Conference Updates

While there has been progress, meaningfully including community members in the world's largest HIV research gathering remains a challenge. The Well Project's Bridgette Picou, LVN, ACLPN, reports from the ground at CROI 2024.

We could eliminate human papillomavirus with the tools available, sparing millions of lives worldwide; the challenge is implementation. The Well Project's Bridgette Picou, LVN, ACLPN, sums up a talk on this compelling topic from CROI 2024.

Bridgette Picou, LVN, ACLPN, stakeholder liaison for The Well Project, spoke with HIV.gov during the 2024 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) about her key takeaways from the conference.

"[W]omen living with HIV must ask the questions of whether their symptoms are related to menopause? Aging? HIV treatment? Depression? Or something else? I can absolutely relate to this as an aging woman living with HIV, depression, anxiety, and other health conditions."

"I was pleased to see these doctors from my state; I know we all share great concerns about Alabama. Healthcare in this state, like everything else, is governed by religious beliefs, and is often ignored or stigmatized."

"This year's International Workshop on HIV & Women featured an interesting debate on whether or not HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART) causes hypertension in women living with HIV."

I'm always happy to get the opportunity to attend a meeting or conference, so when I was approached with the opportunity to attend a conference virtually, I was happy to accept, especially one like the International Workshop on HIV and Women.

HIV cure research is a complex topic on many levels. The Well Project stakeholder liaison Bridgette Picou sums up her experience attending a meeting of passionate HIV cure advocates.

The Well Project community members were all over the US's largest HIV community meeting – presenting sessions, building community, doing some fierce organizing, and more.

Rep. Maxine Waters' speech at the U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS was powerful – and included some stigmatizing (and preventable) language concerns. The Well Project's stakeholder liaison, Bridgette Picou, shared her take on TheBody.com.