AIDemocracy.org | sexual health

HIV/AIDS: Key points from a study on men who have sex with men and injection drug-use in Tanzania

November 30, 2011 by William Tsang Leave a Comment

Hi again, this is Billy Tsang writing about HIV/AIDS in Africa. In recognition of the upcoming World AIDS Day, I ask you to consider the power that research and advocacy has in advancing innovative methods to combat HIV/AIDS. Article Title: HIV risk and the overlap of injecting drug use and high-risk sexual behaviours among men who have sex with men in Zanzibar (Unguja), Tanzania by Johnston LG, et al. (2010). Background: Much of the past research on HIV prevalence and sexual risk behaviors in Africa has focused on heterosexual populations. In … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Sex and Justice Tagged With: Africa, HIV/AIDS, Injection drug use, Research, sexual health, World AIDS Day

Exploring HIV/AIDS in Africa: Malawi, Namibia, and Botswana

October 27, 2011 by William Tsang Leave a Comment

I’ve recently gotten interested in HIV/AIDS in Africa, and decided to investigate some current studies on HIV prevalence, culture, and risk prevention. The following are summaries of two articles that look at Malawi, Namibia, and Botswana, as well as my take on what they mean to research on these issues more broadly. To start, it’s important to highlight the difficulty many researchers have had in conducting studies on HIV/AIDS. This is largely due to the fact that homosexuality is illegal in many parts of Africa. As you read about these, tell … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Sex and Justice Tagged With: Africa, HIV, HIV/AIDS, Issue Analyst, sexual and reproductive health, sexual health

HIV and Us: Victim of the stoppable, unstoppable disease

September 27, 2011 by Gillian Rollason Leave a Comment

Imagine if HIV were an airborne virus? Next time someone next to you on campus sneezed, you could be infected with deadly and incurable disease. And what about mosquito bites? A holiday in Thailand might not seem so appealing then…Would we have developed a cure if the problem was so easily transmitted? Or would be living in a nightmarish dystopia of quarantine and detention centres? Luckily, HIV is not airborne, and despite constant mutations in the virus it is unlikely to ever be as contagious as flu or the common cold. Perhaps just as luckily, the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Sex and Justice Tagged With: health, HIV, HIV/AIDS, human rights, Malaria, MDGs, PEPFAR, sexual and reproductive health, sexual health, The Body, USAID, World AIDS Day

30 years in, we are still learning from AIDS

June 2, 2011 by William Tsang Leave a Comment

The New York Times recently published an article called “30 Years In, We Are Still Learning From AIDS” by Laurence K. Altman. This summary timeline, although brief, gives us an idea of how the US dealt with the rise of this epidemic and where it stands when it comes to understanding and combating HIV/AIDS. Those who study the history of AIDS in the US can fill in the blanks regarding the scientific inconsistencies and mass hysteria surrounding the disease. Once it was discovered that seroconversion (changing from HIV- to HIV+) could occur through … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Sex and Justice Tagged With: activism, advocacy, HIV/AIDS, humanitarian aid, Issue Analyst, MDGs, PEPFAR, sexual health, United States, US foreign policy

I support women and women’s reproductive health. Do you?

March 11, 2011 by Michaela Maynard

Tuesday, March 8, 2011, marked the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, a global event celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women. Despite the progress that has been made over the last 100 years, women’s rights, specifically the right to health, are still at stake. In February, the United States House of Representatives passed a budget which may severely impact the health and rights of women. The bill includes the elimination of Title X Funding and the federal defunding of Planned Parenthood. The Title X Family … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Sex and Justice Tagged With: global health, sexual health, US Congress, women

Survival Sex, HIV, and what the US Government is doing about it

February 23, 2011 by Michaela Maynard

Prostitution, sex work, brothels- in the US, we don’t like to talk about these things. The sex work industry is considered taboo; prostitution is illegal and transactional sex is associated with stigma. But for some, sex work is a means of survival. In 2007, I had the privilege of meeting a group of inspiring Malawian women, all of whom just happened to be employed as female sex workers. Ranging in age, with the youngest being just 17 years old, many of the women had entered the sex work industry as teenagers. Although prostitution is illegal … [Read more...]