AIDS effort. Annan's report said women and girls now make up nearly half the world's total of 39.4 million people living with the AIDS virus, and the epidemic is having a staggering impact on children. Women and girls are increasingly at risk of HIV infection despite being less likely to engage in high-risk behaviour than their male partners, the report said. "This increasing feminization of the epidemic reflects the paradoxical situation facing women and girls," it said. An estimated 2.3 children under age 15 are infected with HIV, the majority of them infants who contracted the virus during gestation or delivery, or as a result of breastfeeding. --More 0017 Local Time 2117 GMT
