HIV/AIDS response in Africa requires a more balanced approach to gender, so that both men and women are engaged in HIV treatment and prevention, thus argues Edward Mills of the University of Ottawa, Canada and colleagues in this week's PLoS Medicine. Traditionally, targeted efforts at reducing the impact of the HIV epidemic have focused on women and children while men have received considerably less attention.

The authors say: "The epidemiological evidence is accumulating, and indicates that males in sub-Saharan Africa are not accessing HIV services as often as their female counterparts, and as a result, men have worse outcomes of care, including mortality... Programmatic efforts should account for this disparity."

Source: Eurekalert