Zambian women kept from HIV treatment

LUSAKA, Zambia, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Poverty and abuse are preventing Zambian women from getting life-saving treatment for HIV, a Human Rights Watch report said Tuesday.

The 96-page report said Zambia's government had failed to combat violence, discrimination and insecure property rights, and that many women with HIV become impoverished and end up in abusive and dependent relationships, kept away from antiretroviral treatment.

"Addressing domestic violence, property grabbing and unequal distribution of property upon divorce is critical to ensuring that women in Zambia have equal access to antiretroviral medicine," said report author Nada Ali, a researcher in the group's Women's Rights Division. "Ignoring these abuses will mean that the Zambian government's goal of universal access to HIV treatment by 2010 will fail."