It was a pleasure to meet with Yvette Raphael, patient advocate in HIV and Executive Director of Advocacy for Prevention of HIV and AIDS (APHA), South Africa, to share her perspective on disparities in HIV care and treatment. Yvette discusses the importance of ensuring populations, such as racial and ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ communities are included in HIV program design and research from beginning to end, and ensuring those populations have adequate access to care and treatment plans.
Interviews in this series:
Patient perspective: Landscape of HIV treatment and prevention in women and at-risk populations
Patient Perspective: Inclusivity of Women and underrepresented populations in HIV clinical trials
Patient Perspective: Disparities in HIV care and treatment
Questions:
- What do you think needs to be done to address the disparities in HIV care and treatment, and HIV prevention among different populations, such as racial and ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ communities? (0:16)
Disclosures: Yvette Raphael has nothing to disclose in relation to this video interview.
Support: Interview and filming supported by Touch Medical Media. Interview conducted by Katey Gabrysch.
Access more content on HIV treatment and prevention here
Transcript:
Good afternoon and thanks for having me. My name is Yvette Raphael and I’m the Executive Director of Advocacy for the Prevention of HIV and AIDS (APHA) in South Africa.
What do you think needs to be done to address the disparities in HIV care and treatment, and HIV prevention among different populations, such as racial and ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ communities? (0:16)
Any population that is not visible, that is not seen, is not counted as important, will have a problem when it comes to HIV prevention. It’s important for us not to discriminate against any population, especially key populations and LGBTQ+ communities, young women and girls, to include them and make them part of our research programs, make them seen, make sure the programs that we designed actually reach these populations to ensure that HIV numbers come down, but also that they are included in HIV prevention and care.