Symposium to support care and management of women with HIV

International AIDS Conference, Washington D.C., USA: Women for Positive Action are holding an interactive satellite symposium at the AIDS 2012 Conference entitled Turning the tide in the care of women living with HIV, supporting the care and management of women living with HIV throughout their different life stages.

Women make up more than half of all HIV cases and a higher proportion of new diagnoses compared with men. This symposium is a response to the Make Women Count! open letter co-signed by Women for Positive Action, calling for the fairer representation of women and people living with HIV at the conference.

The symposium will comprise panel discussions and audience participation around two patient case studies of a younger and an older woman living with HIV. Considerations will be given to issues specific to these two life stages, such as disclosure, pregnancy and ante-natal care, emotional health and cardiovascular and bone fracture risks.

Dr Sharon Walmsley (Canada) will be chairing the symposium, with cases presented by Professors Fiona Mulcahy (Ireland) and Margaret Johnson (UK). The expert panel discussing each case will be made up of both women living with HIV and HIV clinicians: Adriana Ammassari (Italy); Ophelia Haanyama Ørum (Sweden); Mona Loutfy (Canada); Angelina Namiba (UK) and Lorraine Sherr (UK).

Women for Positive Action are also proud to sponsor and support the AIDS 2012 Women's Networking Zone, which consists of a series of workshops, strategy sessions, critical dialogues and performance art championing the leadership of women living with HIV.

Two Women for Positive Action workshops will be held in the Women's Networking Zone, one discussing the emotional wellbeing of women living with HIV (with Ophelia Haanyama Ørum (Sweden) and Ulrike Sonnenberg-Schwan (Germany)), and one providing advice on how women with HIV can build an effective therapeutic relationship with their healthcare professional (with Angelina Namiba (UK) and Lorraine Sherr (UK)).