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Dr. Mardge Cohen, the director of HIV research at Cook County Hospital, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, is the co-founder of the Chicago Women’s AIDS Project and an outspoken advocate on behalf of HIV-positive women worldwide. Dr. Cohen has dedicated her life to helping women and girls affected by HIV and AIDS.

Twenty years ago, Dr. Cohen helped establish the Chicago Women’s AIDS Project (CWAP). CWAP is the only Chicago community-based organization solely dedicated to HIV-infected women. CWAP provides psychosocial services and advocacy for HIV-infected women, as well as women-focused HIV prevention education.

Women are contracting HIV at alarming rates. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the estimated number of AIDS cases in the United States increased 10 percent among women and 7 percent among men between 2000 and 2004. And HIV disproportionately affects African-American and Hispanic women. They represent less than 25 percent of all U.S. women but account for nearly 80 percent of HIV-positive cases among U.S. women. CWAP’s innovative program attempts to educate women in local communities. Most recently, CWAP partnered with community hair salons to provide HIV-prevention information to their clients.

In addition to her work with CWAP, Dr. Cohen also helped found the Women and Children HIV Clinic at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital in 1988. The clinic was the first comprehensive medical and psychological family-centered HIV program for women, their partners and their children in the country.

HIV-positive women often have gender-specific needs. They must deal with the added burden of caring for children and other family members who may also be HIV-infected. Women also physically experience the disease differently, and are prone to metabolic abnormalities and reproductive health problems. The Cook County Hospital program provides gynecologic services, as well as mental health and chemical dependency counseling.

Dr. Cohen also worked to implement rapid HIV testing in labor and delivery rooms at birthing hospitals in Illinois in order to track and prevent pregnant women from passing the disease to their newborns.

In addition to her work in Chicago, Dr. Cohen works with HIV positive women in Rwanda through Women’s Equity in Access to Care and Treatment for HIV (WE-ACTx). WE-ACTx provides HIV care to genocide and rape survivors, and has helped more than 1,300 women obtain access to HIV medication. It is estimated that more than 120,000 Rwandan women were infected with HIV during the Rwandan genocide. Dr. Cohen returns to Rwanda three times a year to work alongside local nurses and doctors. She’s currently working on a National Institute of Health-funded study in Rwanda to determine the best course of treatment for women infected with HIV and AIDS.

Dr. Cohen received the Making a Difference for Women Award from Soroptimist's Chicago, Illinois club. In order to commemorate Dr. Cohen’s outstanding achievements, the club organized a benefit performance of the play I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document by a Young Woman from Rwanda to raise awareness about women and AIDS. The event and Dr. Cohen’s award were covered by the Chicago Tribune. The fundraiser raised more than $12,000 for Dr. Cohen’s work in Chicago and Rwanda. Dr. Cohen received an additional $5,000 from Soroptimist for her organizations.