In recent years, the incidence of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (or AIDS) around the world has predictably increased. What is more alarming though, is that the incidents among women have elevated to more significant levels. That means women are contracting this at much faster rates than in the former years.

This disease-condition has also been noted as the leading cause of death among women 25 to 44 years of age around the world. With this data exaggerating the need for further focus on women's health, it is very important at this point of time that people around the world should promote preventive measures to diminish the cases of AIDS, especially on this sex group.

AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV. It is a type of retrovirus that infects and disables the T-lymphocytes, which are necessary to combat infective organisms that enter the body.

The virus enters the host organism through different ways, but most cases are attributed mainly through sexual intercourse with an infected person. Other means in which the virus can enter the body system is through blood transfusion or exposure with an infected blood and through vertical transmission across the placenta to the fetus during childbirth. There are also other cases that were noted, in which HIV can be transmitted through breast milk when the newborn is being breastfed.

Most women who are affected by HIV virus are usually those who perform activities that predispose them to acquire the microorganism through sexual or blood contact. Activities such as having multiple sexual partners, bisexual partners, intravenous drug use, and in rare cases, through blood transfusion, can provide an open gateway for the risk of acquiring the disease to easily proliferate.

The initial symptoms of AIDS usually begins from a normal flue-like condition, then during the secoconversion stage, which happens within six months to one year after the contact of the microorganism, the woman will be having HIV-positive antibodies. As the disease progresses, she becomes asymptomatic, except of having unexplained weight loss and fatigue, then after six years, she will develop complications, such as infections and malignancies. The woman will usually suffer from Oral and Vaginal Candidiasis, Toxoplasmosis, Pneumocystic Carinii Pneumonia, and Kaposi Sarcoma, a type of skin cancer.

There is no direct treatment to totally eradicate HIV from the human body system that will eventually free the person from the tortures of AIDS. But a woman who has been tested of being HIV-positive is usually not advised to get pregnant. If there are any treatments being done, they are usually aimed in alleviating the pain brought about by the complications secondary to AIDS or the treatment may only help lessen the occurrence of other signs and symptoms and preventing the replication of the virus inside the body.

The most important aspect of women's health in AIDS is the provision of emotional support and help group, wherein she will be given a chance to express her grief, depression, and anger. A psychiatrist or help groups that are dedicated to care of AIDS victims can be the resource persons in promoting emotional and psychological health among women with this kind of life-threatening disease-condition.