WORLD AIDS DAY: WOMEN AND AIDS

December 1 is World AIDS Day, and the World Health
Organization has chosen "Women and AIDS" as this year's theme.
There will be actions and events all over the world to mark the
day, many of them focusing on women and HIV.

The World Health Organization's very conservative estimate
is that there are over three million women with HIV in the world,
most of them in Africa. In fact, one in 50 women in sub-Saharan
Africa is infected with HIV, and one in 700 in North America.
AIDS is the leading cause of death for women ages 20-40 in major
cities in the Americas, Western Europe, and Africa. By 1992 over
four million infants will have been born to mothers with HIV, and
about a million of the babies will themselves be infected.

In the United States women are the fastest growing group of
people with HIV, yet remain invisible in the epidemic. AIDS is
the leading cause of death for women ages 25-34 in New York City,
and women with AIDS die four to six times faster than men with
AIDS. However, the Centers of Disease Control still refuse to
include the opportunistic infections specific to women in their
list of AIDS-defining infections. This means that many women
with HIV are misdiagnosed or even undiagnosed, and do not receive
the treatment or services they need. It also makes it very
difficult for women with HIV to get the immediate disability
benefits they need once they become sick, and women have died
while waiting for their benefits.

ACT UP/Network, the national network of direct action AIDS
activist groups, has declared November 26-December 3, 1990 a
"Week of Outrage." During the week, ACT UP groups across the
country will hold demonstrations to draw attention to the issues
of women and HIV infection. Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Los
Angeles, and Austin, are among the cities demonstrating. For
more information, contact your local ACT UP, or call Saundra
Johnson at 312/829-6797. The Week of Outrage will culminate on
Monday, December 3, with a large demonstration at the Centers for
Disease Control in Atlanta, to demand that the CDC expand their
definition of AIDS to include the infections and symptoms common
to HIV-infected women. For more information about the action in
Atlanta, contact ACT UP/Atlanta at 404/286-6247.