The "EVA virus" is a threat to women because it is so
Women have higher life expectancy than men but worse health, one in three women have suffered or may suffer physical or sexual aggression at some point in their lives, are more exposed to sexually transmitted infections and the risks of childbirth: "EVA virus" marks their lives.
This is a campaign launched today by Doctors of the World, which defines the social disease that affects women because it is so and asks the World Health Organization (WHO) to combat this virus as a pandemic that puts health risk of 3,700 million people. "If it were a virus, we would be in phase 6 of alert and it would have pandemic dimensions, if it were a virus, it could be called Eva", notes the EVA Virus campaign.
The war is harder on them. Unemployment is harder on them. Poverty is harder on them. Therefore, your health -our health- is affected permanently. It is a silent problem, but it has pandemic dimensions, because of its global nature, because of its scope and because it affects millions of women of all generations, the NGO warns.
For this reason, Doctors of the World claims in a letter sent to the WHO to mobilize all its resources and efforts to face the consequences of inequality and its impact on women's health and to promote the development of a public health approach of gender, which better meets the needs they will have throughout their lives.
Women are more exposed to physical and sexual violence, 35 percent suffer or are at risk of suffering in their lives: they are 16 percent more likely to have a baby underweight and twice as likely to have an abortion .
In Spain, according to the Survey of Violence against Women (2015), 15.5% of women aged 16 and over claim to have suffered physical, sexual or fear of a partner or ex-partner. Doctors regrets that only 9 of the 17 autonomous communities have resources for victims of sexual violence and at the state level there is no emergency center specialized in situations of sexual violence.
The mental health of women is intimately connected with the violence they suffer and with the barriers they face to obtain health care, the campaign points out.
According to the NGO, self-inflicted injuries, including suicide, They were the second cause of death among women aged 15 to 29 in 2015 in the world. The WHO indicates that women suffer in a much higher percentage (70% compared to 30% of men) more exogenous or situational depressions.
After pregnancy, one in five mothers experience anxiety disorders; in the workplace, the workers showed six more points in terms of prevalence of suffering a mental illness.
Regarding the risks of pregnancy and childbirth, every day, More than 800 die in the world due to preventable causes related to this stage, about 300,000 per year. Genital mutilation, present in 30 countries, puts your health at risk, as well as forced marriages at an early age.
It is estimated that in Spain live more than 55,000 women and girls from countries where ablation is common and 17,000 of them, under 14, are in danger of mutilation of their genitals. EFE
EFE
