9 February 2017
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are among 13 African countries that will receive $55 million from the Global Fund to fight HIV/Aids, among adolescent girls and young women. Tanzania will get $8 million while Kenya and Uganda will receive $5 million each, leaving the rest to the other countries, namely Botswana, Cameroon, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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21 February 2017
More than a 100 delegates from 12 eastern and southern Africa met in Windhoek from 1-3 February to discuss approaches and strategies on how best to reach adolescent girls and young women with HIV prevention in the context of sexual and reproductive health and rights.
The gathering came hot on the heels of a disturbing report that indicated that in 2014, nearly half of all adolescents living with HIV globally were…
30 January 2017
Married for 17 years, Longok had no idea she was HIV positive until she heard rumors suggesting her husband was living with HIV and got herself tested. “I was so shocked because in my heart I knew that I have never cheated on my husband and he had found me a virgin when he married me at the age of 16,” says Mwatum Kitui Longok, a mother of six, from Moroto, a remote district located in Karamoja, north-eastern Uganda.…
20 February 2017
New analysis of data detailing the extent of sexual violence in the Rustenburg area, South Africa, indicates that one in five HIV infections (approximately 6,765 of all female cases) and one in three cases of depression among women (5,022 cases) are attributable to rape and intimate-partner violence (IPV), while one in three women inducing abortion (1,296 cases) was pregnant as a result of sexual violence.
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This report illustrates key findings from a 'Global Values and Preferences Survey' regarding the sexual and reproductive health and human rights of women living with HIV (WLHIV). Topics discussed include: safety for WLHIV, human rights, accessing services, gender equality, protective laws, financial security, mental health, and more.
Friends may be an important influence for young women's risk of HIV infection as they serve as a medium to discuss norms about gender and sexuality and are a social network through which young women form sexual partnerships. In 2011, young women participating in a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) trial in South Africa were asked about their friendships in detail. Results showed that friends' characteristics were linked to: a young woman's…
This article examines opportunities for women to engage with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Suggestions are made for the community, national, and global levels. Insight and discussions are included from collaborations of various organizations including: AIDS Legal Network, ATHENA Network, Access Chapter 2 South Africa, International Community of Women Living with HIV East Africa (ICWEA), Uganda, and Coalition of…
9 February 2017
Opinion Piece: Chances are very high that by this time next year if you are still alive, 26,000 girls will be living with HIV if we are to go by a report released by the Uganda Aids Commission a few days back. If this trend continues, by 2029, chances are high that your daughter or grand daughter may be among those living with HIV. On the other hand, your son, grandson or even your husband might be on the flip side of…
8 February 2017
Thailand has become the first Asian country to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, thanks to a pragmatic multi-sector response backed by strong political commitment and heavy government investment, a new study reports. Such an early, concerted response allowed the country to successfully address the four prongs of the recommended World Health Organization (WHO) elimination strategy. As a result, MTCT…
10 February 2017
A new project in Lesotho combines a mobile healthcare app, a mobile payment service and a fleet of traveling clinics to help HIV-positive women in remote areas get lifesaving medication and support. Less than a year after the launch of a project that uses mobile phone apps to help give HIV-positive women and children in two Lesotho districts better access to treatment, the initiative has proved so successful…
13 February 2017
A new HIV prevention measure, Dapivirine Ring, which has up to seventy-one per cent ability to protect users from contracting the virus has proved to be super-effective, according to preliminary research results by University of North Carolina (UNC) and John Hopkins. Speaking during a training workshop organized by journalists association against Aids (Journaids) at Bridge View Hotel in Lilongwe, UNC project study…
10 February 2017
Women initiated on anti-retroviral drugs based on how sick they are, are more likely to continue and adhere to treatment compared to those who are initiated bcause they are pregnant, a recent study on adherence of ARVs in pregnant woman has shown. Presenting study results in Harare yesterday, Clinton Health Access Initiative country director Mr Alexio Mangwiro said of the 1,150 women who took part in the study, 8,5…
7 February 2017
South African women with pro-inflammatory bacteria that dominates vaginal microbiomes have more than a 4-fold higher risk of acquiring HIV than those with healthy vaginal bacteria, a recent study indicates. An estimated 24 million individuals in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV. According to UNAIDS, young African women have up to an 8-fold higher rate of HIV prevalence compared with young men.
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4 February 2017
On World Cancer Day, UNAIDS is calling for all women living with HIV to have access to information about the human papillomavirus (HPV) and to be offered cervical cancer screening and treatment if necessary. Cervical cancer is preventable and, if caught early, treatable. However, around half of the estimated 500 000 women who are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year die from the disease.
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8 February 2017
Women are more likely than men to have poor adherence to combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), according to Canadian research published in HIV Medicine. Adherence was monitored in a cohort of over 4000 people in British Columbia over 14 years. After controlling for injecting drug use (IDU) and ethnicity, 57% of women and 77% of men attained optimum 95% adherence.
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This article explores the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) among HIV-infected pregnant women in South Africa. It found that 21% of women reported experiencing one or more type of IPV in the last twelve months, and 48% of them reported experiencing two or more types of violence. Reported IPV was higher among married women, and women who experienced IPV were more likely to score higher for substance use, depression, and…
This editorial discusses new HIV prevention methods for women and how they have fared in clinical trials, including major challenges in prevention of HIV infection of women. Dr. Adimora stresses the importance of diverse HIV intervention methods that adopt to women in different life stages and their needs.
This article evaluates the safety and efficacy of a vaginal ring containing dapivirine for the prevention of HIV infection in nearly 2,000 women of reproductive age from South Africa and Uganda. The study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial and it found that the dapivirine ring was not associated with any safety concerns and was associated with a lower rate of HIV-1 infection than the placebo rate.
3 February 2017
Most women do not know that pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) may be an HIV prevention option for them, panelists noted at the recent PrEP for Women: The San Francisco Story webinar sponsored by HIVE. Prevention messages around San Francisco are primarily targeted at men who have sex with men. The San Francisco Department of Public Health does not even cover the cost of HIV testing for women. To help educate women about…
27 January 2017
Nearly five years ago, when Safaa was 26 and a mother of two, she discovered that she had HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) - a disease which destroys the immune system of its host. To her, this was worse than a death sentence - it would force her to keep her medical history secret from even her closest relatives for the rest of her life. Fearing that her relatives would not accept the news of her infection, she managed…