Abstract

[This article was originally published in World Health & Population, Volume 9, Number 3.]

This paper examines the association of wealth, equity and good governance in the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the feminization of this disease. A cross-country analysis was performed on adult HIV prevalence and the percentage of women among adults living with HIV/AIDS. These two indicators were significantly correlated with wealth, economic equity, gender equity and good governance. Multivariate linear regression analysis identified economic and gender equity as the two prominent factors linked with the HIV/AIDS epidemics. Gender equity, measured by the gender-related development index, emerged as the consistently significant determinant of the overall HIV epidemic and the female epidemic as well. Promoting equity, particularly gender equity, should justifiably be a primary concern of policies and programs to defeat the HIV/AIDS pandemic.