International Conference on
Sexually Transmitted Diseases, HIV/AIDS & Parasitic Infections

Maha A Al-Mozaini is a Scientist, has experience in both Immunology and Virology research during her PhD training at the Imperial College, UK and her Post-doctoral Research Fellowship at the Infectious Disease Division of Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on two different immunosuppressed populations of patients, namely HIV and organ recipient patients. She is a temporary Adviser to the National AIDS Program, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office of Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO). She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Applied Medical Laboratory Sciences at King Saud University, where she teaches Medical Virology course. She has been awarded with the L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award (FWIS) in the MENA Region for 2015 and the Golden Award for Achievements in Science from the Arab Women Council, 2016.

There are many obstacles that we encounter with the establishments of HIV/AIDS research laboratory in the region. Unfortunately, there are many great challenges due to the stigma against HIV in our society. In fact, even priorities of logistics and funding are being directed to other research to avoid the public attention. Despite that we have successfully established for the first time an HIV/AIDS research laboratory. It covers both clinical and basic science. Our work will be dedicated to study the molecular and immunological pathways that govern immune deficiency and HIV and to delineate new therapeutic interventions that can increase immune competence. In this meeting we will discuss how to overcome these obstacles and introduce the establishment of a nonprofit national organization to support women who are HIV-positive. We have also started an awareness campaign to increase knowledge about HIV to reduce new HIV infections. Our responsibility is to explain to the society how would this testing for HIV would be beneficial.