Anti-AIDS women campaign launched

A campaign has been launched to accelerate worldwide action to stop women and girls from contracting HIV/AIDS.



The virus is still the leading cause of death and disease among those of child-bearing age.



The United Nations AIDS agency told a conference in New York that the five-year plan will address issues such as the inequalities and human rights violations that put women and girls particularly at risk.



It says up to 70 per cent of women worldwide are at some point forced to have unprotected sex.



In Southern Africa, young women are reported to be about three times as likely to have HIV than men of the same age.