HIV risk higher among Indian women who are abused by husbands.

Married women in India who experience physical and sexual violence from their husbands have an increased risk of HIV infection, compared with women who are not abused by their husbands, according to a study in the August 13 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on violence and human rights. “India is home to approximately 2.5 million people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the third largest number of cases of any country in the world, and is recognized as the source of increasing HIV prevalence among its South Asian neighbors,” the authors write. “Despite reductions in prevalence of … infection among the general population of India, women account for a rising percentage of all HIV cases, with husbands’ risk behavior described as the major source of women’s infection. Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been described as being associated with heterosexual transmission of HIV to women in India and elsewhere.”

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