The symposium, sponsored by the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research, featured presentations from women working on the frontlines of HIV prevention and treatment, from the South Bronx to Cambodia to Rwanda. Co-chair Dr. Judith Auerbach, amfAR’s Vice President of Public Policy, kicked off the session by emphasizing the need “to recognize women not simply as vectors.” The symposium’s moderator, Dr. Veronica Miller of the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research, echoed this sentiment and urged scientists to pay better attention to women’s particular research needs.

Dr. Judith Auerbach, amfAR’s Vice President of Public Policy

Dr. Kimberly Page-Shafer of the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California, San Francisco, discussed plans for the upcoming Hope of Women trial, which will test the HIV drug tenofovir (Viread) for preventing the transmission of HIV. The trial, which is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Family Health International, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will enroll 960 HIV-negative female sex workers in Cambodia, Thailand, the US, and several African countries to determine if a once-daily dose of the drug can protect women from the virus. If successful, Dr. Page-Shafer asserted, “it could provide women with a personalized defense against HIV.”

The ability of women to ward off the disease was also the topic of a talk by Dr. Julia Kim of the School of Public Health at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. “There’s a huge sense of prevention burnout,” Dr. Kim said. She highlighted the factors that make South African women vulnerable to HIV, including widespread poverty and gender inequality.

Dr. Kim offered microfinance as a structural intervention to help such women. In the IMAGE study (Intervention with Microfinance for AIDS and Gender Equity), Dr. Kim said, researchers lend funds to poor women and help them to move toward financial independence. Such programs help women generate their own income, which empowers them to leave abusive spouses who may be exposing them to HIV. The plight of women in war-devastated regions was also examined at the symposium. Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, Executive Secretary of La Commission Nationale de Lutte contre le SIDA in Rwanda, provided an overview of the country’s conflict that included the widespread rape of Tutsi women and a consequent surge in HIV infections. The government often ignores Rwandan rape survivors, Binagwaho said. But rather than play victim, the survivors have established their own initiatives to secure support services for themselves.

Dr. Kathy Anastos of the Bronx Women’s Interagency Study also discussed the specific treatment and research needs of women in post-conflict settings. According to Dr. Anastos, organizations such as We-Act (Women’s Access in Equity to Treatment) and the Rwandan Women’s Treatment Access Initiative have partnered with the Rwandan Ministry of Health to provide antiretroviral therapy and prophylaxis against opportunistic infections to all women who need it. However, they face a tremendous task. “We are looking for volunteers,” Anastos declared. “We need people to back up the nurses as we move forward. The faster we can move, the better.”

Commenting on Dr. Anastos’ presentation, Dr. Smith said: “What really impressed me is the effort to involve women in formulating research questions. This is something that is often talked about, but seldom done. It’s good to see it happening.”

The symposium was followed by a panel discussion that also included Anne-christine d’Adesky, freelance writer and author of Moving Mountains: The Race to Treat Global AIDS; Sandra Lehman of the National Institutes of Health; Glennis Mabuza of HIVSA; James Rooney of Gilead Sciences; and Dawn Smith of the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention.