In Epworth, near the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has set up HIV support groups where adolescents can meet others living a similar reality. Through sharing their stories, and connecting with one another, their newfound solidarity gradually helps them to become more self-confident. Read full article here.
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A vaginal gel thought to reduce women’s chances of contracting HIV during sex has proven to be ineffective, according to a large-scale study conducted by the Follow-on African Consortium for Tenofovir Studies (Facts), a South African research consortium. Read full article here.
On World AIDS Day, Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka reaffirms UN Women's commitment to fast tracking gender equality, and calls for increased support and investment for women’s empowerment in the context of ending the AIDS epidemic. Read full message here
Ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 requires a comprehensive approach that includes social justice, the democratization of science, gender equity, and a people-centred approach to health, said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on World AIDS Day, as he spotlighted the gap in prevention and treatment that persist among regions and people. Read message here…
On this World AIDS Day, UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé calls for 90-90-90 to be achieved in the next five years: 90% of people living with HIV knowing their HIV status; 90% of people who know their HIV-positive status on treatment; 90% of people on treatment with suppressed viral loads. Read message…
A clinical trial known as Evidence for Contraceptive Options and HIV Outcomes (ECHO)—originally designed to answer important questions about possible connections between risk of HIV infection and the use of non-barrier hormonal contraceptives—now hangs in the balance because of a funding shortfall. Lillian Mworeko and others issue a clarion call for funding in light of the needs of women in the context of HIV. Read full article…
Dr. Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, discusses recent data on how socio-economic factors and levels of risk for HIV are intrinsically connected, especially for young women. Read full article here
A new report issued by the International Center for Research on Women, “More Power to Her: How Empowering Girls Can Help End Child Marriage", shows how and why investing in girls is critical to the global movement to end child marriage. Read full article here
Several news stories in recent months have illustrated gender inequalities on a global scale. Social media campaigns like #YesAllWomen and #BringBackOurGirls have helped to raise awareness of injustices and encourage female empowerment. What has gone mostly unspoken in these discussions, however, are the ways in which these social…
Integrating intimate partner violence (IPV) prevention strategies into HIV prevention programming led to a significant reduction in HIV incidence and in women’s experience of physical and sexual violence from intimate partners in Rakai, Uganda, delegates heard last month at the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne. Read full article…
In July, thousands of people attended the 20th International AIDS Conference and the 2014 Girls Summit to work towards an AIDS-free generation and ending child and forced marriage. But such attention is rare; by and large, these girls are invisible to development efforts. Read full article…
As the 20th International AIDS Conference opens in Melbourne this weekend, Alice Welbourn reflects on how global policies still fail to acknowledge the gender dimensions of this pandemic, or take into account the new broader medico-ethical debates which echo many of the concerns of women living with HIV. Read full article…
In a busy Mozambique clinic, a 25-year-old mother says she won’t tell her estranged husband she has HIV for fear she will be blamed and beaten. Read full article here
In the context of widespread sexual violence and its reciprocal links to HIV, Alice Welbourn reports on how the formal scientific evidence base alone is beginning to be recognized as not fit-for-purpose to safeguard women's rights. Read full article here
The Gauteng health department has made an out-of-court settlement agreement to pay almost half-a-million rand to an HIV-positive woman for damages for the pain and suffering she endured as a result of being coercively sterilized in a state hospital. The department confirmed on Friday that the settlement was made last month. Activists say the outcome of the nearly two year-long legal battle is a ‘landmark and sets a precedent for other women…
HIV-positive women respond well to a vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV), even when their immune system is struggling, according to newly published results of an international clinical trial. Read full article here
Commentary by Lynne Featherstone and Annie Lennox: Tears may dry in seconds. Bruises may disappear in days – and scars might eventually fade. But of all the devastating consequences of violence against women and girls, there is one lasting impact that cannot be hidden underneath clothing or concealed behind a forced smile. In sub-Saharan Africa every minute of every day a woman becomes infected with HIV, adding to…
UN Women remains committed to the goals of getting to zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination, and zero AIDS-related deaths. Today on World AIDS Day, we pay tribute to those working around the world to achieve these goals and reaffirm the strategic importance of getting to zero violence and discrimination against women and girls to make greater progress. Read full article…
On this World AIDS Day, I am more optimistic than ever. Much of the world is accelerating progress in responding to HIV. There are significant decreases in new infections and deaths, and we are making good progress in realizing our target of ensuring 15 million people have access to antiretroviral treatment by 2015. This is crucial to halting and reversing the AIDS epidemic for good. Read full article…
Efforts directed at curbing the spread of the virus will be focused more towards women, NACA said. Majority of people living with HIV in Nigeria are women, the National Agency for the Control of Aids, NACA, has said. The Director-General of NACA, John Idoko, said 60 percent of the about 3.5 million Nigerians living with the virus, are women, meaning men account for the remaining 40 percent. He said the government was directing greater effort at…