A panel of experts gathered to discuss the effect of HIV/AIDS on women worldwide and answer questions for UW-Madison students in honor of World AIDS Day Tuesday.
Ashlynn Ware, a senior at UW-Madison, shared a personal encounter with HIV/AIDS. She was born HIV positive.
""Before I was born, my mother was encouraged to have an abortion because the doctors told her that I wouldn't live to be old enough to do anything for her to experience being a mother or that she wouldn't live long enough to be my mother,"" she said.
Ware said encountered many obstacles at a young age because of her diagnosis but continues to educate others on her experience with HIV.
Lori DiPrete Brown from the Center for Global Health spoke about HIV/AIDS from a human rights perspective. She encouraged all attendees to take action in the community to help HIV/AIDS research.
""In the past people could be easily excused for not knowing. But now in the information age you almost have to try, you almost have to close your eyes and ears to not know what is going on,"" Brown said.
Dr. Ajay Sethi of the department of Population Health Sciences spoke about infection prevention. Sethi said he previously focused his research mainly on AIDS prevention in Uganda.
According to Sethi, the extremely high birthrate in Uganda puts future generations at risk of acquiring HIV from their mothers at birth.
Sethi said that in the past, health care for women regarding HIV was less accurate and as a result caused misunderstandings concerning the virus and left many women untreated for HIV.
""The viral load in women is half of that in men,"" Sethi said. ""There was a time where viral load was a measurement of HIV and lot of women were told not to go on treatment because their viral load was low,"" referring to an example of misconceptions about the virus.
