Roger Tatoud

HIV prevention goes far beyond the simplistic ABC message that hijacks most of the media attention. This figure tries to illustrate the breadth and diversity of the field of HIV prevention (Click to enlarge). It would still need to be further expanded to really cover all the aspects of an ever growing field.

GMFA was founded in 1992, by a group of gay men who felt that there was not enough HIV prevention work being specifically targeted at gay men. GMFA‘s mission is to improve gay men’s health by increasing the control they have over their own lives.

As a volunteer since 2008, I contribute to the design of information booklets and to the content of GMFA magazine “Fit and Sexy”.

Since 2003 volunteer and chair (2003-2006) of the Community Fundraising Committee of The Food Chain whose mission is to improve the health and well being of London’s population living with HIV by alleviating hunger and malnutrition.

The Food Chain is a UK registered charity delivering meals every week to more than 500 users across London, free of charge, since 1988. Every Sunday, Food Chain volunteers prepare and deliver delicious, nutritionally balanced, individually tailored meals and groceries to people who, because of their illness, are housebound and unable to provide or prepare meals for themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

Two strong messages have emerged from the 16th International Aids Conference in Toronto, Canada. The first is that with drug treatment now being rolled out in developing countries, prevention should return to centre stage in future policies and strategies. The second is that women’s lives and status need to be improved and that women need to be given power to prevent HIV infection.

Both messages were embodied in Bill Gates’s keynote speech:

“We need to put the power to prevent HIV in the hands of women. This is true whether the woman is a faithful married mother of small children or a sex worker trying to scrape out a living in a slum. No matter where she lives or what she does, a woman should never need her partner’s permission to save her own life.” Read the rest of this entry »

In the battle against HIV and AIDS, Thailand has been exemplary: since 2001, the AIDS death rate there has fallen by 79 percent, thanks to the supply of low-priced locally produced generic drugs and the 30-Baht universal health care scheme. But this success story is about to be challenged by the United States-Thai Free Trade Agreement (FTA) currently under negotiation, which includes restrictive intellectual property rights, and will put at risk the survival of hundreds of thousands of Thai people living with HIV, and beyond Thailand, the survival of millions who will be affected by the Thai precedent. Read the rest of this entry »