After 35 years, AIDS has changed the way the globe thinks about health, culture, and politics.
Treatment has transformed the outlook for people living with HIV from almost certain death to a manageable chronic condition.
Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters
Globally, the health community is moving to a point where there could be zero new HIV infections or deaths. But it has been a long road.
The WHO has recommended pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, as an additional HIV prevention choice for people with a high risk of being infected. Truvada has been licensed in South Africa.
Epa/Maurizio Gambarini
Young women in southern Africa are most at risk of becoming infected with HIV. If they take a pre-exposure prophylaxis like Truvada it could change their lives.
The successful prevention of mother to child transmission programmes means nearly all HIV-infected pregnant women should get anti-retroviral treatment to protect their babies.
Joshua Wanyama/Africa Knows
South Africa’s programmes preventing HIV transmission from mothers to children have been hugely successful. But there are still gaps that need to be filled.
A woman prepares ribbons ahead of World Aids Day.
Reuters/Antony Njuguna
Women who were found to have lied in a clinical trial testing anti-HIV drugs were heavily criticised. But there are several factors that drove them to lie.
Women would prefer a product that addresses multiple sexual and reproductive health risks at the same time.
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Scientists are developing various products that can provide contraception and protection from sexually transmitted infections and HIV at the same time.
HIV services are not geared towards men even though they make up two-thirds of the HIV-related deaths globally.
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For pregnant HIV-positive women taking anti-retrovirals is critical for their babies’ health. Intimate partner violence affects adherence, and must be addressed as part of women’s HIV treatment.
South Africa’s successes in HIV treatment have been marred by challenges in improving HIV prevention methods.
Reuters/Nacho Doce
With nearly one-fifth of the globe’s HIV positive population, South Africa has the largest anti-retroviral program in the world. But HIV prevention still presents a big challenge for the country.
A women gets an HIV test. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for the majority of the HIV deaths annually.
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Lynn Morris, University of the Witwatersrand; Nono Mkhize, National Institute for Communicable Diseases; Penny Moore, University of the Witwatersrand, and Zanele Ditse, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Two major clinical trials will be conducted in South Africa in 2016 to test ways of preventing new HIV infections.
In Malawi men who have sex with men can access healthcare services but they do not always get adequate treatment, care and support.
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Malawi and Tanzania have created programs to provide sexual and reproductive health services and HIV interventions. But men who have sex with men say it’s still difficult to access care.
Poverty is rife in Malawi, with more than 90% living on less than US$2 a day. One of the reasons young urban Malawians give for engaging in transactional sex is to get food.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Material deprivation and young people desiring the latest fashion trends are motivating the transactional sex relationships in Malawi’s urban slums.
The World Health Organisation has declared Cuba the first country in the world to eliminate the transmission of HIV and syphilis from mother to child.
Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters
There are many lessons Southern Africa can learn from Cuba, which became the first country in the world to eradicate mother to child transmissions of HIV and syphilis.
HIV positive t-shirts have been distributed to reduce the stigma attached to the disease. This would have been unthinkable 30 years ago.
Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters
Professor of Health Economics and Policy and Pharmaco-economics/pharmaco-epidemiology in the Departments of Health Administration & Management and Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria
Medical Scientist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases; Research Associate at CAPRISA; Research Professor in the School of Pathology, University of the Witwatersrand