Blog

By Linda-Gail Bekker, President of the International AIDS Society Although women remain under-represented in many science fields, the history of HIV cannot be truly told without focusing on the critical contributions of women. I have worked as a physician scientist in this field with a particular focus on addressing the needs of poor and vulnerable communities in sub-Saharan Africa for the past 25 years. Women’s critical role is one of many reasons why the International Day of Women and Girls...

Rosemary Namubiru is a 67-year-old nurse living with HIV. She is a mother, grandmother and IAS Member. She was wrongfully accused of intentionally exposing a child to HIV while administering an injection in January 2014. The child did not acquire HIV. However, the accusations created a media firestorm, and she was arrested live on television. Originally charged with attempted murder, she was eventually convicted of criminal negligence. However, on appeal, the judge found that her initial three-y...

By Edwin Bernard, IAS Member and Global Coordinator of the HIV Justice Network There is no clearer manifestation of the stigma associated with HIV than the multitude of bad laws and policies that punish people living with HIV for acts that would not be a crime if they didn’t know they had the virus. Usually, these laws are used to prosecute individuals who are aware that they are living with HIV but allegedly did not disclose their HIV status prior to sex (“HIV non-disclosure”), are percei...

By Linda-Gail Bekker, President of the International AIDS Society Societies that don’t work for girls and young women don’t work. Every young person deserves a decent shot at a happy, healthy and productive future. And yet, we have seen first-hand that far too many girls grow up without this hope. But don’t take our word for it. Revealingly, when asked, both male and female adolescents from 33 countries surveyed said that they wanted greater gender equality. The basis of those survey resu...

By Linda-Gail Bekker, President of the International AIDS Society, and José Luis Castro, Executive Director of The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease When it comes to tuberculosis (TB) control, the world is falling short. Despite being a curable disease, TB is the cause of one-third of the 1.5 million AIDS deaths each year and continues to kill an estimated 1.7 million people and infect another 10 million each year. In over some three decades working in TB control, betw...

Bruno Spire is a researcher living with HIV and a senior scientist at the French National Institute for Medical Research (INSERM). Bruno has been a member of the International AIDS Society (IAS) since 2008 and has been on the IAS Governing Council for the European region since 2016. Since 1988, he has been a member of AIDES, the main nongovernmental HIV organization in France, and he is now honorary President. Bruno is a scientist, but more so, he is an advocate on HIV community-based research. ...

By Laurel Sprague, Executive Director of The Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+) Perhaps the single most important characteristic of the AIDS response – one that holds lessons about efforts to address other health challenges – is the central contribution of people living with HIV and those in the communities who have borne the brunt of HIV, including LGBTI people, sex workers, and people who use drugs. For no other health problem has the involvement of affected individuals played ...