10 JUNE 2022 VOLUME 24 ISSUE 23

Uganda has been selected among the initial beneficiaries of the International Partnerships for Microbicides (IPM), as the developers move to roll out the HIV-preventing vaginal ring in Africa.

Under a new tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis strategy, people considered to be at high risk of TB are offered molecular TB tests, even if they do not have any symptoms. A landmark study in 2020 showed that such a strategy can help diagnose more people more quickly. Now, early indications are that it also works in the real world and South Africa’s lab service says it can cope with the increased demand.

Updated Pentagon policy prevents the US military from separating HIV-positive service members with an undetectable viral load and also allows them to be deployed, according to a new Defense Department memo announced Tuesday.

It is well known that Black Americans are disproportionately affected by HIV. What may be less well known is this: Black cisgender women are about 11 times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than white women, and although HIV incidence is generally higher in urban areas, some rural counties in the Southern US have the highest incidence of HIV in the country.

Men who have sex with men (MSM) who discontinue pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) are highly likely to receive a diagnosis of HIV within the next six months, according to recent research published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (JAIDS). This finding, coupled with research showing that approximately 41 percent of people who start taking PrEP discontinue it within six months, highlights the need for improved PrEP retention.

When researchers from wealthy countries engage in “helicopter research”—thoughtless field research in poorer countries that extracts data without respectful collaboration—they violate research integrity and pose a moral problem, say attendees at last week’s World Conference on Research Integrity, held in Cape Town, South Africa. The scientists, ethicists, and others at the meeting hope their new framing will elevate the issue and help spur systemic solutions, rather than leaving the task of building fair collaborations up to individual researchers.

Women at high risk for HIV need higher levels of plasma tenofovir to prevent infection compared with men, according to data from the largest HIV pharmacokinetics database to date.

Evaluating the experiences of key communities in HIV prevention research can help identify barriers and facilitators to clinical trials engagement and improve the design of future trials.

Transplantation of B cells engineered ex vivo to secrete broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) has shown efficacy in disease models. However, clinical translation of this approach would require specialized medical centers, technically demanding protocols and major histocompatibility complex compatibility of donor cells and recipients. Here we report in vivo B cell engineering using two adeno-associated viral vectors, with one coding for Staphylococcus aureus Cas9 (saCas9) and the other for 3BNC117, an anti-HIV bNAb.

Young unmarried women including those living with HIV, migrated at a magnitude similar to that of their male counterparts, and lowered as ART coverage increased over time, reflecting the role of improved HIV services across space in reducing out-migration. A deeper understanding of the characteristics of a migrating population provides critical information towards identifying and addressing gaps in the HIV prevention and care continuum in an era of high mobility.

Black and Hispanic/Latinx cisgender men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender women, transgender men, and gender nonbinary (TGNB) individuals have been historically underrepresented in HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) clinical trials. There is an urgent need for ongoing engagement with communities that have been the most impacted by HIV and diverse representation in clinical trials. Here we describe strategic approaches undertaken in the PURPOSE 2 trial to optimize engagement of underrepresented individuals.

Dysfunction of CD8+ T cells in people living with HIV-1 (PLWH) receiving anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has restricted the efficacy of dendritic cell (DC)-based immunotherapies against HIV-1. Heterogeneous immune exhaustion and metabolic states of CD8+ T cells might differentially associate with dysfunction. However, specific parameters associated to functional restoration of CD8+ T cells after DC treatment have not been investigated.

There is an imperative to reassess the ways in which the WHA functions to ensure both equitable and meaningful participation in global health decision-making, and reduce the environmental impact of this annual forum. Lessons learnt during this reassessment process can be further applied across UN institutions, and political or academic convenings more broadly. ...

Recommendations for an HIV and family planning integrated service for young people living with HIV include: offering a range of services (including method-mix contraceptives) to choose from; supporting their agency to engage with the services which are most acceptable to them; and providing trained, supportive, knowledgeable, and non-judgmental health providers who can provide accurate information and counsel. We recommend youth-friendly, differentiated, person-centered care that recognize the multiple and intersecting needs of young people living with HIV.

We developed this special issue around the theme of decolonization broadly, emphasizing how coloniality and neo-colonial thought are woven through and still affect higher education. Through this issue, we provided an opportunity for authors (faculty, researchers, practitioners, students, and administrators) to express their vision of what a decolonized global health field looks like.