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10 JULY 2020 VOLUME 22 ISSUE 27

Media Coverage

  • Gene Therapy or Immunotherapy: Which Approach Is More Likely to Deliver a Cure for HIV?

    Amidst speculation that a five-drug antiretroviral regimen and nicotinamide might have cured HIV in one man, researchers debated whether gene therapy or immunotherapy is more likely to lead to an HIV cure that can be delivered to millions during the AIDS 2020 Cure pre-conference last week.

    July 10, 2020
    Cure
    aidsmap

  • Depo Provera May Worsen Tenofovir-Related Bone Loss in Young Women

    Use of the injectable hormonal contraceptive Depo Provera was associated with a doubling of bone loss in young women starting antiretroviral treatment containing tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), according to a study presented this week at the 23rd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020: Virtual).

    July 10, 2020
    Hormonal Contraceptives and HIV, Treatment
    aidsmap

  • A Second Study Finds Introducing PrEP to Africa Considerably Reduces HIV Infections in Women

    The introduction of PrEP into a large study that was designed to find out if contraceptives increased the risk of HIV in women allowed for a “natural experiment” to see if it reduced HIV incidence in trial participants, the 23rd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020: Virtual) heard today.

    July 9, 2020
    PrEP
    aidsmap

  • “If We Don’t Include Women in Trials, We Are Not Protecting Women” – Dolutegravir in Pregnant Women Living With HIV

    Dr Rebecca Zash of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, presented updated data from the Tsepamo study, an ongoing birth outcomes surveillance programme in Botswana. The prevalence of neural tube defects among infants born to women on dolutegravir at the time of conception appears to be stabilising at approximately 2 in 1000 deliveries (0.2 percent) compared to other antiretrovirals at 1 in 1000 (0.1 percent).

    July 9, 2020
    Treatment
    aidsmap

  • How Should HIV Vaccine Trials Be Run in the PrEP Era?

    As modalities to prevent HIV infection continue to expand, from oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to injectable formulations, trials for HIV vaccines must take these into account and ensure that ethical principles are being followed, an expert panel said.

    July 9, 2020
    HIV Vaccine, PrEP
    MedPage Today

  • On-Demand PrEP Is Highly Effective, but Some May Find It Confusing

    Educating clients at a San Francisco sexual health clinic about on-demand pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) increased their desire to use the intermittent HIV prevention method, researchers reported this week at the 23rd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020: Virtual). Among the 24 percent of clients who did so, the rate of new infections and use of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) were low.

    July 8, 2020
    PrEP
    aidsmap

  • Confronting Missed Targets, HIV/AIDS Experts Emphasize Drug Delivery

    The conversation at AIDS 2020 is focusing not just on developing new technologies to fight HIV/AIDS — but also ensuring the tools that already exist realize their potential for impact. As the world falls short of 2020 targets for progress on HIV/AIDS, global health experts are highlighting the need to make testing, prevention, and treatment affordable and accessible.

    July 8, 2020
    PrEP, Treatment
    Devex

  • HIV Funding Is Dwindling. Who Will Fill the Gap?

    The world is off-track not just on HIV targets, but also on HIV financing. As the novel coronavirus continues to squeeze government budgets, experts note there are more questions and uncertainties on the future of HIV funding.

    July 8, 2020
    General
    Devex

  • Volunteers Can Now Sign Up for Large Coronavirus Vaccine Studies

    A network of more than 100 clinical trial sites at hospitals and medical clinics in the United States and across the world will take on the unprecedented challenge of testing COVID-19 vaccines and other preventive treatments, federal officials announced Wednesday.

    July 8, 2020
    General
    Washington Post

  • COVID-19 Has Disrupted PrEP Use and STI Testing

    COVID-19 has had a major impact on health care, and the provision of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is no exception. Since the start of the pandemic, a Boston clinic has seen declines in the number of people starting PrEP, refills of PrEP prescriptions and testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), according to a report at the International AIDS Conference, being held virtually this week.

    July 8, 2020
    PrEP, Treatment
    POZ

  • California PrEP Push Reveals Underserved Demographics

    Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is effective at preventing sexual transmission of HIV, but access is limited for people with low income. The California PrEP Assistance Program (PrEP-AP), established to remove financial and structural barriers to PrEP access, had positive but uneven results.

    July 8, 2020
    PrEP
    Contagion Live

  • This Injection Outperforms a Daily Pill to Prevent HIV Infection. Will You Use It?

    An injection every two months is three times more effective in preventing HIV infection among men and transgender women than a daily prevention pill.

    July 8, 2020
    PrEP
    Bhekisisa

  • HIV Testing ‘Powered by Football’ Increase to 30 Percent

    A project that used football to attract the youth and educate them on HIV/AIDS increased testing for HIV by about 30 percent, an impact evaluation report has found. Malawi, where the three-year project was implemented, has one million people living with HIV out of 17.6 million people in the country, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

    July 8, 2020
    General
    SciDevNet

  • Event-Driven PrEP Patients Face Retention Issues in Thai Study

    Event-driven pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against HIV has begun to be offered to patients in recent years, presenting an alternative to daily PrEP oral administration. But adherence strategies are still in development, according to the results of a recent study in Thailand.

    July 8, 2020
    PrEP
    Contagion Live

  • This Year’s AIDS Conference Has Brought Snippets of Good News

    Even in the days of the internet, conferences remain the lifeblood of science. Young thrusters can meet old fogeys and lobby them for jobs. Ideas can be swapped in the knowledge that no electronic trail will come back to haunt you. And journalists can swoop, scoop up a bundle of interesting stories and, with luck, provide an update to their readers and viewers of developments in whatever field the conference was about.

    July 8, 2020
    Cure, PrEP, Treatment
    The Economist

  • Investigational PrEP Injection, Dosed Every Other Month, Beats Daily PrEP in Phase 3 Study

    Taken every 2 months, the long-acting injectable drug cabotegravir (CAB-LA) prevented more HIV infections than daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with tenofovir/emtricitabine (TDF/FTC), according to newly announced results from a major Phase 3 study. The results were released originally in May due to the overwhelmingly positive data on CAB-LA for PrEP, but researchers presented their final data in early July at the 23rd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020).

    July 7, 2020
    PrEP
    The BodyPro

  • An Intriguing—but Far From Proven—HIV Cure in the ‘São Paulo Patient’

    A 36-year-old man in Brazil has seemingly cleared an HIV infection—making him the proof of principle in humans of a novel drug strategy designed to flush the AIDS virus out of all of its reservoirs in the body. After receiving an especially aggressive combination of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and nicotinamide (vitamin B3), the man, who asks to be referred to as the São Paulo Patient to protect his privacy, went off all HIV treatment in March 2019 and has not had the virus return to his blood.

    July 7, 2020
    Cure
    Science Magazine

  • Can This New Injectable Deliver on Its Promise to Reduce HIV Transmission?

    New clinical evidence shows that cabotegravir, an investigative injectable drug under development for HIV prevention and treatment, is 66 percent more effective than oral preexposure prophylaxis.

    July 7, 2020
    PrEP
    Devex

  • Sex Workers in Africa Lack Food for Taking HIV Drugs During Coronavirus Outbreak

    As the coronavirus spreads in Africa, it threatens in multiple ways those who earn their living on the streets — people such as Mignonne, a 25-year-old sex worker with HIV. The lockdown in Rwanda has kept many of her customers away, she said, so she has less money to buy food. And when she doesn’t eat, the antiviral drugs she takes for HIV can bring on pain, weakness and nausea, or even make her pass out.

    July 4, 2020
    General, Treatment
    Los Angeles Times

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