Abuse of women - an epidemic

More than a third of women worldwide are victims of physical or sexual violence, constituting a global health problem of epidemic proportions, a report said yesterday.

The vast majority of women are attacked or abused by their husbands or boyfriends, and common health problems they suffer as a result include broken bones, bruises, pregnancy complications and depression and other mental illnesses, the World Health Organisation report said.

"This is an everyday reality for many women," said Charlotte Watts, a health policy expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and one of the report's authors.

She said she was shocked by pictures this week that showed celebrity TV chef Nigella Lawson being grabbed by the throat by her husband, Charles Saatchi. He has been cautioned by the police for assault.

"We don't know the details of what is going on there but it does illustrate that this happens to all women - it's not just poor women, or women in a certain country," Watts said.

The report, co-authored by Watts and Claudia Garcia-Moreno of the World Health Organisation, found that 38% of all women murder victims were killed by intimate partners, and 42% of women who have been victims of physical or sexual violence by a partner have been injured as a result.

Garcia-Moreno pointed to recent high-profile rape cases in India and South Africa that have put a spotlight on the treatment of women worldwide.

The gang rape in December of a 23-year-old woman on a bus in New Delhi sparked a global outcry and protests in India demanding better policing of sex crimes. The raped woman died from her injuries.

"These kinds of cases raise awareness, which is important, and at the same time we must remember there are hundreds of women who are being raped on the streets and in their homes every day but that doesn't make the headlines," Garcia-Moreno said.

The report found that violence against women is a root cause of a range of acute and chronic health problems.

Women who suffer violence inflicted by their partners are 1.5 times more likely to get syphilis, chlamydia or gonorrhoea. And in some regions, including sub-Saharan Africa, they are 1.5 times more likely to become infected with HIV, the report said.