Scary Statistic

Okay, I get it. Somehow, "women's health" became the dominant concern of the those who study public health. Just like "women" are the dominant (or only?) concern of those involved in "gender studies." These things are just understood, and that would be fine, I guess - if it were left simply at that.

But apparently, it's not enough that women receive the bulk of our attention and concern; we must also be made to understand why women deserve disproportionate consideration. And that's where things get funny. Take this story from Reuters, for example. First, the article reports that Bill Gates is especially interested in AIDS prevention among women:

A cream, gel or pill that women can use to protect themselves from the AIDS virus is key to stopping the AIDS pandemic, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has given hundreds of millions of dollars to HIV programs, said on Sunday.

But Reuters seems to think that Gates's endorsement does not sufficiently validate the female-centric philosophy being espoused. So the newswire segues into hard statistics:

The World Health Organization estimates that half of the 39 million people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus today are women, and HIV is mostly transmitted through sexual intercourse between a man and a woman.

Geez, 50% of AIDS victims are women. Shocking, just shocking.