London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

with Salim S. Abdool Karim

Young women in Africa continue to experience high rates of HIV infection, despite the global trend of declining new cases. Young women are key to changing the trajectory of the HIV epidemic in Africa and globally.  In this presentation, results from just over 30 years of epidemiological studies, clinical trials and basic laboratory research will reveal the current state of knowledge on the behavioural and biological factors contributing to the high risk of HIV infection in these young women.  It will then outline the substantial challenges experienced by current prevention efforts in women and some of the exciting prospects in new HIV prevention tools being developed for HIV prevention in this group.  

Salim S. Abdool Karim is a South African clinical infectious diseases epidemiologist widely recognised for his research contributions in HIV prevention and treatment. He is the Director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and the CAPRISA Professor in Global Health at Columbia University, New York. He is also Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Cornell University, New York.  His clinical research on TB-HIV treatment has shaped international guidelines on the clinical management of co-infected patients. He was co-leader of the CAPRISA 004 tenofovir gel trial that provided proof-of-concept that antiretrovirals can prevent sexually transmitted HIV infection and herpes simplex virus type 2 in women. He is co-inventor on patents which have been used in several HIV vaccine candidates and in passive immunisation strategies with broadly neutralising antibodies.  Slim is Chair of the UNAIDS Scientific Expert Panel and the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee on HIV and Hepatitis. He serves on the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Scientific Advisory Board as well as the WHO TB-HIV Task Force. He serves on the Boards of Lancet Global Health, Lancet-HIV and the New England Journal of Medicine. He is a Member of the African Academy of Sciences, US National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Microbiology.

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