In 2009 she won the Royal Society Pfizer Award for her research into tuberculosis epidemiology.[7][8] The funding supported her research in the Nyanga Primary Health Clinic in Cape Town.[8] Bekker is passionate about engagement with communities and peer led education programs.[9] Her community work looks to overcome stigma related to HIV and Tuberculosis.[10] The Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, where Bekker serves as Chief Operating Officer, supports the wellbeing of people in South Africa's poorest communities.[11] Her husband, Robin Wood, serves as the Director and CEO.[12] She developed a mobile health van, known as the Tutu tester, which offers screening for pregnancy, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, TB and obesity.[13][10] She is Director of the Desmund Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town, where she integrates best practise and evidence-based information about adolescent treatment and prevention in a robust platform.[14] The centre is funded by the National Institutes of Health.[15] She developed Choices for Adolescent Methods of Prevention in South Africa (CHAMPS); which challenges young men's attitudes to circumcision, encourages young women to use contraception and investigates Pre-exposure prophylaxis.[16] She has also worked on Pregnancy and HIV/AIDS Seeking Equitable Study (PHASES) funded by the National Institutes of Health.[17] She studies the roll out of antiretroviral therapies.[18][19] She is excited about HIV self-testing.[20]
In 2016 she was elected President of the International AIDS Society.[21] She gave the opening address at the International AIDS Society Conference in Paris, where she spoke about new prevention options such as Pre-exposure prophylaxis.[22] In 2018 she was elected to the board of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.[14] She is concerned about Donald Trump undermining the global HIV response.[23][24] She has been a keynote speaker at World AIDS Day.[25]
She has contributed to The Conversation.[26][27][28][29] Bekker enjoys painting and has used street theatre in her community work.[10]
Bekker serves as an advisor to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.[30]
At the 2024 International AIDS Conference in Munich, Professor Bekker presented results from the PURPOSE-1 study of HIV prevention using twice-yearly injectable lenacapavir that demonstrated twice-yearly injection fully protects women from HIV infection.[31][32] No participants receiving twice-yearly lenacapavir acquired HIV infection was also reported in The New England Journal of Medicine article.[33]
_(cropped).jpg)
