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Efforts in combating HIV/AIDS in Malaysia have shown promising success whereby the rate of HIV transmission in the general population is at 0.05%, with the number of AIDS-related deaths steadily on the decline. Read full article here.

In 2012, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of the antiretroviral medication Truvada as the first form of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), a pill to protect against getting HIV. To date, the United States is the only country to give regulatory approval to PrEP for HIV prevention. Read full article here.

Women’s Day is globally acknowledged and celebrated as a day where women reflect on progress made in all spheres of their lives. On this Day, they call for change, celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women. Women’s Day creates space to honour women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their communities and countries. It is also a day meant to raise awareness about how women and girls can protect…

Message from UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé on International Women’s Day - As we celebrate International Women’s Day, world leaders and civil society are gathering in New York to take part in the 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. There, they will review the progress made since the adoption 20 years ago of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which set ambitious targets designed to improve the…

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.

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…

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…

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