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12 FEBRUARY 2021 VOLUME 23 ISSUE 6

Media Coverage

  • High Rates of Starting and Staying on PrEP in Pregnant South African Women, Despite Barriers

    High initiation and persistence on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has been documented in pregnant women in Cape Town, South Africa, with 91 percent of those offered PrEP starting it and nearly half of those continuing to take PrEP six months later. While women who had given birth and those reporting side effects were less likely to stay on PrEP, there was a strong desire to avoid HIV infection for themselves and their infants, especially when their partner’s serostatus was unknown.

    February 12, 2021
    PrEP
    aidsmap

  • Can New Ethical Guidelines Reshape HIV Prevention Trials?

    In a bid to include ethical considerations in the HIV prevention trial process UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation recently launched a new guidance document for ethical consideration for HIV prevention trials. The guidance among other things, calls for the inclusion of communities that live in settings where trials are taking place as equal partners.

    February 12, 2021
    General
    Devex

  • Where Next for HIV Vaccines and Antibody Therapies?

    In the search for an HIV vaccine and for other immune-based therapies, the last twelve months have seen a major disappointment and a modest success. The disappointment came this time last year when the Uhambo/HVTN 072 vaccine trial was terminated due to lack of efficacy. The modest success came a year later when on 26 January it was announced that the AMP study, the first-ever efficacy trial of a so-called broadly neutralising antibody (bNAb), VRC01, produced a modest reduction in HIV infections, but a 75 percent reduction in the class of viruses most sensitive to it.

    February 11, 2021
    Antibody Related Research, HIV Vaccine
    aidsmap

  • South African COVID-19 Vaccine Trials Hold Key Lessons for Future Partnerships

    COVID-19 vaccine supplies are available in various parts of the world. But it’s clear that distribution is not symmetrical. High-income countries have access to disproportionate quantities of limited supplies. Vaccine nationalism, stockpiling and profit-driven strategies of global pharmaceutical manufacturers have shown up global health inequities.

    February 9, 2021
    HIV Vaccine
    The Conversation

  • Why Broadly Neutralising Antibodies Might Be the Next Big Thing in HIV

    Results of a “proof of concept” study presented at the virtual 4th HIV Research for Prevention Conference last week showed that one particular broadly neutralising monoclonal antibody (bNAb) – called VRC01 – prevented HIV infection in over 70 percent of people exposed to strains of HIV that is sensitive to this particular bNAb.

    February 8, 2021
    Antibody Related Research, Cure
    Spotlight

  • Lenacapavir Shows Promise for Long-Acting HIV Treatment and Prevention

    Lenacapavir, the first HIV capsid inhibitor, led to viral load reductions in 88 percent of people who had received several prior antiretroviral medications and had multidrug-resistant virus, according to Gilead Sciences.

    February 8, 2021
    PrEP, Treatment
    POZ

  • African Studies Explore Reasons To Start, Stick With or Stop PrEP

    This year's HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P) virtual conference featured a large number of sessions examining PrEP usage and discontinuation rates among a variety of users, especially in Africa. Many of the presentations looked at factors that worked as incentives to keep taking PrEP. There is interest in this because, despite higher initiation rates in a larger number of countries than ever before, the retention rates (also called persistence rates) of people in PrEP programmes in the region remain very low.

    February 8, 2021
    PrEP
    aidsmap

  • HIV Science Has Advanced but Policies-Programmes Have Been Slow to #endAIDS

    HIV science has advanced but policies and programmes have been slow to respond towards ending AIDS, said Mitchell Warren, co-chair of the global conference on HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P) and Executive Director of AVAC.

    February 7, 2021
    Microbicides, Multipurpose Prevention Technologies, PrEP, Treatment
    CNS

  • Funding for COVID-19 Overshadows HIV/TB Research Expense

    Global funding for COVID-19 vaccine development has exceeded 10 times in less than a year the amount allocated for HIV and TB research and development in 11 years.

    February 6, 2021
    General
    The International News

  • Africa’s Success in Rapidly Rolling Out HIV Prevention Measure, PrEP

    When Wasiu spoke to Devex in 2018 about his HIV-positive status and the statuses of his three wives, the two living with him in Nigeria had tested positive for HIV while the one in the United States was HIV-negative due to distance and her ability to access pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP.

    February 5, 2021
    PrEP
    Devex

  • Science Not Politics: How Dr. Rochelle Walensky is Saving the CDC

    She cries as she gets the vaccine. “It’s amazing, it’s amazing,” Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, murmurs as a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital pierces her deltoid with a needle. “Usually it takes 10 to 15 years. The fact that we have it in one.…” Walensky shakes her head in wonder.

    February 5, 2021
    General
    Vogue

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