Women face a greater risk of HIV/AIDS infection and in Africa carry the burden of the epidemic, UNAIDS said in its annual global AIDS report released on Tuesday.
"Nowhere is the epidemic's 'feminisation' more apparent than in sub-Saharan Africa, where 57 percent of adults infected are women and 75 percent of young people infected are women and girls," the 2004 report noted.
It is estimated that sub-Saharan Africa is home to about 25 million people living with HIV and AIDS, who represent about two-thirds of the world's population affected by the pandemic.
UNAIDS called for action to help Africa's women, saying the impact of AIDS on households was "especially severe when the infected individual is an adult woman".
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