Consequences
VAW and HIV/AIDS have had a significant impact on affected populations, on both individual and national levels.  Social norms and a lack of economic empowerment make women more vulnerable to HIV because they are less able to decline sex or ensure safe sex with their partners. And not only does gender inequality make women initially more vulnerable to the disease, but once a women is infected, she may face loss of property or inheritance, plunging her further into poverty.[1]
 
The personal costs for women include:
 
  1. Inability to afford antiretroviral drugs.
Infected individuals in the impoverished and less developed regions of the world are often unable to afford the prohibitively high cost of antiretroviral therapy (ART).  This is particularly a problem in cases where there is poor infrastructure as effective treatment is most economically delivered through adequate health systems.  Yet, in countries like Russia, ART is available through a limited number of federal and regional AIDS centers, and although the delivery systems are viable, the prices of these drugs are still high. Progress has yet to be made on the use of generic drugs. [2]  In Ukraine, although a 1998 law stipulated that HIV treatment, including ART, would be free, limited resources have kept these treatments out of the reach of many who need them.[3]   The result has tended to be inconsistent use which has, in turn, resulted in the overall ineffectiveness of the therapy. Moreover, even when ART is available through some programs, a clinic in Zambia reported that more than 60% of eligible women refuse treatment because they fear violence and abandonment if their partners find out their status.[4]
 
     2.   Inability of women to support themselves or their families.
 
As their health declines, many HIV infected women also suffer loss and abandonment, and find themselves unable to support their families. Amnesty International reported the loss of land rights that typically occurs when a woman loses her husband to HIV/AIDS and leaves her without means to take care of herself and her children.  In cases in which the woman is infected, it is usually the female child who is expected to take over the responsibility of taking care of the family, and this often means leaving school - a situation that increases the vulnerability of that child to contracting the virus.[5]
 
     3.   Violence and expulsion.
 
According to the United Nations' WomenWatch, the fear of violence or expulsion from their homes keeps many women from accessing HIV information and receiving treatment and counseling.  Because the majority of HIV-infected women discover their HIV status during pregnancy or when one of their children becomes sick with AIDS, the diagnosis will rarely be kept confidential or secret.  The child’s father will often refuse to be tested, so the woman is held responsible for having transmitted HIV to her children (even though it is usually the husband who introduced HIV to the family unit[6]).  The result of this is that many women, for fear of violence and expulsion, will often choose not to be tested, further increasing the impact of the illness. Moreover, about 71% of women in the developed world and only 52% of women in the developing world have shared their HIV status with their partners.[7]
 
National costs of HIV/AIDS:
On a national level, consequences are seen in the high cost of healthcare; the decline in the gross domestic product (GDP) that results from a decrease in productivity due to a lower supply of labor; and the diversion of resources to the treatment of the virus.  For instance, a 2002 study conducted by the World Bank projected that should the virus go unchecked in Russia, the following might occur: (a) GDP would decrease by 4.15% by 2010, (b) investment would decline by as much as 5.5% by 2010, as resources are diverted towards treatment of HIV, and (c) supply of labor would decline as death rates increase[8].  Many countries’ health care systems are suffering as a result of the HIV epidemic.  The Global Fund reports that some studies forecast that healthcare costs in countries that have been the hardest hit with HIV infection will increase tenfold over the next several years as a result.
 
 

[1] Tools for change. Applying United Nations standards to secure women’s housing, land, and property rights in the context of HIV, UN Commission on the Status of Women, 2009. Page 12-13.
[4] Tools for change. Applying United Nations standards to secure women’s housing, land, and property rights in the context of HIV, UN Commission on the Status of Women, 2009. Page 16.
[5] Amnesty International USA. (2009). HIV/AIDS, Women, and Human Rights.
[6] Data shows that for example in India, nearly 80% of the women widowed by AIDS had been infected by their husbands. From: Tools for change. Applying United Nations standards to secure women’s housing, land, and property rights in the context of HIV, UN Commission on the Status of Women, 2010.
[7] Tools for change. Applying United Nations standards to secure women’s housing, land, and property rights in the context of HIV, UN Commission on the Status of Women, 2009. Page 15.
[8] World Bank Russia Office. The Economic consequences of HIV, 2002.