WOMEN ARE ESPECIALLY at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS during harsh economic times.
This was pointed out by the AIDS Society of Barbados chairman, Dr Henrick Ellis, as he spoke on the link between poverty and the virus following a presentation of ten food baskets by the Lions Club of St Michael to the non-governmental organization on Monday.
Ellis said that the poor, due to factors such as overcrowding, inadequate access to health care, poor nutrition and “poor education status”, were oftentimes most susceptible to illness.
“The people who can least afford it are the ones who get sick . . . . In particular with HIV/AIDS, poverty [can be linked] to gender discrimination and unequal power,” he said, adding that women who were dependent on men financially were often “gently pulled into prostitution”.
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