National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day (NYHAAD) is held April 10 each year to educate the public about the impact of HIV and AIDS on young people. According to the CDC, young people ages 13 to 24 made up 21% of new HIV diagnoses in the U.S. and dependent areas in 2018. NYHAAD aims to highlight the HIV prevention, treatment and care campaigns targeting this population. We sat down with Comfort Enah, PhD, RN, FAAN to discuss her work in the fight to end HIV/AIDS, which includes researching mobile health approaches to prevent HIV infections in young people.

I joined the fight in 1999 as a graduate student, when I decided to focus my program of research on prevention efforts because some of my childhood friends in Cameroon, Africa were being diagnosed with AIDS and were dying young.

Teenagers inspire me. They are at a pivotal developmental stage of possibility! Today, teenagers are also among our younger generations of digital natives who inspire me to research mobile health (mHealth) approaches in HIV prevention and sexual health promotion. In 2014, I created a video game designed to help prevent HIV infections among Black teenagers in rural Alabama. The challenge of developing effective and properly targeted strategies with teenagers, the potential reach of mHealth approaches and potential impact on public health inspire and sustain my efforts.

Do you have a mentor who has been instrumental to your career and, if so, whom and how? Dr. Linda Moneyham was my research mentor and was instrumental to getting me involved with ANAC. She was very active in ANAC back then. She encouraged membership and active engagement, mentored me to publish my research in JANAC and introduced me to many of my ANAC friends.

Get involved in ANAC committees, attend conferences and contribute to JANAC. Your networking opportunities will increase tremendously and your life will be enriched.