News

The power of SheDecides is its emphasis on gender equality and women's empowerment, linking these rights with wider Sustainable Development goals, including HIV prevention.

To respond to increasing HIV infections among women in New York City, the Department of Health has started a public health campaign to encourage women to use HIV prevention medication, or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

This article discusses the links between HIV and gender-based violence and the effects of stigma and discrimination women living with HIV face.

Accurate information about sex and healthy relationships leads to greater gender equality worldwide, a report by UNESCO found. It also leads to better sexual health, as well as less sexually transmitted infections, HIV and unintended pregnancies.

Linda-Gail Bekker, President of the International AIDS Society, highlights women's scientific contributions in the field of HIV and their critical roles in developing female-controlled prevention methods and documenting the associations between HIV and gender-based violence.

This opinion piece draws the linkages between gender-based violence and HIV infection in Uganda and urges more training, prevention, treatment care and support measures to ensure the health and well-being of women and girls.

A recent cross-sectional study in Switzerland found that women living with HIV of reproductive age faced barriers to obtaining effective contraception. Authors recommend the importance of HIV care physicians to be attentive to women's choices and needs for contraception.

At the end of their 20th Ordinary General Assembly, the Organization of African First Ladies against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) further recommitted themselves to preventing HIV in children, women, mothers and young women and adolescents.

Executive Director of the Global Fund, Peter Sands, announced the HER - HIV Epidemic Response - Initiative to address HIV in 13 African countries where adolescent girls and young women face a disproportionate risk of infection.

A study in the United States found that only 49% of women living with HIV received guideline-adherent care for gynaecologic cancers. This study highlights the critical need to expand an understanding of best practices for the treatment of women living with HIV and gynaecological cancer.

The First Lady is prepared to fight against HIV and AIDS and expressed her commitment to intensify advocacy efforts towards ending child marriage, reproductive health rights and other issues which affect adolescent girls and young women.

The Girl Child Network works with the DREAMS Innovation Challenge programme to re-enroll adolescent girls into school as a way of reducing their vulnerability to HIV infection.

According to a joint study published by the Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control and UN Women, gender equality promises have not been clearly shown in Vietnam's current HIV response policies, programmes or budgets.

Gender inequality is arguably the prominent cause of the higher incidence of women's morbidity and mortality from communicable diseases in Africa. Regarding HIV, one of the key communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, most newly diagnosed people are women. Biological issues associated with HIV transmission can account for some of these differences, but gender norms play a major role.

A new initiative involves large-scale clinical trials for an injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among uninfected women. If successful, the trials will give the war on HIV the much needed boost to control new infection. Through such trials, the development of safe alternative options for PreP could increase HIV prevention choices for women.

The findings revealed that only 46% of girls and young women living with HIV were aware of their status and just 45% were virally suppressed. However, researchers found a high proportion of viral suppression among those aware of their infection. New interventions to link young women and girls to testing services and same-day treatment initiation is critical.

We don't often think of HIV and AIDS as a women's issue, but in areas where infections are most prevalent, it's women and girls who are most at risk. More than half of all people living with HIV and AIDS are women and young women are especially likely to contract the disease today.

Some of Grand Challenges Canada's large investments focus on improving the sexual and reproductive health of women and girls. One project in Kenya aims to reduce HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women through HIV/STI education, gender and life skills programming and entrepreneurial skills training.

Kenya is among seven African countries chosen to carry out large-scale trials for a long-acting, injectable HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drug for women. The purpose of this trial is to examine the safety and effectiveness of the drug compared to existing daily oral PrEP pills. Ultimately, this could reduce HIV infection among young women and provide safe HIV prevention options for women.

This blog post by Plan International Canada's Global Fund team discusses findings from Benin's national study on gender-based violence and its linkages to HIV infection. Preliminary results indicate that rigid and unequal gender norms leave women and girls with little negotiating power to make positive health choices.