Liaisons fueling AIDS in Africa.

Teenage girls are at the very center of one of the most heartbreaking scenarios now playing out in many parts of Africa. Young girls have up to 6 times the rate of HIV infection as boys of comparable ages. In parts of eastern and southern Africa more than one-third of teenage girls carry the virus. As deeply troubling is the way they are becoming infected -- through what AIDS experts call "crossgenerational sex." Older typically married men seek young girls for sex in the belief that the younger they are the less likely they are to carry the HIV virus. Having a young girlfriend has come to be a sport a way to gain status among men. Cross-generational sex has become a new cultural norm in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and not just because of one-time seductions or coercions. Sometimes it is the girls who seek the "sugar daddies" who reward girls with clothes school tuition food or small gifts. One of many problems with this is that the younger the female the more biologically vulnerable to HIV infection she may be. This seems to be due in part to the delicacy of the vaginal lining in immature females. Tiny tears and lesions occur during intercourse especially if male partners are full adults and/or intercourse is coerced or forced. (excerpt)