Moving Quickly Ahead
Last October, our entire staff flew to Los Angeles to attend the 1999 National Conference on Women and HIV/AIDS. For us, the reasons for being there were abundantly clear: HIV is singling out women here and around the world at an alarming rate, and not enough people are paying attention to this crisis. In the United States, HIV is disproportionately affecting women of color, including too many teenage girls who never thought they were at risk. In LA, we met a lot of older positive women too, most of whom were meeting one another for the first time.

The conference brought together over 1,200 HIV-positive women-the largest gathering of its kind-along with researchers, care providers, policy makers, and activists. Unfortunately, there weren't many government officials, and we noticed, too few of our own peers-journalists and community treatment advocates. What I noticed, standing back from the crowd, was the remarkable diversity of women who are living with HIV, and their power as individuals and as a community, one that has just begun to flex its muscle.

We went to LA to prepare this special report on what's happening to women with HIV, and how it affects them and their families. For years, positive women and their supporters have pushed for attention in HIV research, but much more effort is needed to get big science and big money invested to study how HIV affects their lives. As Emily Bass reports, with so many women affected, and so many more at risk, we have a greater need than ever to know about how HIV meds work in the female body. The same is true of drug side effects and myriad gender-based questions that remain unanswered. For now, too few women are enrolled in clinical HIV trials for us to get solid answers. That's why all of us need to begin making noise about this subject.

That's what Chatinkha Nkhoma has been doing. Here, she offers us her personal story, one that illustrates how hard it is for women to fight this battle, and how so many are doing it with such courage, especially women in Africa and other countries who lack the bare essentials when it comes to battling HIV. For Nkhoma, the difficult decision to begin drug therapy was a matter of survival, one that came with high personal costs. That has left her with a mission: to try to bring hope to her sisters in Africa and elsewhere who desperately need our help.

Another important issue that's been ignored for too long is women's sexuality. Once she broached the subject, Stanya Kahn found that positive women couldn't stop talking about how HIV—the virus, the drugs, the disease, the stigma, the side effects—chilled their sex lives. But here, for once, the experts have little to offer.

The same is true for older women, since doctors often don't see them as sexual beings. As Cindra Feuer discovered, stereotypes about older women are preventing those over 50 from getting tested and diagnosed, never mind using condoms. Instead, older women get sick and die faster than younger women. That's scary and yet another reason to demand a response from public health officials and community action on this issue.

That said, there are many women who are blazing new trails, on many fronts. We decided to turn the spotlight on a group of women who often toil in the shadows of HIV research, but who are pushing the envelope with innovative ideas and great science. Some of them are doing gender-based studies, working to get those answers we need so badly. Others are busy sequencing the virus, developing vaccines, analyzing body fat, and treating their patients with care and compassion.

Of course, we know we've just scratched the surface. There are so many other talented people working in HIV, at every level and in every area. That includes the many women and men who have lobbied for this cause over the past decade, some of who have died of AIDS, and whose contributions—small, large, invisible, public—have led us to where we are today.

To find out more about what's coming, don't forget to check out the amfAR Treatment Insider, the newest addition to our magazine. And remember to drop us a line to let us know what you're doing and how we can help. We may not all fly out to visit, but we'd love the invitation.

ANNE-CHRISTINE D'ADESKY
EDITOR IN CHIEF