News 2016
At 21st International AIDS Conference Raising Questions About Whether Black Gay Lives Matter
Micheal Ighodaro, a Nigerian activist that works for the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, listens to a speaker during the morning plenary session at AIDS 2016 in Durban, South Africa on July 20, 2016. Photo: Freddie Allen
"When we say 'Black Lives Matter,'" said Michael Ighodaro, "where are Black gay lives in that?" A young, gay Nigerian refugee living with HIV in New York City, Inghodaro posed this question during a talk leading up to the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016). Now a program and policy assistant for AVAC, Inghodaro is far from alone in using the "hashtag that became a movement" as a lens to view his own community, and to push boundaries in advocacy.
Show Me Some Money: Global HIV/AIDS Funding On The Decline
Reduction impacts programs. Photo: Linda Villarosa
Throughout AIDS 2016, whispers that global funds to fight HIV/AIDS have begun to dry up have turned to shouts. In the crowded hallways of the International Convention Center, on panels, plenaries and even t-shirts, everybody seems to be worried that The Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria won't be fully funded and international dollars are fading away. In fact, organizers of Monday's march through Durban said they created their event to bring attention to the "massive disconnect" between the promises to end HIV/AIDS by 2030 and the lack of funding to actually make it happen.
Read more: Show Me Some Money: Global HIV/AIDS Funding On The Decline
Phill Wilson: We Must Stay in the Game Until We End the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
Phill Wilson, President and CEO, Black AIDS Institute
A conversation with the Black AIDS Institute's president and chief executive officer.
Read more: Phill Wilson: We Must Stay in the Game Until We End the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
Vaginal Ring May Cut HIV Infection Risk if Used Consistently
Women Now 2016! Summit co-chair Prudence Mabele shows off The Ring. Photo: Hilary Beard
A new exploratory analysis of data from the ASPIRE study has found that using a drug-infused vaginal ring most or all of the time reduced the risk of HIV infection in women by at least 56 percent. This finding was reported at a press briefing at the 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) in Durban, South Africa, and will be presented in more detail tomorrow in a lecture at the conference.
Read more: Vaginal Ring May Cut HIV Infection Risk if Used Consistently
Kassandra Fredrique: Black Women Are Invisible, Including Being Protected From HIV
Kassandra Frederique, state director of the New York policy office at the Drug Policy Alliance
This week at the 21st Annual International AIDS Convention in Durban, South Africa, researchers released a study indicating they now know a primary driver of HIV infections among Black women: sexual encounters with Black men who have been released from a state or federal prison. With Black women's primary intimate partners incarcerated at a rate of a whopping 2,724 per 100,000 compared to 1,091 per 100,000 for Latino men and 465 per 100,000 white men—a majority of them due to low-level drug crimes—it is Black women (and by extension Black children) who experience the fallout from HIV right along with the men. Kassandra Fredrique, state director of the New York policy office at the Drug Policy Alliance, sounds off on the deeply tangled web of conditions that make Black women and their families particularly vulnerable to the disease.
Read more: Kassandra Fredrique: Black Women Are Invisible, Including In Being Protected From HIV
- Chris Beyrer, M.D.: Mass Incarceration is Driving the HIV Epidemic Among African American Women
- Mass Incarceration Accelerating the Spread of HIV Among Black Women
- 21st International AIDS Conference Commences on “Mandela Day”
- Women Meet to Create an AIDS 2016 Platform at Pan-African Women's Reproductive Summit