Year: 2012
Type: letter
Abstract: To the editor:The deadly nexus linking HIV and sexual violence was a central focus of a three-year international research collaboration that I co-chaired from 2008 to 2009, the AIDS, Security and Conflict Initiative (ASCI).ASCI's final report, AIDS, Conflict and Security: New Realities, New Responses, called urgent attention to the overlapping epidemics of conflict, violence and HIV, and their devastating, cumulative impacts on the African content, shouldered disproportionately by women.Our report identified the urgent need to align HIV and sexual violence prevention and recognized the significant gaps in knowledge that were constraining progress in this area.When we launched ASCI's final report in The Hague in 2009, I pledged to continue to advance this agenda and I am deeply gratified to have co-convened the Greentree Meeting on Sexual Violence and HIV/AIDS that took place in March 2012.The review papers in this collection demonstrate the critical importance of research collaborations that span geographic regions, scientific disciplines, and clinical approaches.The Greentree meeting reminded me of my experience with ASCI.There was a kinetic energy in the air as experts on mucosal immunology, genital injury, social epidemiology, modeling, and social science shared their knowledge of these areas, made connections between their different areas of expertise, and formulated a common research agenda.The resulting agenda, the Greentree White Paper on the Role of Sexual Violence and Genito-anal Injury in HIV Transmission, Acquisition and Pathogenesis marks a new direction for scientific research that gives a socio-cultural context within which to understand the physiology, virology, and biology of sexually transmitted HIV.The myriad biological and
DOI: 10.1111/aji.12049
Author: Souleymane Mboup
Institution: Cheikh Anta Diop University
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2414132391