If there was one key message to be learnt from the immense tragedy of the devastating tsunami that rocked 14 Indian Ocean countries in late December 2004, killing 230,000 and leaving millions homeless, it was the fundamental importance of engaging communities to build on their local experiences, in order that their knowledge may act as an early warning system to raise the alarm for future potential catastrophes. This seems like an obvious piece of common sense, but it wasn’t in place before that tsunami and it still isn’t in place in the context of HIV, even though, over the past 30 years, 130 times the number of people estimated to have died in that tsunami - about 30 million people - have lost their lives to AIDS-related illnesses.
AIDS memorial quilt. Credit. Alice Welbourn.
In 2014, 36.9 million people were estimated to be living with HIV globally. At the end of 2012 it was estimated that 52% of adults with HIV globally were women and globally, AIDS-related illness is the leading cause of death amongst women of reproductive age.
