There are dates that shouldn’t go unnoticed.
March 10, 2026 marks National Women and Girls’ HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD).
It’s not just another date on the calendar: it’s an uncomfortable, necessary, and urgent reminder.
Almost one in five people diagnosed with HIV was a woman in 2023. Despite this, their presence in narratives and campaigns remains low.
But that’s starting to change. “Let’s Stop HIV Together” is a national awareness campaign led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Its main mission is to reduce the stigma associated with HIV and promote testing, prevention, and treatment by featuring real people living with HIV. It’s a reminder that prevention is a shared responsibility. The campaign includes a public health communication initiative, #ShesWell, focused on increasing awareness and use of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) among women, who are underrepresented among PrEP users.
In 2024, only 9% of people using PrEP in the United States were women. This figure reveals a significant gap between the women who could benefit from this preventive tool and those who actually have access to it.
According to the campaign, PrEP reduces the risk of contracting HIV through sexual intercourse by approximately 99% when taken as prescribed.
Preliminary results from the campaign suggest that exposure to #ShesWell messages was associated with a greater intention to use PrEP among Black women and more conversations with healthcare professionals about PrEP.
As a journalist, I have participated in several public health initiatives to prevent HIV. These results reinforce the idea that adapted and culturally relevant campaigns can help reduce information and communication barriers that have limited PrEP use in key communities.
A good example of this is the Ella/Hers project of the Latino Commission on AIDS, developed in partnership with organizations in the South, which works directly with Latina and Black women to provide clear information in their language and within the context of their local realities.
That is why it is important to normalize HIV testing as a routine part of healthcare, promote prevention tools like PrEP, highlight treatment as prevention (people with HIV who adhere to their treatment and maintain an undetectable viral load do not transmit the virus sexually), and combat stigma by sharing personal stories.
On this National Women and Girls’ HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, let us recognize the importance of connecting women with HIV prevention, testing, treatment, and care, as we continue to move forward together to end the epidemic.
This article is supported by We Are United, an initiative of the Positive Connections Fund/AIDS United and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The content is the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views or endorsement of the CDC/HHS or the U.S. government. To request your free at-home HIV test, visit this CDC resource.
