In recent years African women have represented 70-75% of heterosexual women diagnosed with HIV in the United Kingdom. In 2002, there were an estimated 9,100 African women living with HIV in the UK. African women living with diagnosed HIV currently outnumber men 2 to 1. The majority of these women are thought to have been infected abroad, in sub-Saharan Africa. These figures pose a number of challenges to HIV service provision, treatment and prevention for health and social care professionals as well as researchers.
On April 28th 2004, the University of London Union played host to the sixth African HIV Research Forum seminar day. The day brought together over 100 individuals from a wide variety of organisations to focus on issues surrounding African women and HIV. The day began with Dr. Kevin Fenton, Co-chair of the Forum, asking delegates to form pairs and discuss what they thought were the key research questions pertaining to African Women and HIV. This short session proved to be very successful with a number of key areas identified by participants, including sexual health attitudes, partner notification and disclosure and access to treatment and care.
Dr. Katy Sinka, set the background for the seminar day by presenting an overview of the most recent epidemiological data. Dr. Simona Fiore delivered a highly engaging presentation about fertility issues faced by women living with HIV. Angelina Namiba provided the community perspective by outlining the excellent ways the charity Positively Women collaborates with researchers. The day concluded with a lively discussion about the treatment issues faced by HIV positive African women chaired by Drs Charles Mazhude and Chris Wood.
More details about the presentations, the speakers and .pdf files of the slides used.
One of the most important aspects of AHRF seminar days is the opportunity to exhange information about new and ongoing research. A number of new research studies were announced including the Second Mayisha Study and a new study on African Men.
More details about these and other studies
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