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　　Financially empowering young women in poor countries may help protect them against sexually transmitted diseases. A new study shows that addressing poverty can help prevent risky¹ behavior.
增加贫穷国家年轻女性的财政能力将能帮助她们抗击性传染病。一份新研究显示，解决贫穷问题有助于预防危险行为发生。
Poverty, a lack of education and gender² inequality make girls and young women more vulnerable. It happens when they turn to older men for financial help for themselves or their families. Men who may be infected with HIV or herpes.
贫穷、缺乏教育和性别不平等使少女和年轻妇女更加脆弱。当她们为自己或家人向较年长男性寻求金钱上的帮助时，就比较容易受到伤害。而这些男性可能患有艾滋病毒或泡疹。
The findings are based on a study of 13 to 22 year old women in the Zomba district of Malawi. At the start of the study none had ever been married.
这个发现是根据一份对马拉维重巴区13岁到22岁的女性的研究而来。在研究一开始时，没有一名女性是结过婚的。
“We knew that Malawi was a poor country with a high HIV problem particularly among adolescent girls and young women, especially in the south where we ended up doing our study. So we said, why don’t we start this little pilot experiment to see as a proof of concept whether small amounts of cash transfers can reduce the risk of getting infected?” said Dr. Berk Ozler, a senior economist³ at the World Bank, who took part in the research.
世界银行的资深经济学家奥兹勒尔博士参与了研究。奥兹勒尔说：“我们知道马拉维是个艾滋病问题严重的穷国，少女和年轻女性的艾滋病例特别多，尤其是在南部，我们最后就是在南部进行研究。我们说，我们为什么不作个小型试点实验来验证小额现金资助能否降低感染风险？”
Education, he said, has been described as a “social vaccine” against HIV and other diseases. But many girls in the study were dropouts.
奥兹勒尔说，教育向来被形容是对抗艾滋病和其他疾病的“社会疫苗”。但研究中的许多女孩都是辍学生。
“A lot of times young girls will drop out of school very early, like age 14, 15, 16. And soon after that, their fertility, their child bearing starts and then they get married. And the earlier you’re getting married the older your husband or your sexual partners tend to be. That’s essentially⁴ the link toward unprotected – not necessarily risk per se – but unprotected sexual behavior in an environment where older men have a significant chance of being HIV positive,” said Ozler.
奥兹勒尔说：“许多时候女孩们早在14、15、16岁就辍学。之后不久就有生育能力，然后结婚。你越早结婚，你的丈夫或性伴侣多半越老。在一个年长男性艾滋病感染率明显较高的环境下，这根本上就是导致无保护性行为。”
Sugar Daddies?
Sometimes, older men who are with much younger women are called sugar daddies. But the World Bank economist said that was not necessarily the case in the Malawi study.
较年长的男性和小他很多岁的年轻女性在一起有时被叫作“甜心老爹”。但世界银行经济学家奥兹勒尔说，在马拉维不一定是这种情况。
“In the media, this kind of sugar daddy phenomena⁵ gets sensationalized a little bit. What we find is much more subtle. It’s that if you’re an 18, 19 year old girl and you need somebody to support you and your family, your age mates aren’t really able to do that because your age mates are as poor as you. But it’s the older guys who have a bit of money. So, when we’re talking about this kind of sugar daddy phenomenon, it’s really not that. It’s that you’re essentially dating out of your age cohort because of economic reasons,” he said.
奥兹勒尔说：“媒体过份炒作这种甜心老爹现象。但我们发现的是更加微妙的现象。如果你是一名18、19岁的女孩，你需要某个人帮助自己和家人，跟你同龄的男性作不到这点，因为他们跟你一样穷。但较年长的男性有点钱。所以当我们讨论这种甜心老爹现象，真的不是媒体报道的那样，而是你因为经济因素和不是自己年龄层的人约会。”
If the young women had sex with men their own age, he said, they would have a very low risk of contracting HIV. Surveys in Malawi show the HIV prevalence rate among teenage boys is close to zero.
他表示，如果年轻女性和同龄男性进行性行为，她们感染艾滋病的风险会非常低。奥兹勒尔说，马拉维的调查显示，青少年的艾滋病流行率接近零。
Little money, big difference
The study offered the girls and young women cash payments, perhaps 10 dollars a month. Some were just given the money with no conditions attached, while others were required to regularly attend school. There was some behavior change in those who received the money.
研究人员付钱给少女和年轻女性，也许是一个月10美金。有时候是没有交换条件就给她们钱，有时候要求她们得固定上学才给钱。研究人员在那些收到钱的人身上看见了一些行为改变。
Ozler said, “Girls who were sexually active kept being sexually active. But they chose different partners. They dated their age mates, who are much less likely to be HIV positive. But on top of that they actually had much less sexual activity with them. Right, so it wasn’t like they’re abstaining⁶, but they were having less sex. And we know both of those things are protective factors.”
奥兹勒尔说：“原来有性生活的少女她们还是有性生活。但她们选择不同的伴侣，她们和同龄人约会，这些人有艾滋病阳性反应的机率低得多。但最重要的是青少女跟同龄男性从事性活动的频率少很多。她们不是禁欲，但她们的性活动就是比较少，而我们知道这两件事是保护性因素。”
The study showed these young women generally had extremely low HIV or herpes infection rates.
这份研究显示，这些年轻女性的艾滋病和泡疹感染率通常都极低。
Ozler said more research is needed to determine if such a program would work in most poor countries. But he says it could be considered as part of a comprehensive strategy to prevent HIV infection.
奥兹勒尔说，必须有更多研究才能决定这样的项目在多数贫穷国家是否都有效。但他说，这可以纳入抗击艾滋感染的完整策略的一部分。
Ozler was joined in the research by Dr. Sarah Baird of George Washington University; Professor Richard Garfein; and Dr. Craig McIntosh of the University of California at San Diego. The Study was published by the Lancet medical journal.