HIV/AIDS

Worldwide, about half the HIV-positive population is made up of women. In Sub-Saharan Africa 60 percent of those living with HIV are women in a region that accounts for 75 percent of AIDS deaths. Globally, women are more vulnerable to the virus due to sexual coercion, early marriage, cultural stigma and poverty. In the U.S., HIV is the third leading cause of death among African American women aged 25-44 compared with the fifth leading cause for all women. Low-income women suffer disproportionately: nearly two-thirds of HIV-positive women in the U.S. report annual incomes of under $10,000. Our network is active at the research, grassroots and public health levels, raising awareness about disparities and ensuring that prevention, testing and treatment are made more affordable and accessible.

In America, Black AIDS Institute Is Winning The War

Teaser:

Today, as the Black community recognizes the 12th Annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, we stand at the crossroads of heightened awareness, education, and potential eradication.

Editorial:

From NewsOne:

Today, as the Black community recognizes the 12^thAnnual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, we stand at the crossroads of heightened awareness, education, and potential eradication. To understand the magnitude of being in such a positive position, it is imperative that we examine how far we’ve come and how close we find ourselves to alleviating the stranglehold that HIV/AIDS has held on our communities.

...

Long considered a “dirty little secret,” when the disease imploded in Black America, many people began to frantically gaze around in hopes of finding a reason why it could never happen to them; however, as HIV/AIDS began to affect our friends, families, and loved ones, the conversation began to shift from one of blame and hopelessness to one of compassion and purpose.

Though the numbers remain extremely troubling, with life saving treatments, community outreach, and education, African-Americans are living longer, healthier lives, and this pivotal breakthrough is due in large part to the tireless efforts of such organizations as the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles.

[...]

Source:

NewsOne

URL:

http://newsone.com/newsone-original/kirstensavali/black-aids-day-america-201/

Date:

February 8, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Survey: Some of the riskiest sex in U.S.

Teaser:

U.S. men and women practice some of the riskiest sexual behavior in the world, the Durex Sexual Well Being global survey indicates.

Editorial:

From the article:

Kevin Harshaw, marketing director of U.S. personal care at Reckitt Benckiser, a global consumer goods company that includes condom maker Durex, said the survey examined the sexual attitudes and behaviors of more than 29,000 people in 36 different countries.

The study indicates 60 percent of U.S. men and women didn't use any form of protection against HIV/AIDS or sexually transmitted infections when they lost their virginity versus 49 percent in Mexico and 47 percent in Columbia.

...

Source:

UPI

URL:

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/12/04/Survey-Some-of-the-riskiest-sex-in-US/UPI-33161323020118/?spt=hs&or=hn

Date:

December 6, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Getting to Zero Requires Zero Gender Discrimination and Violence – Time to Zero in on Women and Girls

Teaser:

Message from UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet on the occasion of World AIDS Day, 1 December 2011.

Editorial:

Today on World AIDS Day, we are called to action to achieve zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. On behalf of UN Women, I would like to stress that getting to zero requires zero discrimination against women and girls.

...

Source:

UN Women

URL:

http://www.unwomen.org/2011/11/getting-to-zero-requires-zero-gender-discrimination-and-violence-time-to-zero-in-on-women-and-girls/

Date:

December 2, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Can Economic Empowerment Reduce Vulnerability of Girls and Young Women to HIV?

Submitted by asklar on Wed, 10/26/2011 - 9:38am

In April 2010, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), with support from the Nike Foundation, convened an expert meeting of researchers, program implementers, policymakers and donors to explore emerging insights into the linkages between economic empowerment and HIV outcomes for girls and young women.

URL:

http://www.icrw.org/publications/can-economic-empowerment-reduce-vulnerability-girls-and-young-women-hiv

Member Organization:

International Center for Research on Women

The Faulty Birth-Control-HIV Link

Teaser:

UC Berkeley epidemiologists Caitlin Gerdts and Divya Vohra critique a new study says that African women using birth-control shots have a higher risk of contracting and passing on HIV.

Editorial:

From the article:

This week, The New York Times published a shocking front-page article on a study claiming that African women using injectable hormonal contraceptives like Depo-Provera have double the risk of contracting HIV from an infected partner, and nearly triple the risk of passing on the disease to uninfected men as well. The study has caused heated debate among those working in the fields of reproductive health and family planning. If the results of this study are to be believed, hundreds of thousands of women could face the impossible choice between preventing unwanted pregnancies—and all their associated risks—and avoiding the transmission of HIV. Damned if they use birth control, damned if they don’t.

Problem is, the study is hardly a smoking gun that exposes a concrete link between birth-control use and HIV infection. Rather, it is methodologically flawed, and contrary to what the study suggests, the jury is still out about the real risk of using birth control—if there is any risk at all.

It’s crucial to get this information right, because the lives of hundreds of thousands of women hang in the balance. Every year, nearly 500,000 women—mostly in the developing world—die from complications related to childbirth. That’s the equivalent of three 747-airplane crashes each day. For many of these women, health-care facilities are often too far away, too expensive, and too short-staffed to help in the case of pregnancy-related emergencies. In rural Ethiopia, where our research group has spent years working to make pregnancy safer for local women, a mother has a 1-in-40 chance of dying from childbirth in her lifetime. In the United States, that chance would be 1 in 2,000.

...

Source:

The Daily Beast

URL:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/06/study-linking-depo-provera-birth-control-to-hiv-infection-in-africa-has-faulty-data.html

Date:

October 7, 2011

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Study: Injectable contraceptive use found to double HIV risk in Africa

Teaser:

According to a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, women in Africa who used the injectable contraceptive depot medroxyprogesterone acetate doubled their risk of becoming HIV-infected and passing the virus on to their male partners.

Editorial:

From CNN.com:

Women in Africa who used injectable contraceptives doubled their risk of becoming HIV-infected and passing the virus on to their male partners, according to a new study published Monday.

"Among couples in which there was an HIV positive man and an HIV negative woman, if she was using hormonal contraceptive, her risk of getting HIV was doubled," said study author Jared Baeten of the University of Washington in Seattle. "Similarly, in couples where there was an HIV infected woman and an HIV negative man, if the woman was using hormonal contraceptives her chances of passing the virus to her partner were doubled."

Almost 3,800 couples with one HIV-infected partner from the African countries of Botswana, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe participated in the study. The majority were in their mid-30s and they were followed for up to two years.The study, published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, also showed the risk of infection was significantly higher for women who used injectable contraceptives compared with those using birth control pills. Both injectable and oral contraceptives increased the risk for men, but again only the increase in those using the injectable form was statistically significant. In fact, the men were twice as likely to become infected with HIV if their female partners used oral contraceptives compared with couples where women used no birth control at all.

"These findings have important implications for family planing and HIV-1 prevention programs, especially in settings with high HIV-1 prevalence," Baeten said. "HIV risk that could be related to contraception is important from a public health point of view. For individual women using hormonal contraception, it's incredibly important that they be counseled that contraception does not protect them from HIV and indeed it increases their risk and thus using condoms along with contraception is critically important to protect against HIV."

Researchers believe this is the first study to show increased risk in male partners from HIV-infected women using hormone contraceptives. They say more studies are needed for other types of birth control containing hormones such as implants and patches and other methods including intrauterine devices.

"Recommendations regarding contraceptive use, particularly emphasizing the importance of dual protection with condoms and the use of non-hormonal and low-dose hormonal methods for women with or at risk for HIV-1, are urgently needed," said lead author Renee Heffron, University of Washington.

The contraceptive used in the study was depot medroxyprogesterone acetate, one of the most commonly used injectable contraceptives for birth control. DMPA was approved for contraceptive use in the United States in 1992 and contains progestin only. The long-acting contraceptive is injected every three months (four times a year), considered nearly 100% effective and has been used by millions of women across the globe, including several million here in the US, according to the National Library of Medicine.

Some of this study's limitations are that the data used was self-reported and specific brands of contraceptives were not recorded. There also was no data collected on whether the women stuck to the injection schedule. Dr. Charles Morrison, Family Health International 360, says there have been unanswered questions on the issue for more than two decades. He says more studies are needed.

"Active promotion of DMPA in areas with high HIV incidence could be contributing to the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, which would be tragic," Morrison said. "Conversely, limiting one of the most highly used effective methods of contraception in sub-Saharan Africa would probably contribute to increased maternal mortality and morbidity and more low birth weight babies and orphans–an equally tragic result. The time to provide a more definitive answer to this critical public health question is now."

Use of hormonal contraceptives and risk of HIV-1 transmission: a prospective cohort study [fee]
Renee Heffron, Deborah Donnell, Helen Rees, Connie Celum, Nelly Mugo, Edwin Were, Guy de Bruyn, Edith Nakku-Joloba, Kenneth Ngure, James Kiarie, Robert W Coombs, Jared M Baeten

The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Early Online Publication, 4 October 2011 doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(11)70247-X

Abstract

Background
Hormonal contraceptives are used widely but their effects on HIV-1 risk are unclear. We aimed to assess the association between hormonal contraceptive use and risk of HIV-1 acquisition by women and HIV-1 transmission from HIV-1-infected women to their male partners.

Methods
In this prospective study, we followed up 3790 heterosexual HIV-1-serodiscordant couples participating in two longitudinal studies of HIV-1 incidence in seven African countries. Among injectable and oral hormonal contraceptive users and non-users, we compared rates of HIV-1 acquisition by women and HIV-1 transmission from women to men. The primary outcome measure was HIV-1 seroconversion. We used Cox proportional hazards regression and marginal structural modelling to assess the effect of contraceptive use on HIV-1 risk.

Findings
Among 1314 couples in which the HIV-1-seronegative partner was female (median follow-up 18·0 [IQR 12·6—24·2] months), rates of HIV-1 acquisition were 6·61 per 100 person-years in women who used hormonal contraception and 3·78 per 100 person-years in those who did not (adjusted hazard ratio 1·98, 95% CI 1·06—3·68, p=0·03). Among 2476 couples in which the HIV-1-seronegative partner was male (median follow-up 18·7 [IQR 12·8—24·2] months), rates of HIV-1 transmission from women to men were 2·61 per 100 person-years in couples in which women used hormonal contraception and 1·51 per 100 person-years in couples in which women did not use hormonal contraception (adjusted hazard ratio 1·97, 95% CI 1·12—3·45, p=0·02). Marginal structural model analyses generated much the same results to the Cox proportional hazards regression.

Interpretation
Women should be counselled about potentially increased risk of HIV-1 acquisition and transmission with hormonal contraception, especially injectable methods, and about the importance of dual protection with condoms to decrease HIV-1 risk. Non-hormonal or low-dose hormonal contraceptive methods should be considered for women with or at-risk for HIV-1.

Funding
US National Institutes of Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Source:

CNN

URL:

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/04/injectable-contraceptive-use-found-to-double-hiv-risk-in-africa/

Date:

October 4, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Report: AIDS at 30: Nations at the crossroads

Teaser:

According to the UNAIDS report, HIV is the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age, and more than a quarter (26%) of all new global HIV infections are among young women aged 15-24.

Editorial:

From the press release:

About 6.6 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy in low- and middle-income countries at the end of 2010, a nearly 22-fold increase since 2001, according to a new report AIDS at 30: Nations at the crossroads, released today by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

A record 1.4 million people started lifesaving treatment in 2010—more than any year before. According to the report, at least 420 000 children were receiving antiretroviral therapy at the end of 2010, a more than 50% increase since 2008, when 275 000 children were on treatment.

...

According to the report, the global rate of new HIV infections declined by nearly 25% between 2001 and 2009. In India, the rate of new HIV infections fell by more than 50% and in South Africa by more than 35%; both countries have the largest number of people living with HIV on their continents.

The report found that in the third decade of the epidemic, people were starting to adopt safer sexual behaviors, reflecting the impact of HIV prevention and awareness efforts. However, there are still important gaps. Young men are more likely to be informed about HIV prevention than young women. Recent Demographic Health Surveys found that an estimated 74% of young men know that condoms are effective in preventing HIV infection, compared to just 49% of young women.

In recent years, there has been significant progress in preventing new HIV infections among children as increasing numbers of pregnant women living with HIV have gained access to antiretroviral prophylaxis during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding. The number of children newly infected with HIV in 2009 was 26% lower than in 2001.

...

According to the latest estimates from UNAIDS, 34 million [30.9 million–36.9 million] people were living with HIV at the end of 2010 and nearly 30 million [25 million–33 million] have died from AIDS-related causes since AIDS was first reported 30 years ago.

Despite expanded access to antiretroviral therapy, a major treatment gap remains. At the end of 2010, 9 million people who were eligible for treatment did not have access. Treatment access for children is lower than for adults—only 28% of eligible children were receiving antiretroviral therapy in 2009, compared to 36% coverage for people of all ages.

While the rate of new HIV infections has declined globally, the total number of HIV infections remains high, at about 7000 per day. The global reduction in the rate of new HIV infections hides regional variations. According to the report, above-average declines in new HIV infections were recorded in sub-Saharan Africa and in South-East Asia, while Latin America and the Caribbean experienced more modest reductions of less than 25%. There has been an increase in the rate of new HIV infections in Eastern Europe and in the Middle East and North Africa.

In virtually all countries, HIV prevalence among populations at increased risk of HIV infection—men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, sex workers and their clients, and transgender people—is higher than among other populations. Access to HIV prevention and treatment for populations at higher risk of infection is generally lower due to punitive and discriminatory laws, and stigma and discrimination. As of April 2011, 79 countries, territories and areas criminalize consensual same-sex relations; 116 countries, territories and areas criminalize some aspect of sex work; and 32 countries have laws that allow for the death penalty for drug-related offences.

According to the report, gender inequalities remain a major barrier to effective HIV responses. HIV is the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age, and more than a quarter (26%) of all new global HIV infections are among young women aged 15-24.

Source:

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)

URL:

http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/unaidspublications/2011/#c_60139

Date:

June 2, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

My Health Matters!

Submitted by Kate Meyer on Tue, 03/15/2011 - 5:09pm

Stand Up and Say: My Health Matters!

The National Organization for Women – NYC is asking feminist leaders, writers, and advocates to get on board early with our My Health Matters YouTube campaign that we are launching this week, to counter the discriminatory and anti-woman agenda being proposed in Congress. We’re just rolling this out, and we need to build a critical mass of pioneering advocates to give the campaign momentum. We hope we can count on some of you to be among that group! All the details on the campaign are here. Videos can be found on YouTube. Simply search “My Health Matters.”

URL:

www.nownyc.org/women/index.php/home/issues/issue-page-1-repro-rights/my-health-matters.php

Expert Profile

Location:

United States

38° 54' 29.0844" N, 77° 2' 26.214" W

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Dr. Leslie R. Wolfe is President of the Center for Women Policy Studies, the Nation’s first feminist policy institute, founded in 1972. The Center’s mission today is what it was at its founding – to improve women’s lives and ensure women’s human rights through enlightened public policy.

A hallmark of the Center’s work is the multiethnic feminist lens through which we view all issues affecting women and girls. The Center’s Contract With Women of the USA® sets out 12 key principles for women’s human rights and equality, derived from the 1995 UN Platform for Action adopted in Beijing. With its national network of women state legislators in all 50 states, the Center works to transform these principles into public policy. See www.centerwomenpolicy.org for more about the Center’s signature programs).

Location

Washington, DC 20036

United States

38° 54' 29.0844" N, 77° 2' 26.214" W

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Associated Issues & Expertise:

Expert Profile

Location:

United States

40° 42' 15.3972" N, 74° 0' 36.5976" W

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Bethany Cole has worked for over ten years in international health and has demonstrated expertise in sexual and reproductive health and rights. Currently based in New York, she is a Senior Program Associate with EngenderHealth on the Fistula Care Project to build provider and facility capacity in reproductive health services for obstetric fistula. Her portfolio includes prevention and care activities with partner organizations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ethiopia and Nigeria. She also provided management and technical support to a wide range of EngenderHealth’s family planning, maternal health and HIV and AIDS projects in West and Central Africa. Previously, following completion as a Peace Corps Volunteer in francophone Cameroon, she conducted monitoring and evaluation of food programs for unaccompanied minors in Rwanda, and worked in Sudan with the International Rescue Committee as a Field Manager in Nyala, South Darfur.

Location

New York, NY 10005

United States

40° 42' 15.3972" N, 74° 0' 36.5976" W

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Associated Issues & Expertise:

GET INVOLVED

What We Do

NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.

HIV/AIDS

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