UNAIDS report on the global AIDS pandemic 2020 shows that women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa continue to be the most affected and accounted for 59% of all new HIV infections in the region in 2019, with 4500 adolescent girls and young women between 15 and 24 years old becoming infected with HIV every week. Young women accounted for 24% of new HIV infections in 2019, despite…
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The new joint policy brief by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS sets out the steps needed to improve and integrate HIV prevention and contraceptive services in order to reduce new HIV infections among women. This brief has been developed in response to the ECHO study which found extremely high HIV incidence rates among women frequenting contraceptive services in parts of East and Southern Africa. Recommending a woman-centered…
The analysis demonstrated that adolescent girls and young women with the higher vulnerability profiles, including the impact of unequal gender norms, have increased odds of negative health outcomes and experiences. The analysis calls upon tailoring community-based HIV prevention efforts by deferentially targeting/tailoring interventions and health services for sub-populations in higher versus lower HIV vulnerability profiles.…
The AIDS response has taught the world the importance of protecting human rights and promoting gender equality when fighting a disease. COVID-19 has amplified that lesson. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNAIDS has repeated the call that governments must protect human rights and prevent and address gender-based violence—an issue that is even more vital now that lockdowns are putting women and girls at an even higher risk of intimate…
6 March 2020
For many young women and girls, making safe and informed choices, which could limit their exposure to HIV, is no simple task. A young woman in poverty may be forced to exchange sex for favours, or to accept a marriage proposal from an older man.
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9 March 2020
Between 1995 and 2018, the steepest decrease in new HIV infections among women occurred among adolescent girls and young women (aged 15 to 24 years)—a decline of 44% globally.
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8 March 2020
As the world commemorates 2020 International Women’s Day (IWD), AIDS Health Care Foundation (AHF), a Non-Governmental Organisation, has called for the elimination of Mother-To-Child Transmission (MTCT) of HIV and AIDS in Nigeria.
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2 March 2020
Gloria Nawanyaga says being discriminated for living with HIV is much worse than the disease itself. I have suffered discrimination and I know that it can be more lethal than the virus.
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2 March 2020
People who use drugs are often highly stigmatized and face high levels of discrimination. Women who use drugs, however, are doubly stigmatized and discriminated against—because of their drug use and because of their gender.
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9 March 2020
The HIV/Aids epidemic has always been far more than a health issue. The virus thrives on inequality, insecurity, stigma and discrimination, marginalisation, criminalisation and exclusion.
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Gender inequalities affect women’s access to and experience of HIV/AIDS programmes and services. The current study focused on Female Injecting Drug Users with human immunodeficiency virus positive status, residing in Champai district of Mizoram - known as transit hub for illegal drugs.
The aim of the present study was to assess the level of self-esteem and Hope among HIV positive Adolescents across gender. The researcher considered perinatally infected Adolescent boys and girls who are HIV Positive, currently living in a HIV care and support centre.
27 February 2020
Restricted social autonomy of women can reduce their ability to access sexual health and HIV services. Less-educated women may be less knowledgeable about risks and therefore, more prone to adopt risky behaviours.
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17 February
The arrival in 2012 of a daily pill to prevent HIV infection was widely hailed as a breakthrough that could drive new infections worldwide to very low levels. Eight years later, it is having a strong impact in some places and little or none in others.
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Gender discrimination and violence, gaps in education and lack of economic empowerment and protection of sexual and reproductive health and rights are blocking progress
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29 February 2020
Women need men to be more interested in learning their HIV status. Research has also shown that women take their antiretroviral medication in a timely manner.
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12 March 2020
As we celebrated International Women’s Day and applauded the many successes that women have, and continue to achieve globally, we are also reminded of the many challenges that remain. HIV/AIDS continues to be one such challenge.
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11 March 2020
The Department of Health will investigate allegations that women living with HIV were coerced to undergo involuntary sterilisation. Last month, the Commission for Gender Equality released a report on the practice after an investigation that was prompted by a complaint it received in 2015.
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6 March 2020
The bad news about HIV, as Winnie Byanyima sums up plainly, is that it “sits on top of socio-economic injustices”. The UNAIDS Executive Director was speaking at the launch of the report “We’ve Got The Power – women, adolescent girls and the HIV response”.
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12 March 2020
Women who have been medical (and political) subjects of HIV/AIDS also have much to teach us during our current pandemic. Historically, women have been at the forefront of fighting to keep communities and families healthy.
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