Unlike the West, where most victims of AIDS are men, in Africa the pattern is exactly the opposite — the majority of those infected are women and young girls.
According to the latest figures in the UN’s 2004 Global Report on AIDS, 57 percent of adults infected with HIV are women, and 75 percent of young people infected with the disease are female.
In some countries the breakdown by sex is even starker. In Kenya and Mali, for example, 45 women are infected for every 10 men.
Source:
Women hardest hit by AIDS in Africa. Agence-France Presse, July 6, 2004.