Person‐centered care through integration of services and engaging clients in their own care is essential to achieving epidemic control of HIV. Verticalization of services along the care continuum contributes to inequities in access to care and leads to stigma and discrimination.
Gender sensitive and transformative approaches
Under level 5 and 4 of South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown regulations adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) aged 14 to 24 years could not meet face-to-face in specially created safe spaces with counsellors, as part of a combination HIV intervention programme.
The HIV pandemic provides lessons for the response to the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: no vaccine is available for either and there are no licensed pharmaceuticals for COVID-19, just as there was not for HIV infection in the early years.
According to the Commission for Gender Equality’s latest report on forced and coerced sterilisations in South Africa, the practice is a direct attack on HIV-positive women’s constitutionally enshrined rights, and highlights flaws in public health’s informed consent procedures.
Sofia Bandomia and her team in Portuguese-speaking Mozambique had long found it challenging to enroll men living with HIV in care and treatment. What she found 5,000 miles, 11 countries and a language away in Cote d’Ivoire changed that.
Female adolescents from socioeconomically underserved communities in Cape Town, South Africa, who have dropped out of school, use substances, and engage in risky sex behaviour are at risk of HIV.
USAID’s Office of HIV/AIDS (OHA) and the Center for Innovation and Impact (CII) are excited to announce the launch of “V”, a human-centered design approach to addressing challenges in uptake and adherence for oral PrEP among adolescent girls and young women.