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The HIV/AIDS community is paying increasing attention to the estimated 1.8 million (uncertainty bounds 1.3 million to 2.4 million) people younger than 15 years living with HIV globally, as was evident by the focus on adolescents at the XXII International AIDS Conference in July, 2018. This attention is welcome and it is crucial to curtailing the HIV epidemic. But while age disaggregation can help elucidate the spread and impacts of the HIV…

1 December 2018

Thirty years after the first World AIDS Day, the response to HIV stands at a crossroads. Which way we turn may define the course of the epidemic—whether we will end AIDS by 2030, or whether future generations will carry on bearing the burden of this devastating disease.

1 December 2018

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first World AIDS Day. Thirty years of activism and solidarity under the banner of World AIDS Day. Thirty years of campaigning for universal access to life-saving services to treat and prevent HIV. But after 30 years, AIDS is…

30 November 2018

World AIDS Day focuses our attention both on successes, and on those whose needs remain urgent and unmet.

30 November 2018

Today, 30 years after World AIDS Day was first observed, it’s encouraging to see the advances that have been made in prevention and treatment. 

But, with nearly 2,000 women a day acquiring HIV worldwide—and young women in sub-Saharan Africa facing at least twice the risk as young men—closing the prevention gap for women remains a major challenge.

Read the full statement online…

20 November 2018

Kenya has the fourth-largest HIV epidemic in the world and adolescent girls and young women account for up to 21% of all new HIV infections.

Through the Moving the Goalposts project, Tibu and other Young Leaders are integrating HIV education into weekly football sessions to help create a safe and supportive space to discuss sensitive issues.

As a result, the girls will have a better understanding of how to…

13 November 2018

Jamaican women living with HIV who are uncertain where to go for assistance due to the fear of being stigmatized can turn to 'Eve for Life.' The non-governmental organization recently received USD $43,000 from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to coordinate two new programmes - Self Motivated and Responsible Teenagers (SMART) and Vocal and Informed Teens: To Plan and Prevent. 

In a recent press release,…

8 November 2018

In Uganda, about 1.5 million people are living with HIV, but data analysis shows new infections are on the rise among women. In 2015, it was estimated that 567 young people (15-24 years) get infected with HIV every week and of these, 363 were young women. A 2016 report shows that 570 young women (15-24 years) got infected with HIV every week in Uganda. 

A 20-year study by the Uganda Virus Research…

1 November 2018

This year's United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) focused on the importance of activism in the fight against HIV. Activism played a crucial role in the early years of the epidemic -- bringing pressure to bear on governments, industry, and society to respond to the epidemic with urgency and compassion.

Marmina…

29 October 2018

Undoubtedly, the lack of a female face with HIV is partly due to the demographics of the epidemic. In the United States, women make up approximately 25 percent of the people living with HIV. Globally, the statistics are quite different; 52 percent of the people living with HIV are women. Similarly, approximately 50 percent of the new infections every year afflict women.

Perhaps the most sobering statistic: HIV-…

16 October 2018

An academic and a director have teamed up to produce a moving feature-length film highlighting the everyday struggles of women living with HIV in Tanzania, in which two thirds of the cast are HIV positive. The East-African nation has made major inroads in tackling the HIV epidemic over the last decade, with an extensive roll out of free anti-retroviral treatment, but 1.5 million Tanzanians still live with the…

4 October 2018

Research involving 60 prevention of mother-to-child (PMTCT) outreach workers describes numerous and persistent challenges facing pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV. The study is the first from India to focus solely on outreach worker experiences.

Researchers conducted focus groups with outreach workers in Maharashtra, a state in western and central India with an antenatal HIV prevalence of 0.5%,…

Epidemics of HIV and HPV are inherently interconnected, and when they meet in the context of weak health systems, their effects serve to amplify each other. Both HIV and cervical cancer present significant public health threats to women in sub-Saharan Africa. But while the threat of HIV is well documented, and the mass mobilisation of resources to treat HIV, unprecedented, cervical cancer is a relatively new and developing challenge for the…

1 October 2018

First Lady of Ghana, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo has called for education and skills development programmes to empower young girls and women to enable them engage in income generating activities.

This, she said, would make girls and women better informed to take decisions about their sexuality saying “being empowered will help women and adolescents make wise choices to help them ‘stay’ free from HIV.

Speaking in…

4 October 2018

Adolescent girls and young women in South Africa are more susceptible to contracting HIV than their male counterparts. This article takes a gendered look at the HIV epidemic in South Africa and the challenges adolescent girls and young women face which contribute to their high rate of new infections. It is important to recognize that that patriarchy and traditional male norms create a gender inequity which informs these…

Since its announcement, Undetectable equals Untransmittable (U=U) has become a call to action to assert that when someone living with HIV has an undetectable viral load they cannot transmit HIV. Additionally, the U=U message is evolving to challenge notions of HIV infectivity, vulnerability and stigma. The science behind the U=U message provides the evidence that we can reduce the anxiety related to the sexual transmission of the HIV virus…

What Women Want is a global advocacy campaign to improve quality maternal and reproductive healthcare for women and girls and strengthen health systems. Launched on April 11, 2018—International Maternal Health and Rights Day—What Women Want sets out to query one million women and girls worldwide—from capital cities to rural villages—about their top priority for quality maternal and reproductive health services until the end of March 2019.…

15 September 2018

India's newly released HIV/AIDS Estimation Report (2017) shows an increase in the number of people living with HIV (211,700 in 2015 to 214,000 in 2017) and AIDS-related deaths (67,612 in 2015 to 69,110 in 20170) and a marginal decline in infections. At the current pace of progress, India will miss the global target of 75 per cent reduction in new HIV infections from the base value in 2010.

A major take-…

8 August 2018

A quality education is essential for children, but for girls at risk of HIV, it is a necessary and lifesaving measure. Girls and young women across the world remain one of the most vulnerable populations for HIV. There are 1.1 billion girls in the world and every four minutes, three girls become infected with HIV. Girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa are 14 times more likely to be infected by HIV than their male…