Blog

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...

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...