According to The World’s Women/United Nations, 2000 in Sierra Leone in 1997, approximately 50 percent of women among adults have HIV/AIDS out of 68,000 people who have HIV/AIDS.  As of 2002, over 170,000 people were living with AIDS in Sierra Leone, and this is 7% of the population.  There were 11,000 deaths from AIDS in 2001.  The HIV/AIDS “epidemic is fueling a demand for younger and younger girls as customers try to find ’safe’ commercial sex partners” (Seager, 2002).  The AIDS issue is gendered from the fact that women are two to four times more likely to become infected with unprotected sex compared to men.  Therefore, women are constantly at a greater risk for the disease and the most likely to be forced into nonconsensual sex.  Sex trafficking is a major concern in Sierra Leone, and victims of trafficking are at higher risks of contracting this deadly disease with less control over the use of condoms or the ability to limit the number of partners. 

Younger women are at greater risk and, with the age of the population in Sierra Leone made up of over 50 percent of children, there are many young women to contract the disease.  They suffer from poverty, from the lack of access to health care and modern preventative methods such as condoms, as well as from biological factors, for instance, their genital tracts not being fully developed that contribute to increase risks.  “Nearly half of all persons newly infected with HIV are aged 15- 24” (The World’s Women/United Nations, 2000).    In Africa, 3.6 million children have already died of AIDS: “90 percent were born in Africa although only 19 percent of children live in this region” (The World’s Women/United Nations, 2000).  Breastfeeding in developing countries like Sierra Leone may be another contributing factor to the AIDS epidemic. This is a complicated issue that involves cultural differences and the lack of education and resources that may help in prevention, but it is one issue that is a major concern for Sierra Leone and the rest of the world.