However, while the number of new infections among sex worker clients and injecting drug users is expected to fall over the next five years, husband-to-wife transmission is expected to rise slightly, UNAIDS says.
Dr Sid Naing, country director of Marie Stopes International, said because Myanmar received relatively little funding to prevent new HIV infections from international donors, NGOs had to target only high-risk groups, such as sex workers and drug users.
“Married women are a neglected group when it comes to HIV prevention activities,” he said.
He said it is also difficult to raise awareness among married women because most trusted their husbands and believed they would be always be faithful.
“We see some cases of women who are about 40 years old contracting HIV – women who have no history of drug use or having sex outside marriage,” he said.
Dr Sid Naing said he believed differing attitudes towards sexual relationships made husband-to-wife HIV infection more common in Asia than in Western countries.
“In Asia, it is not necessarily unusual for a man to sleep with a sex worker. People are more understanding, anyway,” he said. “In Western countries, it is rarer. Most people live with their girlfriend or boyfriends. It is a big difference between Asian and Western countries.”
http://www.mmtimes.com/2010/news/545/54515news.html
