22 May 2017
Community health workers (CHWs) are members of a local community who are chosen to provide basic healthcare and to promote healthy practices and illness prevention. However, despite the crucial service they provide in rural communities with limited access to healthcare or in places where reliance on traditional healers and birth attendants is the norm, community health workers remain unpaid for their service. Community…
19 May 2017
Age-disparate sexual relationships are associated with new HIV infections among young women in Zimbabwe, particularly for young women with partners ten years older or more. The findings come from a 15-year study by Imperial College London, Zimbabwe’s Biomedical Research and Training Institute and the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care, and is the first large scale study to track the association between…
23 May 2017
Leading HIV/AIDS researcher Quarraisha Abdool Karim has been honoured with an honorary doctoral degree by the University of Johannesburg in recognition of her contribution towards improving the quality of life of women in Africa. With extensive research contributions that spans over 25 years’ Professor Abdool Karim’s commitment to create a deeper understanding on the growing HIV epidemic in South Africa and the factors…
23 May 2017
A recent study published in SAARC Journal of Tuberculosis, Lung Diseases & HIV/AIDS shows that wives of migrant workers in Nepal are at a higher risk of HIV, not because they are not aware of it but because they are scared to ask their husbands about their potentially risky sexual behaviour while abroad. "Two-thirds of the research participants had generally good knowledge of HIV and its mode of transmission, but half of…
15 May 2017
Gracious is an 18-year-old girl who was diagnosed with HIV at the age of 13. However, her family was afraid to tell her about her HIV status and instead told her that she had a heart condition. Gracious told her friends at school that she was on medication for her heart condition. However, the friends suspected that she was HIV-positive because she was often sick. Gracious took her medication to school in order to prove her…
15 May 2017
The statistics are well-known. African Americans bear the heaviest burden of HIV infection of all racial or ethnic groups in the United States, says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the burden of this disease is carried squarely on the shoulders of African-American women. Their rates of new HIV infections are more than three times higher than those of white women and four times those of Hispanic women…
14 May 2017
At least 213 HIV-infected women have given birth to healthy babies in the government-run hospitals of Chhattisgarh in 2016-17, a State health official has said. “The health department is committed to secure the child from infection in the womb of a HIV-positive mother,” Chhattisgarh’s health services director R. Prasanna told PTI. The multi-medicine treatment process has yielded better results, with 213 HIV-infected women…
14 May 2017
President Jacob Zuma's wife, Tobeka Madiba-Zuma, on Saturday launched the Listen to the Girl Child campaign in KwaZulu-Natal. The Tobeka Madiba-Zuma Foundation, in partnership the eThekwini Municipality and the UN Aids programme, said it led a dialogue in sexual health, violence directed at children, girls and women, for 500 girls from schools around Inanda, KwaMashu and Ntuzuma in Durban. The campaign aims to provide…
26 April 2017
It can be in a doctor’s tone when asking a routine medical question, or in the way a nurse raises an eyebrow. The stigma surrounding HIV can be exhausting. For Angela Hodges, a 51-year-old resident of Washington, D.C., stigma initially led her to deny her HIV-positive diagnosis. Hodges lives at Miriam’s House, a residence for women who are HIV-positive and experiencing homelessness. The stigma has made it difficult for her…
8 May 2017
San Diego - Women living with HIV had a lifetime prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder four times the national average, according to a small study examining women from an urban HIV clinic. Overall, 43.1% of participants met diagnostic criteria for lifetime PTSD, while the national prevalence for women is estimated at 10%, reported Keemi Ereme, MPH, of Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and…
2 May 2017
Bose Oladayo learned she was HIV positive more than a decade ago. Back then, Oladayo didn't know much about the disease, but the stories she heard painted a grim picture of her future. Oladayo wanted to "cure" herself of HIV. So, the mother of three made a mixture of deadly chemicals, among them bleach, and injected it into her body, thinking it would kill the disease, Oladayo told TheBody.com via email. "This happened so […
4 May 2017
Plenty of progress has been made in the fight against AIDS. Deaths peaked in 2005, at around 2m people. By 2015 that number had fallen to 1.1m. One big reason is that, of the 36.7m people currently infected with HIV, 18.2m are taking antiretroviral drugs that can hold the virus back for decades. Their number has risen more than twentyfold since the turn of the century.But not all the statistics are so encouraging. Around 1.9m…
5 May 2017
In the small maternity ward of a run-down health clinic in Delft, a half hour drive from Cape Town, the wooden benches in the waiting area are filled with young women and girls from the poor surrounding townships. Nozuko Manong, in her white-and-blue nurse's uniform, calls out a name and escorts a young woman into a small consulting room where the paint is peeling from the walls. Gently, Manong tells the patient the result of…
3 May 2017
The nonprofit International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) announced today the start of the first clinical trial of its three-month vaginal ring designed to prevent two of the greatest risks to women’s health: HIV, which disproportionately strikes women of reproductive age, and unintended pregnancy, a leading contributor to maternal mortality. The three-month vaginal ring is designed to slowly — and simultaneously —…
27 April 2017
Early antiretroviral therapy (ART) is highly acceptable to the majority of young women with HIV in South Africa, according to research published in AIDS and Behavior. Rates of virological suppression remained at over 85% regardless of CD4 threshold for starting treatment, and answers to a questionnaire showed that over three-quarters of participants were willing to start treatment when their CD4 count was above 500 cells/…
19 April 2017
South Africa - A study conducted by Dr Yogandra Naidoo found that the fear of being discriminated against and stigmatised has made it impossible for HIV and AIDS sufferers in the south Durban township to disclose their status and living their lives.The findings also revealed that poverty’ gender power relations and stigma were major social factors contributing to the growth of HIV and AIDS.
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29 April 2017
It has always been a public secret that women bear the biggest brunt of the HIV and AIDS pandemic, but now, gender activists are saying the cost of that burden is more often than not, understated. From having to sacrifice their other economic and social roles to taking up unpaid 'work' at home in caring for patients living with HIV and AIDS, the burden is proving to be too much on women, activists who are lobbying for…
30 April 2017
Kenya - Sexually active young women and girls aged 15 to 24 are among the high-risk groups targeted in the May 4 rollout of a new method meant to protect HIV-negative people from contracting the virus. The approach, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), involves people at high risk of contracting HIV taking an antiretroviral pill, Truvada, daily to lower their chances of getting infected.
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24 April 2017
In Africa, women and girls are the most vulnerable in regards to violence, lack of education, gender equality and health issues. The Kelowna Grandmothers For Africa work towards restoring hope, dignity and the chance to move forward with their dreams through community based programs. The need continues for more funding to be directed to grassroots initiatives that in turn will build resilience and economic independence.…
23 April 2017
Miranda was four months pregnant and extremely anxious when she got her first HIV test. She had long been afraid of a positive diagnosis, and shortly after stepping into a tent offering free HIV tests at a taxi stand in central Johannesburg, her fear was confirmed. Miranda—who asked to use a pseudonym to protect her safety and privacy—had never been tested. “[I thought], It’s not going to happen to me.… [But] part of me…