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10 FEBRUARY 2023 VOLUME 25 ISSUE 6

Media Coverage

  • PrEP Users Rethink How We Discuss HIV Status Disclosure With Sexual Partners

    Communication has always been one of our most important tools in fighting the HIV epidemic. That’s true whether one is thinking about how we share public health messaging or the way we conduct conversations with our romantic and sexual partners. And just as we constantly rethink broad public health messaging, it is important to reevaluate how we carry out interpersonal discussions on sexual health.

    February 9, 2023
    PrEP
    TheBody

  • New Formulation Can Provide Up to Six Months of Full Protection Against HIV

    For people at high risk of contracting HIV, missing doses of their daily HIV prevention pills can have big consequences. In some cases, missing a pill can lead to lack of protection against the virus. Since 2017, the lab of Rahima Benhabbour, PhD, MSc, associate professor in the UNC/NCSU Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, has been working with a research team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) consisting of J.

    February 9, 2023
    PrEP
    News Medical

  • The South Leads the US in HIV Infections. Tennessee Is About to Make It a Lot Worse

    HIV testing and prevention in Tennessee may be more difficult to attain come this spring. Dozens of organizations across the state are bracing for the loss of significant federal funding for HIV prevention after the state declined nearly $9 million in government funds from the CDC. It’s a move that could result in a spike of new infections and be a bellwether for the rest of the nation — especially in red states.

    February 9, 2023
    General
    Rolling Stone

  • PrEP May Soon Be Even Easier to Access in California

    State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced legislation to improve access to PrEP for HIV prevention in California and improve previous legislation that allows pharmacies to offer PrEP without a prescription. The new legislation will extend the length of time pharmacies may furnish PrEP without a prescription. It will also require health plans to cover the costs of pharmacists’ time to prepare PrEP.

    February 9, 2023
    PrEP
    Plus Magazine

  • Sexual Prudery Is Strangling HIV Prevention in Eswatini

    Throughout the world, poverty stands as one of the primary drivers of HIV transmission. That is one reason why education―which serves as an effective tool for overcoming social and economic vulnerabilities―decreases one’s likelihood of acquiring the virus as well as other sexually transmitted infections (STI). In the kingdom of Eswatini, the federal government has been working with various civic and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) to provide communities that lack resources with educational and developmental opportunities.

    February 8, 2023
    General
    TheBody

  • Cabotegravir Long-Acting PrEP Out of Reach for Upper Middle-Income Nations

    Prices charged for injectable cabotegravir PrEP will need to fall substantially for upper middle-income countries to benefit from its use as an HIV prevention measure, according to an assessment of affordability published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. At current prices, injectable PrEP will remain out of reach and will have little impact on global HIV numbers, the study concludes.

    February 8, 2023
    PrEP
    aidsmap

  • HIV Testing: ‘Home Tests Can Help Remove Stigma’

    For Ellie Harrison, getting a positive HIV result came as a shock. Men who have sex with other men are one of the groups most at risk of getting HIV, so for the 26-year-old - as a straight woman - it was "the last one" she expected. Ellie was diagnosed five years ago, through a home test small enough to fit through the letterbox.

    February 7, 2023
    General
    BBC

  • HIV/AIDS Treatments Advance, But Stigma Remains a Major Obstacle

    When taken as directed, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) reduces the risk of HIV infection by 99 percent. Despite having a disproportionately high risk of contracting HIV, men who have sex with men (MSM) have insufficient PrEP uptake and adherence. Investigators from the University of Michigan School of Nursing wanted to determine whether negative stigma surrounding HIV was preventing MSM from using PrEP.

    February 7, 2023
    Treatment
    Contagion Live

  • African Migrants Living in France Less Likely To Benefit From Antiretroviral Innovations Than People Born in France

    A French study reveals large differences in antiretroviral therapy prescriptions between people with HIV born in sub-Saharan Africa and those born in France. It also shows that these differences exist both at the time of starting treatment and after long-term viral suppression, without any clinical, virological or immunological justification.

    February 7, 2023
    Treatment
    aidsmap

  • Bush demanded billions for AIDS in Africa at his 2003 State of the Union. It paid off.

    President George W. Bush’s reputation may have been forever complicated by 9/11 and war, but a proposal he made in his 2003 State of the Union address became a historic humanitarian success, one that resulted in 25 million lives saved from AIDS, 20 million people with HIV provided antiretroviral treatment and 5.5 million babies born to HIV-positive mothers but free of the virus themselves.

    February 7, 2023
    General
    NBC News

  • People Fixing the World: The Ring That Could Help Save Women’s Lives

    Thousands of women are infected with HIV every week in Africa. Many can't persuade their partners to wear a condom, so it was hoped that a new form of protection could be a real game-changer. It's a small silicon ring which encircles the cervix and releases antiretroviral drugs, lowering the women’s risk of contracting HIV. Their partners aren't supposed to feel it, and so shouldn't even need to know it’s there. People Fixing the World first reported on the HIV ring five years ago. We find out what’s happened since.

    February 7, 2023
    PrEP
    BBC

  • Survey Suggests Cost is an Important Determining Factor for Taking PrEP to Prevent HIV

    Cost and adverse events (AEs) are considered the most important issues that men consider before taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication for HIV, according to new data published in the journal AIDS and Behavior. The studyresults also suggest that patients recommended for PrEP would rather take a long-acting injected form as opposed to a daily pill, or as-needed short course of pills.

    February 6, 2023
    PrEP
    Pharmacy Times

  • FDA: Base Blood Donation Policy on Science, Not Stigma

    As a doctor, I have dedicated my life to saving the lives of others. But as a gay doctor, I have long been unable to do one simple thing that saves lives: donate blood. For more than 30 years, policies in the United States have banned gay and bisexual men from donating blood. That could change — ending decades of discrimination — if the Food and Drug Administration’s newly announced proposal for blood donation is made permanent.

    February 5, 2023
    General
    STAT

  • New Research Examines How COVID-19 Affects Immune-Compromised People

    COVID-19 disproportionately affects older adults and those with pre-existing health conditions. Early evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic suggested high mortality among immunocompromised subjects. Several studies have reported conflicting COVID-19 mortality estimates between immunocompromised and other patient groups, with some suggesting more deaths and others reporting no differences.

    February 5, 2023
    General
    News Medical

  • Fauci Talks HIV Vaccine Research After Most Recent Trial Failure: ‘I Don’t Give Up on It’

    There’s no question that vaccines have become a divisive topic. Thanks to vaccine hesitancy, fueled in part by politicization of the COVID-19 vaccine, now even diseases once thought to be afflictions of the past, like polio and measles, are creeping back up in pockets of the US. But there is a vaccine, if ever discovered, that would be greeted with enthusiasm — at least among those most at risk, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who until recently led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

    February 4, 2023
    HIV Vaccine
    Yahoo News

  • HIV Vaccines Suffer Setbacks but New Approaches Could Turn the Tide

    Only a few weeks into the new year, the prospect of getting a successful advanced HIV vaccine shrank after the discontinuation of yet another late-stage trial. On January 18, Janssen, a Johnson & Johnson (J&J) subsidiary, stated that its vaccine was not effective in preventing HIV infections. This marks the second time one of Janssen’s HIV vaccines failed after another showed disappointing results in the Phase IIb Imbokodo trial in August 2021.

    February 3, 2023
    HIV Vaccine
    Pharmaceutical Technology

  • A New Pennsylvania Law Is Giving Doctors Greater Freedom to Treat People With Sexually Transmitted Diseases

    A new law went into effect Friday making it easier for people with a sexually transmitted diseases to get treatment for a partner without that person having to see a doctor first. The approach, called expedited partner therapy (EPT), allows a person with a diagnosed STD to ask a doctor for a prescription for a sex partner, and the doctor can fill that prescription without evaluating the partner, or even knowing that person’s name, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported.

    February 3, 2023
    General
    The Philadelphia Inquirer

  • Bacterial Vaginosis Linked With Persistent HPV Infections

    Four in five women will be infected by one or more human papillomavirus (HPV) strains during their lifetimes. For most of these women, the HPV will be cleared from the body, but 5 percent of them will develop precancerous lesions in the cervix. The role of vaginal flora in persistent HPV has been brought into focus by research studies carried out over the past few years.

    February 3, 2023
    HPV Vaccines
    Medscape

  • England Eliminates Mother-to-Child Transmission of Hepatitis B

    The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced the news yesterday that the country had eliminated transmission of hepatitis from mother to child. “We are pleased WHO has confirmed England has eliminated mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B, thanks to universal screening and immunization benefitting more than 9 in 10 infants,” John Stewart, director for Specialized Commissioning and interim director of Commercial Medicines at NHS England, said in a statement.

    February 3, 2023
    General
    Contagion Live

  • Not Counted: Clinical Trials of New HIV Treatments Are Failing Women

    The low representation of women in clinical trials has led to some efficacy and safety differences between men and women being missed, reports Dr Shuang Zhou of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). African-American women were particularly underrepresented in clinical trials of new antiretrovirals.

    February 3, 2023
    Treatment
    aidsmap

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