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By Linda-Gail Bekker, International AIDS Society President Vaccines are modern miracles. Every year, vaccines save up to 3 million lives worldwide [1]. The measles vaccine alone has saved more than 20 million lives since 2000 [2]. Smallpox, a disease that as recently as the 1960s was associated with a death toll comparable to HIV, has now been eradicated as a result of vaccination efforts. Immunization programmes are on the cusp of eliminating polio, and expanded use of the hepatitis B vaccine...

Jeffry Acaba is a programme officer for APCASO, an Asia-Pacific civil society network of community-based and non-governmental organizations on HIV, health, and social justice, with a focus on advocacy and community capacity development. He serves as a youth focal point for the organization, coordinating APCASO’s work with the Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Young Key Populations, a coalition of UN, civil society, and partners working on HIV and young key populations in Asia and the Pacific. He...

Leena Menghaney is a coordinator of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Access Campaign in India and an IAS Member. She began her work on access to HIV treatment with the Lawyers Collective, an India-based human rights organization, as part of its legal aid unit assisting people living with HIV. She was one of the organizers of a 2005 campaign to ensure that India's new patent law included public health safeguards to limit the impact of patents on access to affordable medicines. This is Leena’s ...

Perhaps the greatest achievement of the HIV response has been its success in bringing antiretroviral therapy to 20.9 million people (as of June 2017). This historic accomplishment, which in 2016 alone averted 1.2 million deaths, was made possible by actions that led to a 99% decline in the cost of first-line regimens. As a result of these actions, the right to treatment access is broadly recognized.

The proportion of female scientists has increased across the world since the 1990s. However, less than 30% of the world’s researchers are women. We asked five women at different stages of their career paths and from various countries and backgrounds to share their experiences and insights into being a female scientist. These are their stories... Read more

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...