HIV and Intimate Partner Transmission: A Call for Action

The compelling evidence presented in the Commission on AIDS in Asia 2008 report has changed the way we think about HIV in Asia. It should also change the direction of policy to prevent and control the spread of HIV and AIDS.

As the report notes, not only has the proportion of women among people living with HIV been rising steadily, but many of these women are married women who are overwhelmingly monogamous. The vast majority of them have acquired their infection from their partners, who are buyers of unprotected sex. Research also shows that spousal violence - domestic and sexual - is widespread, and not confined to the lower socio-economic groups as once thought.