13 November 2015 VOLUME 16 ISSUE 46

The 1980s are back: not in the form of male pop stars wearing eyeliner, but headlines dripping with stigma. “Hollywood HIV panic,” booms the Sun newspaper....For those who have spent much of their lives campaigning to overcome the stigma of this treatable illness, it is a bleak day.

Studies have shown that individuals with HIV are 50–100 percent more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than individuals without HIV; however, more research is needed to determine if use of statins is the answer. The National Institutes of Health is now funding REPRIEVE, a Randomized Trial to Prevent Vascular Events in HIV,...the first large-scale randomized clinical trial to test a strategy for heart disease prevention among people living with HIV.

AIDS is the No. 1 cause of death for adolescents in Africa. We must not fail this generation....They deserve a chance at the future that they imagine for themselves....At Keep a Child Alive, we not only strive to get more people tested and stay on treatment, we also look to address the issues that drive the HIV/AIDS epidemic, including poverty, gender inequality and especially stigma.

Johnson & Johnson's Janssen announced that a Phase IIb study of a combination regimen of two investigational long-acting injectable HIV drugs found that the therapy performed similarly to a regimen consisting of three oral medications. The oral medications are given daily, while the injectables are administered once every 4 to 8 weeks, meaning the results have implications for improving medication adherence....If successful, the injectable combination regimen would mark a big change in HIV treatment.

Researchers at Yale University are testing whether a humorous card game can help young, black women reduce their chances of contracting HIV and AIDS — part of a new but growing trend examining whether games can spur health behavior changes....The game, developed by play2PREVENT, a gaming lab within the Yale School of Medicine, is still a prototype, but designers are hoping to launch a video game version eventually and bring it to a broader audience.

Ndaula Hamidu, 24, was born with HIV and is now an advocate for sexual and reproductive rights and services, including family planning - issues he says concern young men as well as young women. "Having access to friendly services has helped me live positively and happily, and helped me serve as an example to my fellow people," said Hamidu, from Bugiri district, Uganda. "At the beginning, accessing services was difficult but it has become possible after knowing my rights."

US Ambassador Robert Godec said Monday that much more needs to be done to curb endemic corruption in the East African country as he launched a major aid initiative to provide life-saving drugs. While media reports exposing corruption are good for raising public awareness of the problem, actual steps need to be taken to investigate, prosecute and convict suspects....He spoke at the launch of a USAID program that will provide US $650 million to the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority to acquire and supply life-saving drugs, HIV testing kits and contraceptives across the country.

After peaking in 2007, AIDS mortality in South Africa has decreased with the widespread introduction of effective antiretroviral therapy, according to updated estimates by Debbie Bradshaw of the South African Medical Research Council and colleagues published in AIDS. They emphasize that continued reluctance to acknowledge AIDS as a cause of death is hindering efforts to monitor the impact of HIV control efforts in South Africa.

Last Friday, former US Senators Tom Daschle and Bill Frist launched a landmark BPC report entitled: "The Case for Strategic Health Diplomacy: A Study of PEPFAR". In it, they argue that "There is no better example of the power of a well-executed global health initiative than the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief"....In short, the report asserts that PEPFAR is not only the right thing to do -- it's also the smart, strategic, and secure thing.

The concept of this unique restaurant is to provide access to family planning programs and AIDS awareness for the entire population of Thailand. The owners want to make these services as easy to access as everyday vegetables, hence the name....Instead of after-meal mints, they provide condoms (of course)! All proceeds go toward the Population & Community Development Association (PDA), a sex education and AIDS prevention organization.

In Malawi men who have sex with men...do not always get adequate treatment, care and support....The Malawian National HIV Prevention Strategy specifically acknowledges that these populations must be targeted in its HIV programming. But homosexuality is still a crime in the country. And even though there is a moratorium on criminalising male-male sexual relationships, men who have sex with men have difficulty getting access to health services....Health care providers themselves face a number of challenges.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) associated with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) was prevalent among HIV-infected patients and demonstrated a high morbidity rate in a new center-based study presented at ASN Kidney Week 2015 November 3-8 in San Diego, CA. More than half of patients with TDF-associated AKI did not recover baseline kidney function during follow-up, and about one-third of the patients required dialysis.

Prescription drug prices are getting more attention on Capitol Hill, with two senators from opposite sides of the aisle announcing plans to investigate while House Democrats declared they were forming a task force on the issue as well....Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) pointed out that AIDS drug assistance programs in Georgia have begun rationing a hepatitis C drug because of its high cost -- $80,000 for a 12-week treatment.

Truvada...is a pharmacological breakthrough that has the potential to consign Aids to the history books....In the US, the Food and Drug Administration approved Truvada for use over three years ago. Truvada is even covered by insurance companies....Yet in this country [the UK], a conspiracy of silence surrounds Truvada, or Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), as it is termed. The NHS claims that it is waiting on the results of its own studies to decide whether Truvada should be introduced.

The FDA approved a new one-pill HIV. treatment Thursday with a new, apparently safer form of tenofovir called Genvoya [that]...Gilead said more efficiently enters cells where HIV replicates, resulting in 91 percent less tenofovir in the bloodstream. That should make the pill less likely to cause kidney damage or loss of bone density, ...major problems among people with HIV who survive into old age.

Rock star Elton John is working to use his global fame and charitable foundations to help overturn homophobic laws around the world....On Thursday John and his husband, David Furnish, will unveil a new partnership...with the Elton John AIDS Foundation and PEPFAR each contributing $5 million to a fund to increase access to medication for people with HIV and AIDS in countries that are prejudiced toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. The fund's early focus will be on sub-Saharan Africa.

Louise Kuhn, PhD, of Columbia University, New York, and colleagues found that switching to efavirenz-based therapy compared with continuing ritonavir-boosted lopinavir-based therapy, did not result in significantly higher rates of viral rebound or viral failure....among children with viral suppression.

Rape victims can be prevented from contracting HIV infection if 'post-exposure prophylaxis' (PEP) treatment is given within eight hours of the sexual assault....However, the treatment...is neither mandated nor provided in India due to lack of awareness, AIDS Society of India President Dr Ishwar Gilada [said]...A proactive three-day movement for creating public awareness for use of PEP...started in Mumbai Saturday, where HIV clinicians deliberated on how to put evidences into policy and take swift action.

Among HIV-infected children exposed to nevirapine for prevention of mother-to-child transmission and with initial viral suppression with ritonavir-boosted lopinavir–based therapy, switching to efavirenz-based therapy compared with continuing ritonavir-boosted lopinavir–based therapy did not result in significantly higher rates of viral rebound or viral failure. This therapeutic approach may offer advantages in children such as these.

Between April 12, 2013 and April 3, 2014, we enrolled 1443 patients. 959 patients were randomly assigned to the tenofovir alafenamide group and 477 to the tenofovir disoproxil fumarate group....Switching to a tenofovir alafenamide-containing regimen from one containing tenofovir disoproxil fumarate was non-inferior for maintenance of viral suppression and led to improved bone mineral density and renal function. Longer term follow-up is needed to better understand the clinical impact of these changes.