11 MARCH 2022 VOLUME 24 ISSUE 10

Many people view PrEP as enhancing their sexual pleasure and intimacy, according to a new analysis. Despite many healthcare providers prescribing PrEP to people because of “risky behaviour,” Christine Curely and colleagues at the University of Connecticut say that more messaging around its potential to augment sexual pleasure could decrease stigma and improve uptake and adherence.

On March 9, Congress released its proposed final appropriations package for fiscal year 2022. If approved, it will drastically reduce money that lawmakers proposed last year for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help prevent HIV/AIDS and overdose, as the United States endures the worst overdose crisis in its history.

Despite major advancements in the HIV/AIDS response, it continues to be a major global public health issue and the leading cause of death globally among women of reproductive age. In the United States, one in four people living with HIV are women. It is a stark reminder that progress towards ending the HIV epidemic has been unevenly distributed and there is still much work to be done, as women represent half of all adults 15-49 years living with HIV worldwide. We must remember, however, that women have the collective power to come together and change the course of HIV. Ending the HIV epidemic requires all of us to embrace women of all experiences at the forefront of change.

Moderna has pledged never to enforce its coronavirus vaccine patents in selected low- and middle-income countries and is launching a new initiative to give external researchers access to its technology.

Two US studies show Black men with HIV have worse cancer outcomes than others. One study showed Black men with HIV have more than twice the risk of dying after diagnosis with Kaposi’s sarcoma compared to Hispanic men. The second study showed Black gay and bisexual men with HIV experienced anal cancer at rates 2.4 times higher than other men.

It is no surprise that the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for oxygen and critical medical supplies to safely reach those who need them in Ukraine and moving to establish safe transit for shipments through Poland. But nor is the call new. We`ve been here before.

A small proportion of people developed bone loss after they started using daily tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine (Truvada or generic equivalents) for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and the more they took it, the greater the effect, according to a study presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2022).

Tiffany Moore had a panic attack at a Tennessee playground. That’s how her 2021 ended. All she’d wanted was to give her 8-year-old daughter the gentle childhood she’d never had. By age 10, Moore had for years been strapped down repeatedly in mental health wards and “pumped full of drugs” in different hospitals. That was in addition to the abuse she’d experienced at home.

In a surprise move, ViiV Healthcare has decided not to license its long-acting injectable HIV prevention shot so that generic companies could make and distribute less expensive versions to low- and middle-income countries.

When given a choice of two proven HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) options, young cisgender women will use both but prefer a monthly vaginal ring, according to data presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections 2022 (CROI 2022).

The utility of using PrEP eligibility assessments to identify eligibility in general populations has not been well studied in sub-Saharan Africa. We used the Rakai Community Cohort Study to conduct a cross-sectional analysis to estimate PrEP eligibility and a cohort analysis to estimate HIV incidence associated with PrEP eligibility.

The ECHO Trial randomized women to intramuscular depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-IM), levonorgestrel implant (LNG-implant), or copper intrauterine device (Cu-IUD). In a sub-study of the ECHO Trial, we tested the hypothesis that contraceptives influence genital inflammation by comparing cervicovaginal cytokine changes following contraception initiation. In addition, we compared cytokine profiles in women who acquired HIV (cases) versus those remaining HIV-negative (controls).

Over 50 percent of HIV infections in Thailand annually occur among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women who use online applications to meet their sexual partners. We conducted a cross-sectional study assessing undetectable=untransmittable (U=U) understanding, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) awareness, sexual behaviours and factors associated with HIV knowledge among users of Hornet in Thailand.

To reduce HIV incidence among adolescent girls who sell sex (AGSS) in Zimbabwe we need to better understand how vulnerabilities intersect with HIV infection, and how those living with HIV engage in care.

We aimed to evaluate daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake, retention, and adherence and predictors of study non-attendance and low PrEP adherence in a Brazilian trans-specific 48-week study (PrEParadas).

HIV epidemic among men who have sex with men (MSM) remains a major public health concern in China. Despite a growing body of research on transgender women worldwide, little is known about Chinese transgender women within MSM. We sought to estimate HIV incidence and distinguish risk factors of HIV acquisition among them from that among cisgener (non-transgender) MSM (cis-MSM).

Despite progress in improving antiretroviral therapy (ART) for people with HIV in Malawi, the burden of HIV infections and HIV treatment outcomes among key populations is suboptimal. Client-centered differentiated service delivery approaches may facilitate addressing HIV prevention and treatment needs of key populations in Malawi.

Despite evidence of sex-specific pathogenesis, few studies of infectious diseases report or analyse sex or gender, unless it is the primary focus. Using HIV as an example, it is argued here that this leaves potentially informative data unexplored and that integrating sex and gender in analyses may accelerate research in microbial pathogenesis.

Asian-born gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM) newly arrived in Australia are more than four times as likely than their Australian-born counterparts to be diagnosed with incident HIV. Our aim was to explore experiences of Asian-born gbMSM newly arrived in Australia and attending a sexual health centre with regards to their knowledge of and preference for HIV prevention strategies.

One of the pillars of efforts in the US to curb HIV incidence is pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). We examined racial/ethnic and sex disparities in PrEP uptake among California Medicaid enrollees.

After achieving the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets, the UK announces ambitious plan to end HIV transmission and related deaths by 2030. Tony Kirby reports.