The focus of the 2016 International AIDS Conference has on access to necessary antiretrovirals, equity and making sure no-one is left behind. But there is a funding gap that needs to be addressed.
Injectable progestin contraceptives are particularly popular in sub-Saharan Africa.
Shutterstock
Studies have suggested that women using a particular kind of injectable contraceptive are more susceptible to HIV infection. Research in mice offers new insights.
Testing and treatment is important in tackling HIV. But stigma and access need to be addressed too.
Shutterstock
Taking antiretrovirals is key to reducing HIV infection rates, but the challenge lies in making sure people who know they are infected actually take the drugs.
Activists protest the criminalisation of sex work outside the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa.
International AIDS Society/Abhi Indrarajan
Mobility is not only a risk factor for HIV – it is also a structural determinant in how HIV responses are designed and implemented.
This human T cell (blue) is under attack by HIV (yellow), the virus that causes AIDS. T cells play a critical role in the body’s immune response.
Seth Pincus, Elizabeth Fischer and Austin Athman, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health
Sharon Lewin, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity e Thomas Aagaard Rasmussen, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
HIV research continues to search for a cure. The focus is on developing therapies to cure HIV infection or allow people with HIV to safely stop antiretroviral therapy and keep the virus under control.
The International AIDS Conference is more than just a talk shop. The platform it offers for engagement between governments, scientists and civil society is of undisputable value.
At the 13th International AIDS Conference, 11-year-old Nkosi Johnson, who had AIDS, begged the South African government to distribute antiretroviral drugs.
Reuters
Glenda Gray, South African Medical Research Council
The 90-90-90 strategy is an attempt to get the HIV epidemic under control by adopting a ‘test and treat’ approach. This is part of the plan to eliminate AIDS by 2030.
HIV-positive women who suffered trauma in their formative years are likely to suffer brain function impairment.
Shutterstock
Mental health problems need to be addressed to control the HIV epidemic, but such treatment is not yet part of the HIV care package in sub-Saharan Africa.
Campaigns like the Lagos AIDS Walk have created awareness of HIV in Nigeria’s capital, but they are lacking in rural areas, where stigmatisation is rife.
Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
In South Africa, female sex workers go for HIV tests, receive counselling and use condoms – but don’t access antiretroviral treatments. More options are now available and can change this.
Understanding what causes diseases is a life-and-death matter. It is a complicated issue that has generated a great deal of debate in the medical community.
Antiquated methods of treating TB included sunbathing. The modern-day equivalent is vitamin D supplements.
Supplied
In countries such as South Africa with a high burden of TB and HIV, vitamin D could be an extremely effective and cheap weapon to include in the arsenal against TB and HIV.
In Nigeria most people have to pay for healthcare out of their own pockets.
EU/ECHO/Isabel Coello
Antiretroviral treatment has been free at Nigeria’s health facilities. But the other costs involved for those living with HIV, such as transport and food, have been problematic.
If the vaginal ring becomes available for commercial use it will become one of the tools in the HIV prevention toolbox for women alongside female condoms and daily pre-exposure prophylaxis.
A community health worker walks a couple through an HIV test in Malawi. Mostly men do not access these services.
Baylor College of Medicine Children's Foundation–Malawi / Robbie Flick
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