Members of the ANC Women’s League protest outside the South African court where British businessman Shrien Dewani faced charges of murdering his Swedish bride. He was acquitted.
Reuters/ Mike Hutchings
On November 25 each year, South Africa launches its annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign. Gender based violence is still a massive challenge.
We don’t know Charlie Sheen’s specific medical details. But HIV treatment is effective at reducing transmission.
Mike Segar/Reuters
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.
All bar none. Taking health to the heart of the problem.
Enrico
Despite health promotion campaigns and a concerted effort to make antiretroviral therapy more accessible, the number of new HIV cases in Australia has remained stable over the last three years.
Adapting a much-loved text is always a delicate task as the audience can be fiercely protective.
Sydney Film Festival
Holding the Man, the screen adaptation of Timothy Conigrave’s much-loved memoir, has seen audiences laughing, then sobbing at its devastating portrayal of AIDS in Australia. It’s an important story to tell.
HIV-infected H9 T cell captured by a scanning electron micrograph.
NIAID
HIV therapy that enables patients with the virus to live a healthy life is a great success for modern medicine. But what are the challenges to coming up with a complete cure?
PrEP drugs to prevent people contracting HIV mustn’t disrupt existing sexual health strategies.
To improve safe sex practices and condom use among young people in South Africa, the national Department of Health has rebranded its freely distributed condoms, which were considered clinical and uncool.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Erica Penfold, South African Institute of International Affairs
Rebranded and scented condoms are part of the South African Department of Health’s plan to make condoms more attractive as a contraceptive for young people.
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.
US First Lady Michelle Obama visits a centre in Botswana that supports young people affected by HIV. Botswana has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world.
Charles Dharapak/Reuters
A recent survey of people living with HIV in the United Kingdom found that over half would participate in a clinical study to develop a cure for HIV despite this posing a risk to their health.
Activists attend Uganda’s first gay pride parade at the Entebbe Botanical Gardens in Kampala, Uganda, in August 2012.
Rachel Adams/EPA
Science shows that thinking about sexuality in a binary fashion of hetero/homosexual is no longer accurate. Rather, evidence shows that there is a diversity of human sexuality and sexual orientations.
Sexual orientation is more complicated than X and Y chromosome. Epigenetics has a greater role to play.
Shutterstock
Attitudes and laws about homosexuality are not purely a colonial import. Since independence, other factors, including right-wing evangelism, have driven anti-LGBTI attitudes.
Criminalisation does little to change behaviour, while actively contributing to increased stigma.
KieferPix/Shutterstock
Homosexuality remains illegal in 38 of 55 African nations. This is concerning from ethical and human rights perspectives. It’s also a serious public health risk.
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 medicine and deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town
Director, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital and Consultant Physician, Department of Infectious Diseases, Alfred Hospital and Monash University, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Associate Professor, Public Health & Social Policy; Special Advisor Health Research, Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation, University of Victoria