Improving the sexual and reproductive health of people living with HIV

SFU health sciences professor Angela Kaida wants to help shape health policies and programs to support HIV-affected women to safely achieve their reproductive desires and enjoy healthy and satisfying sex lives.

And now that her Canada Research Chair in Global Perspectives on HIV and Sexual and Reproductive Health has been renewed, she has the funding she needs to continue her ground-breaking research on sexual and reproductive well-being among HIV-affected individuals.

As a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair, the global health epidemiologist will build on her previous work focused on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and men living with HIV. In rural Uganda, she is investigating the effect of a safer, patient-centered contraception intervention to support HIV-affected individuals and couples who desire children, while eliminating HIV transmission risk to the uninfected partner.

In urban South Africa where nearly 2,000 young women acquire HIV every week, Kaida’s research is uncovering the ways that behavioural, clinical and biomedical factors intersect with gender to increase HIV risk for women. Focusing on adolescents and young adults and the growing range of HIV prevention options, Kaida will assess whether a peer-led, youth-centered, sex-positive intervention can create youth demand for HIV testing and comprehensive prevention services.

Additionally, she will continue her research with the Canadian HIV Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS), examining the impact of women-centered HIV care on the sexual and reproductive health of women living with HIV in Canada. She will also continue to translate the evidence into better health and social care for women. Kaida is a lead researcher on the CHIWOS study, which follows more than 1,400 women living with HIV across Canada.

Kaida conducts her research in collaboration with recognized local, national and global leaders in public and population health, and biomedical, clinical and social sciences.