#IASONEVOICE

The World Health Assembly has named 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife to honour these unsung heroes who often work in difficult conditions to deliver healthcare. In this series, five IAS Members share their experiences from the frontlines of the response to HIV and now also COVID-19.

Brent Allan has been working in the response to HIV for over 30 years, starting as a 19-year-old volunteer at the local AIDS council in Edmonton, Canada, and now a global civil society representative on the IAS’s Industry Liaison Forum.

Youth leadership is critical to the HIV response with around 5500 young women aged 15–24 years acquiring HIV every week, according to UNAIDS data. This International Youth Day, we spoke with young leaders from across the world.

In late March 2020, the government of India ordered a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19. Measures taken by the government, such as a ban on public transport and authorization to travel for medical supplies, caused many challenges for people living with HIV – especially those living in the poorest areas

Maruf Hasan gives his account from the frontlines of the COVID-19 response in Bangladesh, highlighting the impact the pandemic is having on people living with HIV and the effect on his life.

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing much uncertainty around the world, including for people living with and affected by HIV. South Africa has the largest HIV treatment programme in the world: some 7.7 million people live with HIV and more than 5 million access treatment.

Being a mother living with HIV can be challenging at the best of times and even more so in lockdown

People living with HIV faced double pressures. They were more scared that the general population because they felt more vulnerable and those not on treatment or not virally surpressed may have a compromised immune system.

Five current and former sex workers discuss their personal experiences of sex work, how they navigate the challenges of HIV and their individual journeys towards empowerment

Jean William “Bill” Pape was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He studied medicine in the United States and specialized in internal medicine and infectious diseases.

Almost 220 million people globally use online dating services. In a world where more and more people meet partners virtually, how and when do you disclose your HIV status?

Eugene Ruzagira grew up 50km outside Uganda’s capital, Kampala and has studied community health and epidemiology.

In contexts where key populations are criminalized, those implementing key population programmes are often at risk of arrest and violence for their work.

In this special interactive interview, Nduku highlights the key factors that make young people, particularly women and girls, vulnerable to HIV and how to address those challenges.

Noludwe Mabandlela, 40, is an IAS Member and assistant researcher from Cape Town, South Africa. She became a tuberculosis (TB) advocate after her own diagnosis in 2017.

In this Then and now series, six activists across generations share how living with HIV shaped their personal journeys toward activism. Each person reflects on how to build and sustain the work of HIV activism.

Dasha Matyushina is a Policy Reform Advisor at the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association, which strives for progressive human rights-based drug policy, sustainable funding advocacy and quality client-centred harm reduction services for people who use drugs.

Jeffry Acaba is a Programme Officer for APCASO, an Asia-Pacific civil society network of community-based and non-governmental organizations on HIV, health, and social justice, with a focus on advocacy and community capacity development.

Leena Menghaney is a coordinator of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Access Campaign in India and an IAS Member. She began her work on access to HIV treatment with the Lawyers Collective as part of its legal aid unit assisting people living with HIV.

We asked five women at different stages of their career paths and from various countries and backgrounds to share their experiences and insights into being a female scientist.

Rosemary Namubiru is a 67-year-old nurse living with HIV. She is a mother, grandmother and IAS Member. She was wrongfully accused of intentionally exposing a child to HIV while administering an injection in January 2014.

Bruno Spire is a researcher living with HIV and a senior scientist at the French National Institute for Medical Research (INSERM). Bruno is a scientist, but more so, he is an advocate on HIV community-based research.

In the midst of the current crisis in Venezuela, two International AIDS Society (IAS) Members are sharing what’s happening on the ground within the country in this special edition of #IASONEVOICE

The first AIDS-related deaths were reported in the United States on 5 June 1981. Thirty-six years later, there are almost 37 million people living with HIV. Today, seven of these people share their personal stories.

Garry Kuchel is a registered nurse with more than 26 years of experience. He has been an IAS Member since 2014. Garry currently works at the M Clinic, a sexual health clinic for men who have sex with men in Perth, Australia.

The support and investment of the United States has been responsible for some of the most groundbreaking and historic health milestones in the world. To better understand the full ripple effects from the US funding cuts, we talked to three IAS Members and leading scientific researchers.

Denise van Dijk is a member of the International AIDS Society (IAS), an IAS Industry Liaison Forum Advisory Group member and the President of the Global Public Health Sector division of the Female Health Company (FHC).

Liaam Winslet, is a peer educator for the Transgender Family Programme at the Community Healthcare Network (CHN), providing health and social services to low-income communities in New York, United States.

In 1983, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, a young French virologist, co-discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Since that time, Françoise has dedicated her life to prioritizing basic science in the fight against AIDS and to advocating with and for people living with HIV around the world.

Sergii Dvoriak is co-founder of the Ukrainian Institute on Public Health Policy and has been a member of the IAS since 2007. Through his position, Sergii works on implementing Opioid Substitution Treatment (OST) and other evidence-based treatment modalities for people who inject drugs (PWID) in Ukraine.

Dr. Abdul Nasser Kaadan is a physician from Aleppo who has been a member of the International AIDS Society (IAS) since 2013. In 2016, Abdul was forced to flee his country and seek refuge in Turkey.

Juliana Odindo is an Advocacy Officer at The International Community of Women Living with HIV Eastern Africa (ICWEA), a regional advocacy network and membership based organization in Uganda that unites and supports girls and women living with HIV.