Keep Fighting AIDS. [World] The AIDS epidemic turns 25 this week, and while new infections are declining in a few countries, the number of infected is still growing, especially among young women. Globally, the epidemic seems to have more energy than efforts to fight it.  This week, UN members are meeting in a follow-up to the successful UN special session in 2001, which pushed the world to take AIDS more seriously. At that time, the countries created a detailed plan for attacking the disease, with specific targets. Spending soared, from $1.6 billion in 2001 to $8.3 billion last year.  The nations now are supposed to be reporting on whether their targets are being met, and devising a plan of action for the next few years. Instead, they are watering down the original plan. Ideologues, led by Washington, are taking out commitments to key programs, and wealthy nations worried about cost are replacing concrete goals with vague statements. AIDS groups fear the world is moving backward.  The drafts also show that on issues of interest to religious conservatives, the United States and Syria are holding down one side, joined at times by the Vatican and Saudi Arabia. Washington, for example, has removed references that were in the 2001 declaration about providing clean syringes to drug users. These efforts are desperately needed in many countries, like Russia, where the epidemic is largely spread by drug injectors. The word "condom" has also gone missing. Depressingly, nations have been debating whether they can make any reference at all to "empowering girls" or "vulnerable populations," itself a euphemism for sex workers, drug injectors and gay men. 

Editorial: As AIDS Invades the World of Women. [World] When Idah Mukuka's husband died of AIDS, the young Zambian woman was left to raise three youngsters and wonder how many years she herself might live. What could compound that heartbreak? Mukuka learned the answer when her late husband's family came to claim the house she shared with her children. It's a common story in poor countries, but Mukuka is no common woman. Armed with proof that her earnings contributed to the home's purchase, she went to court to challenge her country's age-old assumption that women may not inherit property. "What gives me strength," Mukuka said in a visit to Minneapolis last week, "is the knowledge that I am fighting not only for myself, but for the future of my children." Her story of injustice is one thousands of the world's poorest women can tell. Few women in the developing world dare fight for their rights -- partly because they don't know they have any. Most live in thrall to the men in their lives, a circumstance grounded in custom, dependency and illiteracy -- and reinforced by the perpetual threat of domestic violence. Female inequality is an outrage in itself, and all the more so because of the tragedy it has begotten. A quarter-century into the AIDS epidemic, infections are rising faster among girls and women than among males everywhere. Why? Because female ignorance and powerlessness get in the way. Even women who know how to protect themselves often can't: Abstaining isn't an option in the face of sexual aggression; a wife's fidelity is no guarantee a husband will reciprocate; insisting on the use of condoms will be fruitless -- and quite possibly dangerous -- if a husband objects. It's shocking that married women are far more likely to contract HIV than sexually active single women.

Mortality Rates Remain High for Mothers, Newborns. [World] A study by the U.S.-based charity organization Save the Children says Afghanistan has the world's second-highest infant mortality rate -- behind only Liberia. Maternal mortality in Afghanistan is also among the world's highest and, according to the organization's report -- released on May 9 -- some 16 percent of Afghan women die while pregnant or during childbirth. Save the Children says that in countries such as Afghanistan where women have little or no access to basic prenatal and postnatal care, childbirth is often a death sentence for a mother and her baby. Nongovernmental organizations estimate that every 30 minutes a woman dies in Afghanistan from causes related to being pregnant. Only 16 percent of pregnant women in Afghanistan receive prenatal care. Illiteracy, poverty, and a crippled or even nonexistent health system are among the factors contributing to the high death rates of infants and mothers in Afghanistan. Most hospitals and health facilities lack equipment and professional staff. It is estimated that there is only one doctor per 50,000 inhabitants. Cultural practices in the deeply conservative and patriarchal Afghan society also contribute to the fact that Afghanistan remains one of the worst places for a woman to give birth. Especially in rural areas, men often do not allow their female relatives to be treated by male doctors. Keith says the situation can be improved through simple and affordable solutions including increasing awareness about the importance of proper hygiene and breastfeeding for infants. "We need to invest more in ensuring that girls and women can have access to more effective education; that they are properly nourished, because we know that one of the biggest causes [of death] is low birth weight," Keith said. "So the health of the mother is really important. Access to health care, access to decision-making responsibilities so that they can do that."