The results of the CAPRISA trial which tested the safety and effectiveness of a 1% Tenofovir Gel for the prevention of HIV acquisition in women created quite a stir at the XVIII International AIDS conference in Vienna. For the first time, and after years of unsuccessful research, a randomised trial involving 889 women in South Africa showed that it was possible to prevent HIV acquisition with a gel containing an antiretroviral (ARV).
Overall the results are clear and unequivocal, after 30 months of gel use, the group of women who …

The MAC AIDS Funds (MAF) new campaign to raise awareness and funding for HIV-AIDS research brings together two glam artists, Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper. This women’s initiative aimed at strengthening the service network and resources available to women living with and at risk of contracting HIV.
The two artists will promote the sale of limited editions of lipsticks created to support the work of the funds.
Unlike Starbuck armchair’s activism, where less than 10% of what you spend on expensive lattes goes to support HIV/AIDS programmes, M-A-C decided that every cent …

“Women now account for half of the 33 million people living with HIV around the world. In sub-Saharan Africa, home to two-thirds of the world’s people living with HIV, women are even harder hit, making up 60 percent of those infected. Not only are women biologically more susceptible than men to HIV, many behavioral and social factors play into women’s vulnerability.
If a young woman is uninfected with HIV at the time of her marriage, traditional wisdom says that she has avoided the disease altogether. More and more, however, research shows …

This is the second part of a true story told through a friend, a first person account of the life of Nhlanhla , a nurse in a Sub-Saharan country afflicted by HIV and AIDS (read part 1 here). Names, places and minor details have been changed to protect people’s privacy. It is a story of fear, stigma, discrimination but also of hope, the everyday story of a young woman whose life, on revealing to her family that she is HIV positive, spirals into hell and despair.

“A few days later I …

This is a true story told through a friend, a first person account of the life of Nhlanhla, a nurse in a Sub-Saharan country afflicted by HIV and AIDS. Names, places and minor details have been changed to protect people’s privacy. It is a story of fear, stigma, discrimination but also of hope, the everyday story of a young woman whose life, on revealing to her family that she is HIV positive, spirals into hell and despair.
“Over the year, Nhlanhla has faced many challenges in finding out she was HIV …