This minicourse is designed to provide a basic introduction to this topic and to help providers of reproductive health services incorporate a focus on HIV and AIDS into their services. 

Twenty years after the first evidence of AIDS was reported, the global statistics reported by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) are staggering: 

• 36.1 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. 

• 21.8 million people have already died. 

• HIV/AIDS is now the leading cause of death in Africa and the fourth most common cause of death worldwide. 

Yet, while the spread of HIV infection is a global threat, efforts to prevent and control the disease in many countries have been impeded by a lack of medical resources, a lack of public education, political constraints, an unwillingness to acknowledge the problem, and difficulties in estimating the extent of HIV spread in many countries.

HIV/AIDS is a prevalent and important health problem for reproductive health client populations, and it is a particular threat in the developing world, which is home to more than 90% of people living with HIV and AIDS. Most reproductive health clients are women, who are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection due to both biological and social-cultural factors, including pervasive gender inequalities. Women’s biological vulnerability is compounded by gender-based, social, cultural, economic, and political inequalities that hamper their ability to protect themselves from infection. For example, many women lack power within sexual relationships that would enable them to negotiate with partners and protect themselves.

This course is designed for reproductive health and other health care providers, planners, and managers in resource-poor settings who would like to improve their knowledge of HIV/AIDS, with the end result of improving the services provided to their clients.