Approximately 70 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS in Borno State, a northeastern state in Nigeria, are women and infants, according to Borno’s governor, Ali Modu Sheriff.

“Currently in Borno state…60 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS in the state are women [and] 10 percent [are] infants,” he said.

Speaking at an AIDS awareness event, Sheriff said that recent research has shown that more women are contracting the virus than men, and that women are becoming infected through both casual relationships and intercourse with their husbands.

Last week, an official at the Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria urged religious leaders in the country to rethink their views on condom use, saying that their refusal to accept them is adding to the spread of HIV.