In this episode, CSIS Senior Associate Jeffrey L. Sturchio speaks with Matt Kavanagh, Deputy Executive Director for Policy, Advocacy, and Knowledge at UNAIDS, where he is responsible for the organization’s work to advance policy, law and political change to end the AIDS pandemic. Matt begins by noting some of the recent advances in the science of HIV prevention and treatment (such as new tools for long-acting HIV prophylaxis), which are causes for optimism in the global response to the HIV...

In this crossover episode with Pandemic Planet, recorded during the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada, on July 30th, Jeff Sturchio speaks with Dr. Mark Feinberg, president and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).  In this interview, Dr. Feinberg addresses the continued progress in HIV prevention and treatment seen in recent years and outlines the challenges still faced in translating this progress into meaningful impact on the lives of people affected by...

In this crossover episode with Pandemic Planet, recorded during the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada, on July 30th, Jeff Sturchio speaks with Solange Baptiste, Executive Director of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC). This is one in a series of podcasts in which we explore what needs to be done to end the AIDS pandemic, both globally and domestically.     In this wide-ranging interview, Ms. Baptiste addresses the issues that are still creating barriers...

In this crossover episode with Pandemic Planet, recorded during the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Katherine speaks with Phelister Abdalla, of KESWA, the Kenya Sex Work Association, and Ruth Morgan Thomas, of the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSPW), about the intersection of sex work, HIV/AIDS, and the Covid-19 pandemic. Phelister and Ruth argue that sex workers’ livelihoods have been uniquely disrupted by recurring curfews and lockdowns, noting that this often-stigmatized...

In this crossover episode with Pandemic Planet, recorded during the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada, on July 31st, Jeff Sturchio speaks with Professor Alan Whiteside, Centre for International Governance Innovation Chair emeritus in Global Health Policy at the Balsillie School of International Affairs.     Professor Whiteside begins with a discussion of new treatments and prevention tools for HIV/AIDS that offer the opportunity for those who have access to enjoy longer and...

In this crossover episode with Pandemic Planet, recorded during the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Katherine speaks with Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman, immediate past president of IAS and the International Co-Chair of AIDS 2022, about the themes of this year’s conference, “Re-engage and follow the science.” Four years since the last International AIDS Conference took place in Amsterdam, Adeeba discusses the importance of bringing the HIV research, advocacy, and policy communities back...

In this crossover episode with Pandemic Planet, recorded during the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada, on July 31st, Jeff Sturchio speaks with Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, Professor of Medicine at the Universite Rene Descartes in Paris, Special Advisor to UNAIDS for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and a Senior Fellow with the Global Health Centre of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.  Professor Kazatachkine reviews the interactions of...

In this crossover episode with Pandemic Planet, recorded during the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Katherine Bliss speaks with Eamonn Murphy, Deputy Executive Director of Programmes at UNAIDS, the Joint UN Program on HIV and AIDS, about the agency’s latest report, “In Danger.” Sounding the alarm regarding faltering progress in HIV prevention and treatment over the course of the pandemic, the report calls for greater attention to implementing legal protections for vulnerable...

Yana Panfilova, a 24-year-old Ukrainian woman born with HIV, fled Kyiv shortly after Russia’s invasion and is currently based in Berlin with her mother, grandmother, and cat. Eight years ago, she helped found Teenergizer, an organization supported by UNAIDS that seeks to end discrimination against youth in Ukraine living with HIV. Over time, its scope widened to include other youth groups, and its services expanded into mental health counseling and sexual health training. Affiliates arose...

In this episode, CSIS Senior Associate Jeffrey L. Sturchio speaks with Gregorio (Greg) Millett, vice president at amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, and the director of amfAR’s Public Policy Office, about whether we’re doing enough to underserved populations in the fight against HIV/AIDS.  Greg begins with a review of the state of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, looking at how health disparities are reflected in the patterns of infection, care, and treatment when the data...

​In this episode, CSIS Senior Associate Jeffrey L. Sturchio speaks with Kathleen McManus, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health at the University of Virginia Medical School, about what still needs to be done to achieve the ambitious goal of ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States. Professor McManus discusses how inequalities are driving HIV transmission and how they still affect vulnerable populations disproportionately,...

In this episode, CSIS Senior Associate Jeffrey L. Sturchio talks with Chris Beyrer, Desmond M. Tutu Professor of Public Health and Human Rights of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, about issues at the intersection of the HIV/AIDS and Covid-19 pandemics – and the prospects for an integrated and sustained global response. Professor Beyrer explores why people living with HIV/AIDS are at greater risk of being infected with Covid-19, and the impact this new virus has had on...

In this episode, CSIS Senior Associate Jeffrey L. Sturchio speaks with author Emily Bass about her new book, To End a Plague, which chronicles the transnational activism, legislative deal-making, and unprecedented political leadership that led to President George W. Bush’s 2003 announcement of the U. S. President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). With more than $85 billion invested, 18.2 million men, women, and children treated with antiretroviral therapy, and more than 50 million...

In this episode, Katherine E. Bliss speaks with Agnes Ronan, Head of Programmes and Knowledge at Paediatric Adolescent Treatment Africa (PATA), based in Cape Town, South Africa. Agnes shares how PATA has adapted its work and how she’s seen service delivery change during the COVID-19 pandemic. She unpacks how stress, disruption, and exhaustion will have long-term impacts on caregivers, children and families, and health workers, and why psychosocial interventions will be a critical element in...

In this episode, Katherine E. Bliss speaks with Agnes Ronan, Head of Programmes and Knowledge at Paediatric Adolescent Treatment Africa (PATA), based in Cape Town, South Africa. Agnes shares how PATA has adapted its work and how she’s seen service delivery change during the COVID-19 pandemic. She unpacks how stress, disruption, and exhaustion will have long-term impacts on caregivers, children and families, and health workers, and why psychosocial interventions will be a critical element in...

Her Excellency Mrs. Monica Geingos, First Lady of the Republic of Namibia, has been an outspoken champion for women and girls and gender equality in Namibia and globally. In this episode, Janet Fleischman, senior associate with the Global Health Policy Center at CSIS, speaks with Mrs. Geingos about why Covid-19’s disproportionate impact on women and girls should push countries and donors to prioritize them in policy and funding, why the world keeps making the same mistakes in responding to...

Her Excellency Mrs. Monica Geingos, First Lady of the Republic of Namibia, has been an outspoken champion for women and girls and gender equality in Namibia and globally. In this episode, Janet Fleischman, senior associate with the Global Health Policy Center at CSIS, speaks with Mrs. Geingos about why Covid-19’s disproportionate impact on women and girls should push countries and donors to prioritize them in policy and funding, why the world keeps making the same mistakes in responding to...

Students around the world are struggling to return to school in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, but these challenges are especially acute for vulnerable adolescent girls and young women in low income countries, where Covid-19 has magnified the barriers they already faced in getting an education, including HIV, economic hardship, gender-based violence, early marriage, and unintended pregnancy.  In this episode, we’re looking at why education for girls, especially secondary education, is so...

Students around the world are struggling to return to school in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, but these challenges are especially acute for vulnerable adolescent girls and young women in low income countries, where Covid-19 has magnified the barriers they already faced in getting an education, including HIV, economic hardship, gender-based violence, early marriage, and unintended pregnancy.  In this episode, we’re looking at why education for girls, especially secondary education, is so...

Even before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, preventive services, diagnostics, and treatments for pediatric HIV lagged far behind the comparable tools for adult populations. Recognizing that progress had stalled, in 2017 the Vatican convened leaders from pharmaceutical companies, regulatory agencies, research institutions, and community organizations to align interests and identify new areas for collaboration. This series of discussions gave rise to the Rome Action Plan, a rights-based...

Even before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, preventive services, diagnostics, and treatments for pediatric HIV lagged far behind the comparable tools for adult populations. Recognizing that progress had stalled, in 2017 the Vatican convened leaders from pharmaceutical companies, regulatory agencies, research institutions, and community organizations to align interests and identify new areas for collaboration. This series of discussions gave rise to the Rome Action Plan, a rights-based...

Economic empowerment is a critical pathway to preventing HIV in adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), and an increasing focus of PEPFAR’s DREAMS program (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe). This episode takes us to western Kenya, where new HIV infections among AGYW are among the highest in the country, fueled by social and economic factors. Janet Fleischman brings us three perspectives about the importance, impact, and challenges of reaching vulnerable young...

Economic empowerment is a critical pathway to preventing HIV in adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), and an increasing focus of PEPFAR’s DREAMS program (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe). This episode takes us to western Kenya, where new HIV infections among AGYW are among the highest in the country, fueled by social and economic factors. Janet Fleischman brings us three perspectives about the importance, impact, and challenges of reaching vulnerable young...

In recent years Kenya has experienced notable successes in reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV and initiating children living with HIV on antiretroviral treatment, but progress in scaling up newer point of care testing approaches and maintaining children on treatment regimens has been slower. Since March of 2020, when the first Covid-19 cases in Kenya were reported, quarantine measures, the diversion of health resources to outbreak response, and supply chain disruptions have...