Researchers and activists are linking the feminization of HIV-AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa with another major health affliction for women in the region: female genital mutilation.
Sporadic research data over the past 10 years has correlated dirty cutting equipment, hemorrhages requiring blood transfusions, and injurious sexual intercourse causing vaginal tearing and lesions with rising rates of HIV transmission among women in countries where female genital mutilation (FGM) is still widely practiced.
"Because FGM is coupled with the loss of blood and use is often made of one instrument for a number of operations, the risk of HIV-AIDS transmission is increased by the practice," the New York-based United Nations Population Fund says on its website. "Also, due to damage to the female sexual organs, sexual intercourse can result in lacerations of tissues, which greatly increases risk of transmission. The same is true for childbirth and subsequent loss of blood."
Other organizations, such as the London-based International Community of Women Living With HIV-AIDS and the Washington-based Global Health Council, make similar assertions on the immediate risks of HIV transmission and anti-FGM activists in the region express confidence in the link.
A representative from the Network against Female Genital Mutilation in Moshi believes there is a link between FGM and HIV transmission, and a delegate from the National Union of Djiboutian Women - who asked to remain anonymous - says she believes FGM is the single largest contributing factor to HIV infection in that country, with risks that are immediate, as well as long-term.
Meanwhile, a cross-section of data drawn from a 2006 United Nations report on the global AIDS epidemic, for instance, shows that in several countries in Africa where FGM is common-including Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Djibouti-between 55 and 60 per cent of HIV-infected individuals are female.
The FGM-HIV link is currently more of a murmur than a rumble among activists, watch-dog groups and major health authorities. While scientific evidence is sparse-though steadily mounting-to link FGM to HIV transmission there is a definite connection, according to Human Rights Watch.
"Although few clinical studies have been conducted, it is clear that at least some forms of FGM increase the HIV transmission risk faced by women and girls, both in that unsterile instruments may be used in the cutting and because some FGM is associated with chronic genital injury and tearing, ulceration and delayed healing of injuries, all of which may increase HIV risk," the New York human rights group concluded in a December 2003 report.
The Geneva-based World Health Organization also acknowledges that FGM may be linked to a higher risk of HIV infection for women.
"More recently, concern has arisen about possible transmission of HIV (from FGM), due to the use of one instrument in multiple operations, but this has not been the subject of detailed research," states the World Health Organization (WHO) on their Web site.
Marianne Sarkis, director of the Female Genital Cutting Education and Networking Project (www. fgmnetwork.org), agrees with other experts and activists and explains on her website how FGM can lead to HIV infection.
"Female genital cutting (FGC) has long-term physiological, sexual and psychological effects," Sarkis explains. "The unsanitary environment under which FGC takes place results in infections of the genital and surrounding areas, and often results in the transmission of the HIV virus, which can cause AIDS."
Source: allafrica.com, 17/Nov/2007