Women 'twice as likely to get infected' with HIV in Nigeria

Rape, sex at an early age and poor education contribute to more women in Nigeria becoming infected with HIV/Aids than men, a doctor has said.

Dr Uwen Eshiet was speaking at the Post-Third Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights In-Country Dissemination workshop, Nigerian news agency Punch reported.

He said women in Nigeria were more vulnerable to HIV with 90 per cent claiming HIV/Aids awareness opposed to 96 per cent of men.

Although sometimes their information was wrong, Dr Eshiet added.

"With a woman twice likely to get infected through forced sex, rape, lack of awareness of routes of transmission, and the median age of first sexual intercourse for female being 17.4 years, women in Nigeria are more vulnerable to HIV than men," he said.

Most recent data showed more than 1.98 million women were at risk of infection from HIV/Aids by 2010.

Dr Eshiet called for HIV/Aids organisations to review their strategies and for more information for women.

According to Aids charity Avert, the average life expectancy for women in Nigeria had fallen to 46 last year from 58.3 in 1991.

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