What's New on AVAC.org

AVAC.org has a host of new resources providing concise updates, informed perspective and handy tools. Take a look at the highlights below and get up to speed on a range of strategic issues.

New Resources

• AVAC, in partnership with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), is taking on new work focused on supporting innovation in the prevention “market”—including the programs that deliver new products and the pipeline of products in trials. This two-page intro to the “HIV Prevention Market Manager” gives an overview of this new body of work.

• To get a flavor of the work the Prevention Market Manager team is focused on, check out this new resource: End-User Research Landscape Mapping and Findings. The term “end user” is used by people who work on developing and marketing products. It refers to the individual who’s ultimately going to make the decision to seek out and use a given product or intervention. This resource gives a sense of the range of efforts trying to understand what is and isn’t known about one key set of “end users” for new prevention options—adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa.

From the Infographics Gallery

• The Years Ahead in Biomedical HIV Prevention Research provides an overview of the current and planned efficacy trials for the major biomedical interventions under investigation right now. The infographic is the centerspread in the current issue of Px Wire, which looks ahead to a host of issues we are watching in 2017.

• Introduction to Long-Acting Injectables is an updated graphic to guide you through the basics of antiretrovirals that are being developed as long-acting injectables for both treatment and prevention.

Strong Voices in P-Values

• Progress and justice for women and girls has come under attack by the new US administration via the reinstatement and proposed expansion of the Global Gag Rule. In Standing Together Against the Global Gag Rule the AVAC team reaffirms its commitment to the fight for bodily autonomy, for justice, for choice and voice for women and girls.

• In New and Touted HIV bNAb: Big deal or news blip?, veteran science writer and HIV journalist Mark Mascolini delves into the nuances of vaccine research using broadly neutralizing antibodies. You will learn more than just what these are; Mascolini looks at the big promises and the small print.

• Lindsay Roth, a long-time organizer and advocate for sex workers’ rights, gives any lay reader on the subject of sex work an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the issues at stake in Getting Set to Defend and Advance Sex Workers’ Rights in 2017 and Beyond. Roth’s reporting shows how HIV prevention, human rights and economic justice can only succeed together.

• Ken Mwehonge, advocacy program officer at HEPS-Uganda, confronts the question of paying for PrEP in his blog post, PrEP Won’t Protect if it’s Price Out of Reach.

• Back in September, our Self-Testing is on the Map blog highlighted recent studies that brought insight into how HIV self-testing could work. In December, WHO issued new guidelines on HIV self-testing and partner negotiation. The updated publication has new recommendations, additional guidance on scaling up self-testing and the complete guidelines. And just last week, IAPAC launched Recommendations for the Rapid Expansion of HIV Self-Testing in Fast-Track Cities. Stay tuned for more updates about where and how self-testing might fit into programs.