25 January 2018
A non-governmental organization has embarked on a programme of re-enrolling teenage girls in the sub-county of Ugenya to school as a way of reducing their vulnerability to HIV infection. The Girl Child Network works with the DREAMS Innovation Challenge programme, which targets girls between 15-24 years. According to the DREAMS project coordinator, Hadley Muchela, this is an HIV intervention strategy that uses education…
24 January 2018
First Lady of Zimbabwe, Auxillia Mnangagwa, recently met with UNAIDS country director Mr. Girmay Haile at Zimbabwe House and pledged to play a national and international advocacy role in the fight against HIV and AIDS. In this meeting, Mr. Haile briefed the First Lady on upcoming events of the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV and AIDS (OAFLA) which engages First Ladies for high level advocacy on HIV,…
18 January 2018
Experts have emphasised the importance of integrating gender-based issues in HIV response programmes in Vietnam in order to facilitate the country’s commitments to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 and addressing gender inequalities.
Participants at a Hanoi seminar this morning argued that Vietnam has committed to eliminating AIDS by 2030 and has demonstrated its political leadership and commitments to participate…
1 December 2017
A lot has changed since the first World AIDS Day, in 1988, when people were still calling the disease "gay cancer" and doctors were scrambling to find a cure. Today, an HIV diagnosis isn't a death sentence, and we know that HIV and AIDS don't affect only gay men. In fact, in the last few years, a lot of HIV and AIDS prevention has revolved around Sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the developing world, where the pandemic…
16 January 2018
According to Augustine Odhiambo, an HIV expert, one of the reasons why Kenya is yet to achieve zero infections despite all the resources directed towards the war against the virus is ignorance from sections of the populations who still don’t believe in the existence of the HIV virus. “As of how and why some sections of the population don’t believe in the existence of the HIV virus is still a conundrum to even people like…
11 January 2018
16 January 2018
Africa has the highest prevalence of communicable diseases in the world – both in terms of mortality (death) and morbidity (illness). This phenomenon has consequences for the health of both women and men, and increased gender mainstreaming in health programmes can help tailor solutions.
A 2016 Institute for Security Studies paper used the International Futures (IFs) forecasting system to explore health trends in…
Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) plays a central role in the preparation of young people for a safe, productive, fulfilling life in a world where HIV and AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unintended pregnancies, gender-based violence (GBV) and gender inequality still pose serious risks to their well-being. However, despite clear and compelling evidence for the benefits of high-quality, curriculum-based CSE, few…
19 December 2017
On December 17, Grand Challenges Canada announced 18 projects extending innovative forms of health-related lifelines to reach women and girls across the world. The projects embrace a range of creative products and services to advance gender equality, promote human dignity and empower women and girls. Two projects receiving large investments involve innovative approaches to improving menstrual, sexual and reproductive…
18 December 2017
Kenya is among seven African countries chosen to carry out large-scale trials for an injectable HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for women without HIV. The clinical trials of the new, long-acting injectable drug known as cabotegravir (CAB) will be conducted among 3,200 HIV-uninfected, sexually active women in Uganda, Botswana, Malawi, Swaziland, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. The trial is meant to examine the…
12 December 2017
Evidence clearly shows the links between gender-based violence (GBV) and HIV – both as cause and consequences of women and girls' vulnerability to HIV. In some areas, women who were physically or sexually abused by an intimate partner are up to twice more likely to get HIV. Young women and adolescent girls represent 60% of newly infected worldwide and 22% in West Africa have increased vulnerability. Benin is no…
There is rightly a huge global effort to enable women living with HIV to have long, productive lives through treatment access. To improve women's health and know how to best optimize facilitators and minimize barriers to access and adherence, more needs to be understood about these issues from women's own perspectives. In this study, women's key barriers in accessing HIV treatment was reviewed in three phases through: a literature review,…
Oral PrEP will reach women who need it if PrEP programs are well-supported and prepared. A collaboration between LVCT Health in Kenya and AVAC, through the USAID-funded OPTIONS Consortium, this video series shows how LVCT Health made changes at the site level and helped women interested in oral PrEP overcome recurring barriers to uptake and adherence.
Each film in the series highlights a different theme or challenge that emerged as…
6 December 2017
This letter comes from a group of young African women and reflects their HIV prevention research priorities. It was submitted to the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Division of AIDS (DAIDS) during the open-comment period concerning the structure and agenda for its next funding cycle (2021-2027).
"Dear Dr. Carl Dieffenbach,
We are eight young women from South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe who were…
In February-March of 2016, the charitable organization Positive Women conducted research on women and HIV, which generated information on stigma, discrimination and the values and needs of women living with HIV and AIDS. The researchers intended to explore important aspects of women's lives related to their sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, human rights and gender-based violence, as well as their economic and political…
8 December 2017
The nonprofit International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) announced today that it has received a DKK 20 million (USD 3.2 million) award over four years from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to advance innovative HIV and multipurpose prevention products designed to empower women with self-initiated tools they could use to protect their sexual and reproductive health. The grant will help support IPM’s regulatory…
1 December 2017
Shedding light on the activism of women living with the viruses, the film began to take shape in the early 2000s while Harriet Hirshorn, the movie's producer and director, was living in France. She worked with a researcher doing a feasibility study on the economic impact of making HIV/AIDS treatment…
The latest update from PEPFAR shares many successes from their Global Results, including their DREAMS program to prevent HIV infection among adolescent girls and young women. The update reported a 25-40% decline in new HIV diagnoses among adolescent girls and young women through the DREAMS program. In the 10 African countries (63 districts) implementing the programs, the majority (65% or 41) of the highest HIV-burden districts achieved a…
UNAIDS’ Right to health report makes it clear that states have basic human rights obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to health. The report gives voice to the communities most affected by HIV on what the right to health means to them. Wherever the right to health is compromised, HIV spreads. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, 67% of new HIV infections among young people are among young women and girls aged between 15…