75% of AIDS affected women in Cameroon in 19-24 age bracket

By Liu Fang

YAOUNDE, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Three quarters of women affected by HIV/AIDS in Cameroon are between 19 and 24, three times more than the affected men of the same bracket, the Ministry of Public Health reported on Saturday.

The figures were released as the central African country marked the World AIDS Day, when people working to control the deadly disease in Cameroon deplored the high rate, linking it to the poor economic and socio-cultural plight.

"Essential information on the methods of prevention of HIV/AIDS has not yet sufficiently reached the girls of this age bracket, " said Nestor Ankiba, executive director of Cameroon's Association of Social Marketing (ACMS), a non-profit making organization which facilitates access to health information by the Cameroonian population.

"It's an age group which is more or less naive, the majority of the girls at this age do not even know what they are doing," he added.

The economic dependence of the girls at this age vis-a-vis their families which are not always rich is the origin of this high rate of contamination, according to the ACMS director.

A study conducted by his organization shows that the majority of their sexual partners are men who are older and have more money than the boys at their age.

In order to call for responsibility from the older people and attract the attention of the young girls on the dangers of inter-generational sexual relations, the ACMS launched in August 2008 a sensitization campaign titled "No to Sponsors, No to HIV/AIDS".

"Multiplication of several sexual partners by these young girls is certainly the main cause of contamination," said Arsene Onana Ndougsa, a peer educator at African Synergies against AIDS and suffering, an NGO headed by Cameroon's First Lady Chantal Biya.

In their multiple foray on the ground to interact with the youth, said Nadia Zibi Effa, another peer educator, the young men are more motivated to know the prevention methods and ways of contamination than the young girls.

Out of 35,780 young people tested voluntarily in August 2009 during the operation "Holidays without AIDS" organized since 2003 by African Synergies, 22,500 were boys and 13,280 were girls.

In the eyes of Zibi Effa, the fear of knowing their status explains the refusal by girls to get tested.

Antoine Socpa, an anthropologist and teacher at the University of Yaounde 1, has published a number of articles on the relationship between poverty and contamination of HIV. Other cultural factors like early marriage, female genital mutilation, scarification of the body by stained objects contribute to the contamination by the virus, he said.