Introduction

By the end of 1987 there were 371 women in Scotland who had tested positive for HIV. By the same date there were 779 women in the whole of the UK known to be HIV positive. Thus at that time women in Scotland accounted for almost half of all women in the UK who were known to have HIV infection. In January 1988 a group of women working in the AIDS field in Edinburgh decided to form a network to share knowledge about the

implications of HIV and AIDS for women, and to share experience about working with women affected by HIV and AIDS. Since then, the Women and HIV/AIDS Network has grown to include people professionally or personally affected by AIDS from many parts of Scotland. The Network meets as a regular women-only forum, distributes a newsletter and organises seminars in local areas in order to disseminate information about the risk of HIV infection for women and the implications of HIV infection for women who are already infected. In addition, the Network organises annual national conferences which have attracted delegates from most parts of the UK and have brought together men and women working in the field and those infected or personally affected by HIV and AIDS.