A legislator said yesterday that the number of women contracting HIV in the country had increased drastically in the past year and that the government needs to address the issue immediately.
Last year, 10,158 Taiwanese citizens contracted AIDS, of which 874, or 8.6 percent, were women, said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Sue-ying (
Huang said the rate of female infections had almost doubled since 2004, when 6,762 people contracted AIDS and 469 of them were women.
PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
The growth rate for the number of female HIV-infected patients in Taiwan is 1.8 times that of males, indicating a worrisome trend that the Department of Health (DOH) must not overlook, Huang said.
Worldwide, the number of women who contracted AIDS in 2003 amounted to 19 million -- approximately half of the total infected population, and 25 percent to 35 percent of these women are in Asia, according to WHO figures.
Huang said the percentage of women contracting AIDS in the country may be underestimated since fewer women go to be tested.
In addition, women infected with HIV often display different symptoms than men, Huang added.
Within a few weeks of HIV infection, both men and women normally experience flu-like symptoms, but women may in addition experience persistent or severe vaginal infections, abnormal discharge or pelvic infections, she said.
"The government does not consider these factors when devising AIDS-prevention policies," she said.
At the conference, James Hsieh (謝卿宏), secretary-general of the Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said that gynecologists and obstetricians should be educated about the relationship between AIDS and the abovementioned symptoms.
Hsieh said that the policy on voluntary testing of AIDS for pregnant women began last year with a NT$450 million (US$14 million) budget allowing for an estimated 200,000 pregnant women to be tested, and added that the government should increase the project's funding.
More men are tested for HIV partly because of pre-military service health examinations and also because the DOH's voluntary HIV testing education program targets mainly gay men and sex workers, Huang said.
Therefore, the number of males who have undergone voluntary testing is seven times that of women, she added.
She also said that the rise in the number of women in the country with AIDS may be due to drug abuse.
It is not only intravenous drug usage that spreads AIDS, but also female drug addicts who resort to prostitution to earn money to buy drugs, Huang said.
"It is now hard to know whether the origin of the virus comes from unsafe sex or drug usage," she added.
Tsai Wan-fen (
Tsai said that the DOH should broaden their AIDS-prevention policy to encompass education for women and gynecologists, instead of focusing only on homosexuals and sex workers.
Hsu Chao-chun (
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to