HIV unmuted: Recent Episodes
HIV unmuted
It’s been 40 years since AIDS was first reported and we now live in a world where AIDS has become old news: the forgotten pandemic. HIV unmuted, the IAS - International AIDS Society - podcast, brings together global HIV change-makers as we journey through the last four decades, recreating moments in time and spotlighting the scientific advancements and human endeavours central to the response. Together, we’ll reflect on our past, focus on our present and look to the future. This is HIV unmuted. Join us.
In this episode of HIV unmuted, host Juan Michael Porter II sits down with Jeanne Marrazzo, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), in a conversation that goes beyond the headlines and deep into the heart of HIV research and advocacy.
Dr. Marrazzo, a leader with decades of experience in infectious disease research, shares her inspiring journey from her roots in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to her groundbreaking work in HIV prevention and care. Through this intimate conversation, listeners will discover what drives Dr. Marrazzo’s commitment to equity, diversity and community-centered research, and how her personal and professional experiences shape her vision for the future of HIV science.
From the challenges of addressing global health inequities to the optimism surrounding new HIV prevention methods, Dr Marrazzo offers valuable insights into the importance of inclusive messaging, the power of collaboration, and why putting people first remains
at the core of her mission.
Tune in to hear how Jeanne Marrazzo plans to navigate the evolving landscape of global health as she leads NIAID into a new era, and why she believes that hope, innovation, and community are key to overcoming the ongoing challenges in the HIV response.
Meet our guest:
Jeanne Marrazzo
Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH, FACP, FIDSA, is the Director of NIAID at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she oversees a USD 6.3 billion budget that supports research to advance understanding, diagnosis and treatment of infectious, immunologic and allergic diseases. She was previously the C. Glenn Cobbs Endowed Chair and Director of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and was Treasurer of the IDSA from 2021 to 2023, having served on the board since 2018. She researches the vaginal microbiome, sexually transmitted infections and HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis. She has had leadership roles in the NIH HIV Prevention Trials Network and the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium. She was a leading voice in communicating science during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meet our host:
Juan Michael Porter II
Juan Michael Porter II is a health journalist, HIV advocate, culture critic, educator and the host of HIV unmuted, the IAS podcast. He is the Senior Editor of TheBody.com and TheBodyPro – and the first person openly living with HIV to hold the position. Juan Michael's reportage combines data dives, personal narratives and policy analyses to address the real-world consequences of ever-shifting legislation on people's health outcomes. He has written for the Public Broadcasting Service, SF Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Christian Science Monitor, NY Observer, TDF Stages, Playbill, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Queerty, Anti-Racism Daily, Positively Aware, Documentary Magazine, SYFY Wire, Scholastic and Dance Magazine.
This episode of HIV unmuted introduces a new host and format for the award-winning IAS podcast. Our host, Juan Michael Porter II, the Senior Editor for TheBody/TheBodyPro, takes a deep dive with a single guest in an intimate conversation that gives the listener a glimpse of the guest – who they are and how they got into this work – and an understanding of their topic of expertise.
This new format opens with Sharon Lewin, the IAS President and AIDS 2024 International Co-Chair, walking us through the latest HIV science released at AIDS 2024, the 25th International AIDS Conference, and what it means for the HIV response. This episode delves into a broad range of exciting science, from long-acting injectables to new research on doxycycline prophylaxis to advances in cure research, including inspiration from the “next Berlin Patient”.
Through the lens of her personal story, Sharon walks us through the context and challenges of the HIV response, such as changing global health priorities and reduced funding for HIV. Astounding progress has been made in the HIV response. Yet, we are still missing critical targets. Sharon makes it clear that if we are to envision the end of the HIV pandemic, we must address persisting inequalities that remain in the HIV response: we must put people first.
Meet our guest
Sharon LewinThe IAS President and AIDS 2024 International Co-Chair, Sharon Lewin, is an infectious diseases physician and basic scientist and has worked in HIV-related clinical medicine and research for over 25 years. She is Director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, a joint venture of the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. The Doherty Institute has over 850 staff working on infection and immunity through research, education and public health, and has a significant focus on virology, including HIV. She is an active clinician, working at the Alfred Hospital and Royal Melbourne Hospital, and a Melbourne Laureate Professor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne.
Meet our host
Juan Michael Porter II
Juan Michael Porter II is a health journalist, HIV advocate, culture critic, educator and the host of HIV unmuted, the IAS podcast. He is the Senior Editor of TheBody.com and TheBodyPro – and the first person openly living with HIV to hold the position. Juan Michael's reportage combines data dives, personal narratives and policy analyses to address the real-world consequences of ever-shifting legislation on people's health outcomes. He has written for the Public Broadcasting Service, SF Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Christian Science Monitor, NY Observer, TDF Stages, Playbill, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Queerty, Anti-Racism Daily, Positively Aware, Documentary Magazine, SYFY Wire, Scholastic and Dance Magazine.
On this World AIDS Day, the IAS calls on the HIV response to put communities first. This episode of HIV unmuted, the award-winning IAS podcast, puts the spotlight on a specific community that is often overlooked: people growing older with HIV.
Remarkable strides in medicine and science have transformed the HIV response since the impact of AIDS-related illnesses in the 1980s, which claimed many lives prematurely.
Thanks to access to life-saving treatments and proper care, it is now possible for people living with HIV to live into old age – something that was inconceivable 40 years ago.
Globally, UNAIDS estimates a significant increase in people aged 50 years or older living with HIV – from 5.6 million in 2015 to 9.4 million in 2022. This generation now faces unprecedented and unique HIV-related health issues.
In this special episode, we hear from people who have been living with HIV for more than 20 years, unravel the scientific dimensions of ageing, and discover how we can put communities first in the HIV response to address the challenges of growing older with HIV.
On this World AIDS Day, we will never forget those we have lost in the HIV response, and we will never truly address the issues of growing older with HIV until we put communities first. For more information, go to the IAS World AIDS Day webpage www.iasociety.org/WAD2023
Meet our guests:
- Jules Levin, Founder of the National AIDS Treatment Advocacy Project, offers a first-hand perspective on navigating four decades living with HIV.
- Reena Rajasuriar,Associate Professor at the University of Malaya and principal investigator for the Centre of Excellence for Research in AIDS at the University of Malaya, unpacks the scientific complexities of the ageing process for people living with HIV.
- Lillian Mworeko, Executive Director at the International Community of Women living with HIV Eastern Africa and advocate from Uganda who has been living with HIV for 25 years, shares insights on prioritizing communities.
In this episode of HIV unmuted, the award-winning IAS podcast, we take a deep dive into the breaking science being released at IAS 2023 and explain why these breakthroughs are so important for people living with and affected by HIV.
Set in Australia, a country that is closing in on the elimination of HIV transmission, the conference highlights the latest research, including more hope for an HIV cure, expanding prevention options and insights into mpox. Guests also give us insight into exciting studies on prevention strategies for cardiovascular disease and post-treatment control of HIV in children who are treated early on.
These studies move us in the right direction. Yet, as our last guest makes clear, scientific advances alone can only get us so far. We must address persisting inequalities that remain in the HIV response. And we must put people first.
Meet our guests:
- Gracia Violeta Ross Quiroga, Programme Executive at the World Council of Churches, describes the potential life-changing impact the cutting-edge research has on herself and other people living with HIV. She tells us what it was like to grow up in a conservative Bolivia in the early 2000s without access to life-saving HIV treatment.
- Sharon Lewin, IAS President, IAS 2023 International Co-Chair and Director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, helps us understand the scientific significance of the breaking science.
- James Ward, a Pitjantjatjara and Nukunu man, who is also an infectious diseases epidemiologist and the Director of the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health at the University of Queensland, tells us why the latest science doesn't always reach vulnerable communities.
This special episode of HIV unmuted, the award-winning IAS podcast, marks World AIDS Day, which has taken place on 1 December every year since 1988. On this day, we remember the people we have lost, reflect on how far we have come, and rally together to strengthen our resolve in the HIV response.
The latest UNAIDS data from 2021 shows our approach must change: 70% of new HIV acquisitions globally occur among key populations (gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, sex workers and their clients, and trans people) and their sexual partners.
If we are to ever really tackle the persisting inequalities that fuel the HIV pandemic, our approach must change: we must put people first.
In this episode, we expand upon the UNAIDS theme, Equalize, by looking closely at addressing the continuing inequities in the HIV response in a context of limited resources. At a time when we have colliding pandemics, the climate crisis, and rising fuel and food prices, our guests share what takes to put people first.
Meet our guests:
- Yvette Raphael is the Executive Director of Advocates for the Prevention of HIV in Africa. She tells us how important World AIDS Day is to her personally and calls upon the scientific community to put people first in HIV research.
- Peter Sands is the Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, one of the largest funding mechanisms in global health. He talks about the ‘pandemics of the poor' and explains how putting people first must be an approach, starting with what is being funded.
- Gaston Devisich & Romina Mauas are a client and healthcare provider from the IAS Me and My Healthcare Provider campaign. Gaston nominated Romina for being a healthcare champion who made a tangible difference in his life by putting him first in the face of discriminatory practices and belief systems.
The history of the HIV response is woven into the International AIDS Conferences. Ground-breaking science and political activism at the conferences have uniquely shaped the trajectory of the response.
Conferences in Canada have played key roles. In Montreal in 1989, protestors stormed the stage, establishing activism in the HIV response. In Vancouver in 1996, delegates celebrated a treatment revolution that saw HIV become a manageable condition.
Today, AIDS 2022 returns to Montreal and also takes place virtually. But other crises like monkeypox, surging COVID-19 cases and climate change, remind us why now more than ever, we need to re-engage and follow the science.
In this episode of HIV unmuted, the award-winning IAS podcast, we take a deep dive into the breaking science being released at AIDS 2022, address important access concerns at the International AIDS Conferences and understand how to translate cutting-edge science into meaningful action.
Meet our guests:
- Erika Castellanos is Interim Executive Director of Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE). She tells us her story of growing up being denied basic human rights due to being trans and the difficulties she faced in accessing HIV medication. Erika helps analyse controversial visa issues around AIDS 2022, and helps us understand the community impact of the science being released at the conference.
- Linda-Gail Bekker, former IAS President and current Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town, dives into the breaking science being released at AIDS 2022 and translates what this means for the HIV response.
- John Nkengasong is tasked with leading some of the world’s largest HIV programmes as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State. He talks to us about why AIDS 2022 is so important and his vision for the future of the HIV response.
If you are listening to this episode before 29 July 2022 and want to learn more about the latest scientific breakthroughs in the HIV response, join us at the 24th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2022) virtually or in-person in Montreal.
For further information on how the innovations from COVID-19 can be applied to HIV, read the International AIDS Society’s report.
The development of COVID-19 vaccines has allowed some people to return to “normal life”. But even now, not everyone can access these vaccines, particularly people living in low-income countries.
Unequal access to healthcare is a sadly familiar story for people living with HIV. From 1997 to 2006, an estimated 12 million people on the continent of Africa died because HIV treatment was too expensive.
In this episode of HIV unmuted, the award-winning IAS podcast, we will discuss why theseparallels in unfair healthcare access are showing up time and time again, look ahead to the recent monkeypox outbreak, and assess whether we have learnt the critical lessons from COVID-19 and HIV.
Our guests are:
- Patricia Asero Ochieng is the chairperson of the International Community of Women Living with HIV in Kenya. She was diagnosed with HIV in the 1990s when her daughter was born. In Kenya at the time, access to HIV treatment was scarce and stigma was rampant. Patricia knew the answer lay in access and began advocating for treatment.
- Eric Goemaere is an infectious disease specialist with a career spanning 40 years with Médecins Sans Frontières. When Eric arrived in South Africa in the mid-1990s, he was ready for a challenge, working on the biggest HIV epidemic in the world. Little did he expect the greater challenges of access to HIV treatment he was about to face.
- Meg Doherty is the Director of the Department of Global HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections Programmes at the World Health Organization (WHO).Meg helps us to understand why – even when we have the science and means to deal with outbreaks – we continue to have unequal outcomes in global health.
- Mike Ryan is the Executive Director for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme. Being at the forefront of managing acute risks to global health for nearly 25 years, Mike discusses pandemic preparedness and access issues in global health and applies this to the current outbreak.
- Rena Janamnuaysook is a Program Manager for Transgender Health at the Institute of HIV Research in Bangkok, Thailand, where she established the Tangerine Community Health Clinic, the first trans-led health clinic in Southeast Asia. When COVID-19 hit, she had to pivot at the local level to address the issues that globally continue to hamper our pandemic responses.
If you are listening to this episode before 29 July 2022 and want to learn more about the intersection of HIV, COVID-19, and monkeypox, along with the latest scientific breakthroughs in the HIV response, attend the 24th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2022) virtually or in-person in Montreal.
Eastern Europe and Central Asia is the region of the world where HIV acquisitions are increasing the fastest. In Ukraine, an estimated 260,000 people are living with HIV. Many thousands more are vulnerable to acquiring HIV and rely on access to HIV prevention services.
In this episode of HIV unmuted, the IAS podcast, we hear how the Russian invasion of Ukraine could mean a resurgence of Ukraine’s AIDS epidemic. And in a region with an already rapidly growing HIV epidemic, this could be a public health disaster.
Our guests are:
- Valeriia Rachinska from 100% Life, the largest organization of people living with HIV in Ukraine, experienced a Russian invasion when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. After that, she’s not afraid to fight, but she’s afraid to live under Russian occupation. Despite this fear, she stays to help where she is desperately needed.
- Andriy Klepikov never thought he would be an internally displaced person. Crammed into an office with seven other people and two pets, he tells us how he continues to lead the Alliance for Public Health, delivering critical HIV services.
- Michel Kazatchkine is an Advisor to the World Health Organization in the region and the former UN Secretary-General Special Envoy on HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He helps us understand why the HIV epidemic in the region continues to grow and why this war is both a catastrophe for public health and an extraordinary mobilization of solidarity.
If you want to help those in need in Ukraine, click on the links below to donate:
ALLIANCE FOR PUBLIC HEALTH AND 100% LIFE
If you are listening to this episode before 29 July 2022 and want to learn more about how conflict impacts people living with HIV and the latest scientific breakthroughs in the HIV response, attend the 24th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2022) virtually or in-person in Montreal.
The discovery of a safe and effective HIV cure would move us closer to a world in which HIV no longer presents a threat to public health and individual well-being.
In this special World AIDS Day episode of HIV unmuted, the IAS podcast, we share the human endeavours behind the journey to a cure – and the hope it would bring to 38 million people living with HIV.
We are joined by:
· IAS President-Elect Sharon Lewin on the latest cure strategies and the hope the most recent person cured of HIV, the “Esperanza patient”, provides for a cure
· Adam, the “London patient”, and his doctor, Ravi Gupta, on the bone marrow transplant that cured Adam of HIV, and why it’s not a feasible cure for all
· Moses “Supercharger” Nsubuga on how travelling home next to his coffin to die changed his life and led him to become an HIV cure advocate in Uganda
The third edition of Research Priorities for an HIV Cure: IAS Global Scientific Strategy was published on World AIDS Day in Nature Medicine. It highlights critical gaps, progress made, and the next steps science must follow towards a scalable, affordable and culturally appropriate cure. Find out more at iasociety.org/WAD2021
In 1987, the United States introduced the world’s first laws criminalizing HIV. Today, despite scientific evidence that HIV criminalization harms public health, 92 countries still have laws that are used to prosecute people living with HIV.
In this episode of HIV unmuted, the IAS podcast, we hear how these unjust laws have forever changed the lives of three people living with HIV and what must be done to end the criminalization of HIV.
Listen now to their stories of injustice, fear and stigma:
• Justice Edwin Cameron on being South Africa’s first public figure to speak out about living with HIV and his crusade to decriminalize HIV
• A Malawian mother, known as EL, who was jailed for allegedly breastfeeding another woman's baby, as told by her lawyer, Wesley Mwafulirwa
• American Robert Suttle on how a bad breakup led to his imprisonment and lifelong registration as a sex offender.
We now move to the 1990s.
Dr David Ho, Time Magazine’s 1996 Person of the Year and personal doctor to basketball legend Magic Johnson, talks to our host, Femi Oke, about his role in developing pioneering combination drug therapy. This treatment breakthrough helped transform HIV from a likely death sentence into a manageable condition if you had access to care and medication.
We are also joined by three HIV activists who were all diagnosed young and kept their status a secret for many years:
• Doreen Moraa Moracha, social media influencer from Kenya, who was born with HIV in 1992
• Nathaniel Hall, star of television’s ''It’s a Sin'', which tells the story of the early years of AIDS in the UK, on his HIV diagnosis at age 16
• Shawn Decker, POZ magazine blogger, musician and educator, who contracted HIV as a child through the use of blood products to treat haemophilia.
Plus, hear about the latest scientific advances from IAS 2021 – the 11th IAS Conference on HIV Science – that are revolutionizing treatment, as well as prevention. These include leveraging long-acting implants and injections so that people no longer have to rely on daily pills.
ViiV Healthcare: NP-GBL-HVU-PCST-210004
Date of preparation: June-2021
On our second episode of HIV unmuted, Nobel Laureate Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi shares the behind-the-scenes story of how she co-discovered HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. This breakthrough provided the first big scientific step forward and hope for treatment.
We are also joined by:
- Neal Blewett, Australia’s Health Minister (1983-1991) on leading his country’s forward-thinking bipartisan efforts
- Long-term survivor, Pacific Islander Vince Crisostomo, on facing mounting loss, fear and stigma
- South African, Vuyiseka Dubula, who busts the myths that drove her to activism
Our first episode jumps back to 1981
Dr Anthony Fauci talks to our host, Femi Oke, about how the emergence of this mysterious disease, later known as AIDS, changed the course of his career. He shares why an HIV vaccine, promised by 1986, is the “big and last Holy Grail that we have to achieve”.
We are also joined by:
· Physician Dr Michael Gottlieb, the first to report AIDS as a new disease in June 1981
· HIV activist and epidemiologist Dr Gregg Gonsalves on his role in galvanizing community activism
· Advocates Vincent Basajja (Uganda), Udom Likhitwonnawut (Thailand) and Maureen Luba(Malawi) dispelling myths about vaccines and vaccine research
It’s been 40 years since AIDS was first reported. We now live in a world where AIDS has become old news: the forgotten pandemic.
HIV unmuted, the IAS - International AIDS Society - podcast, brings together global HIV change-makers as we journey through the last four decades. We recreate moments in time, and spotlight the scientific advances and human endeavours central to the response. Together, we reflect on our past, focus on our present and look to the future.
This is HIV unmuted. Join us.