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14 July 2017 VOLUME 18 ISSUE 28

Media Coverage

  • What’s Up HIV: Supporting young journalists to report on the science and the human face of HIV

    AVAC has partnered with Community Media Trust since 2013 to produce the What’sUpHIV blog to report on HIV conferences in South Africa, but for the first time we provided scholarships to journalists whose sole mission at the conference was to write for the blog.

    July 17, 2017
    General
    AVAC

  • As PrEP turns five, the HIV prevention pill Is a major success

    The science behind Truvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis reveals an awesome tool that is apparently already helping shrink US HIV rates.

    July 14, 2017
    PrEP
    POZ

  • House bill gives NIH 3% raise, blocks cuts to overhead payments

    The NIH's budget would get a modest 3.2% raise, to $35.2 billion....The measure...would also explicitly block a proposal by the Trump administration to slash by two-thirds payments NIH disburses to cover overhead costs of the research it funds....Furthermore, the bill ignores a Trump plan to abolish NIH’s widely lauded global health center....The corresponding Senate subcommittee has not yet released its version of the measure.

    July 12, 2017
    Science

  • HIV-AIDS cure news 2017: Walgreens to distribute PrEP pills in the US

    Walgreen Healthcare Clinics across the United States will begin prescribing PrEP pills as prevention medication for HIV/AIDS....By July 13, the medication will be available in the following areas: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus (Ohio), Dallas, Denver, [Houston], Kansas City, Knoxville, Las Vegas, Louisville, Memphis, Nashville, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Tucson, Washington D.C. and Wichita.

    July 12, 2017
    PrEP
    Christian Post

  • Kenya: Kisumu county launches HIV prevention drug

    PrEP will be given free of charge to anyone at risk of contracting HIV,...with distribution based on Ministry of Health guidelines. HIV prevalence in Kisumu is 3.4 times higher than the national rate at 20 percent....County Health Executive, Dr Elizabeth Ogaja, said Kisumu was committed to...PrEP as all the pilot studies on its efficacy were conducted there...."Many people in Kenya look at this as a new intervention but, for us in Kisumu, it is not new...," she said.

    July 12, 2017
    PrEP
    Daily Nation

  • Can West and Central Africa end AIDS by 2030?

    On July 3rd, under the leadership of President Alpha Condé, Chair of the African Union, the Aids Watch Africa Heads of state and government meeting, which gathered around 20 head of states, and as many ministers representing their countries, endorsed The Western and Central Africa Catch-Up Plan: Putting HIV Treatment on the Fast-Track by 2018.

    July 12, 2017
    Guardian

  • The Pied Piper of the broken-hearted: HIV activist Prudence Mabele

    Prudence Nobantu Mabele - b. 21 July 1971, d. 10 July 2017....She was the Pied Piper of the broken-hearted. Her activism was fuelled by pain and passion and joy....Pru put her body on the line; and for that all South Africans ought to be grateful. A giant has fallen. Lala ngoxolo sisi. Lala ngoxolo, siyohlala sikukhumbula.

    July 12, 2017
    Mail & Guardian

  • Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease common in people living with HIV – metabolic disorders are key risk factors

    Over a third of people with HIV have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in the absence of hepatitis B or C, according to results of a meta-analysis and systematic review published in AIDS. Metabolic disorders including high body mass index, diabetes and elevated lipids were key risk factors. The study also revealed high prevalences of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and liver fibrosis,...with metabolic disorders once again shown as the most important factors.

    July 12, 2017
    aidsmap

  • Syphilis rates are on the rise, and dating apps may be responsible, experts say

    Infection rates are the highest they have been in 20 years....From 2014 to 2015 alone, the number of syphilis cases reported to the CDC rose by 17.7%, from 63,453 to 74,702. Along with cuts in STD prevention and treatment resources and possibly more relaxed attitudes toward protection since the advent of life-saving HIV treatments, health experts think the influence of social media on how people meet sex partners may play a role in the upswing.

    July 11, 2017
    USA Today

  • First gene therapy — ‘a true living drug’ — on the cusp of FDA approval

    When doctors saw the report on Bill Ludwig’s bone-marrow biopsy, they thought it was a mistake and ordered the test repeated. But the results came back the same: His lethal leukemia had been wiped out by [CAR T-cell therapy]....The story goes back decades,...[to when] Penn scientist Carl June and postdoctorate fellow Bruce Levine worked on new HIV treatments...[and] figured out a way to turbocharge T cells to make them more powerful and plentiful.

    July 11, 2017
    Washington Post

  • Gay men find HIV drug in Thailand, not China

    Thailand has been a hot destination for Chinese tourists for years. Yet many now are heading to the Southeast Asian country for a new reason - to buy cheap drugs to prevent HIV....[T]he China Food and Drug Administration approved PrEP in 2015 for the treatment of HIV/AIDS - not prevention - which means doctors are not allowed to prescribe it to patients unless they test positive for the virus.

    July 11, 2017
    PrEP
    China Daily

  • Trump taps Georgia health director to lead CDC

    Today, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price announced the selection of Brenda Fitzgerald, an obstetrician-gynecologist who is commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health, to direct the $12.1 billion Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....Fitzgerald gets good reviews from the health and research community.

    July 11, 2017
    Science

  • Donald Trump's 'global gag rule' will stop charities getting sexual health funding from Sweden

    In a statement released Tuesday, Carin Jämtin, director-general of Sweden’s development agency Sida, said organizations that agree not to promote abortion will not be able to receive Swedish funding for sexual and reproductive healthcare. For organizations that do not follow the terms of the gag rule, Sida is making a new 170 million Swedish Kronor ($20.1 million) available over the next year for work on contraception and counseling, sex and social education, maternity care and safe abortion.

    July 11, 2017
    Newsweek

  • Youths are still prone to HIV--continue educating them-NAC

    Speaking in an exclusive interview, National AIDS Council (NAC) Director of Policy and Planning John Mwale...expressed happiness with the introduction of the Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PREP) intervention....“This is why awareness needs to be spread down to the community. Discordant couples (a couple that one mate is living HIV positive and the other is negative) and sexual workers are at a very high risk of contracting HIV,...he said.

    July 10, 2017
    PrEP
    Lusaka Times

  • Gilead faces revived lawsuit claiming it sidestepped FDA with HIV drug imports

    Gilead Sciences thought it had prevailed in a whistleblower lawsuit alleging it circumvented FDA rules to use a China-made active ingredient in three top HIV meds [Emtriva, Truvada, Atripla], rather than a higher-priced version...the agency had approved....In a new opinion, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit revived the...lawsuit against Gilead brought on behalf of the government by ex-employees Jeff and Sherilyn Campie.

    July 10, 2017
    PrEP
    Fierce Pharma

  • Quadrivalent HPV vaccine significantly decreases prevalence among young women

    In the group aged 14 to 19 years, HPV prevalence fell from 11.5 percent in the 2003 to 2006 period to 3.3 percent in the 2011 to 2014 period, during which time coverage with at least one dose was 55 percent....Among women aged 20 to 24 years, prevalence fell from 18.5% in the 2003 to 2006 period to 7.2 percent in the 2011 to 2014 period, when the coverage rate was 43 percent.

    July 10, 2017
    Healio

  • NIH studies risk of Zika and HIV infection during pregnancy

    The NIH researchers plan to enroll pregnant women who are infected with HIV only, with Zika virus only, with HIV and Zika, and women not infected with either virus. The study is enrolling participants in Puerto Rico and will soon recruit volunteers at sites in the continental United States and Brazil. Study participants will be provided with appropriate treatment.

    July 10, 2017
    News Times

  • HIV vaccine boost generates higher immune response 6 to 8 years later

    Boosting Thai participants from the RV144 HIV vaccine trial 6 to 8 years after their initial vaccination generated higher immune responses compared with those seen immediately after RV144; however, these humoral and CD4+ T cell responses were short lived and did not grow after subsequent boosting, according to recent data published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

    July 8, 2017
    HIV Vaccine
    Healio

  • Untreatable gonorrhoea on the rise worldwide

    More than 60% of countries surveyed...have reported [gonorrhea] cases that resist last-resort antibiotics, according to an announcement by the WHO on 6 July....The announcement included information [that] the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and Entasis...will launch a phase III trial of zoliflodacin involving about 650 individuals in South Africa, the United States and Thailand, among others,...in November 2018.

    July 7, 2017
    Nature

  • Mothers with CMV more likely to transmit HIV to infants

    Among women with HIV who did not receive ART during pregnancy, those with evidence of cytomegalovirus, or CMV, in their urine at time of labor and delivery were five times more likely to transmit HIV to their infants than women without CMV....In addition, Karin Nielsen-Saines,...University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues found that these women were nearly 30 times more likely to transmit CMV to their infants.

    July 7, 2017
    Healio

  • Trump should not relinquish soft power

    If the Trump administration needs proof that soft power carries great weight, it need look no further than the previous Republican White House. The President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, launched by George W. Bush and extended under Barack Obama, has been critical in the fight against AIDS in Africa. (Under Donald Trump, PEPFAR remains intact -- at least for now.)...I want to see more PEPFARs, not fewer.

    July 7, 2017
    CNN

  • New data show gonorrhea increasingly resistant to antibiotics

    Global surveillance data compiled by WHO show that 66 percent of reporting countries had seen gonorrhea strains either resistant to or displayed reduced susceptibility to ceftriaxone in at least one year between 2009 and 2014. And 81 percent of the reporting countries saw strains that were either resistant to or had reduced susceptibility to azithromycin. The real-world picture is undoubtedly bleaker.

    July 6, 2017
    STAT News

  • Viral load as low as 400 copies/ml six months after starting ART is associated with a significant ten-year mortality risk

    A viral load as low as 400 copies/ml six months after starting HIV therapy is associated with a substantial ten-year mortality risk, investigators from the United States report in the online edition of AIDS....In contrast, the mortality risk was only 14% for individuals who rapidly achieved complete viral suppression – a viral load below 20 copies/ml.

    July 5, 2017
    Treatment
    aidsmap

  • Information exchange for patients with HIV reduces care disparity between blacks, whites

    A laboratory health information exchange intervention, or LHIE, decreased the disparity in HIV care between black and white patients, according to researchers. The intervention also improved overall ART use and viral suppression, they wrote in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.“These are important and unique findings because virtually no other intervention designed to improve overall HIV care has also helped reduce disparities in the outcomes,” they wrote.

    July 3, 2017
    Treatment
    Healio

  • Former WHO official Marie-Paule Kieny to chair Medicines Patent Pool

    The MPP Governance Board today announced the appointment of Kieny, a French national. She succeeds Sigrun Møgedal, special adviser to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and former ambassador for HIV/AIDS and Global Health Initiatives. Kieny “will lead a nine-member board in guiding the foundation’s voluntary licensing and patent pooling work in HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis.”

    July 3, 2017
    Intellectual Property Watch

  • Smallpox, BCG vaccines associated with decreased HIV-1 risk

    Smallpox and Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination were both associated with a decreased risk for sexually transmitted HIV-1, according to researchers. The effect was stronger in women than in men....Studying the vaccines’ protective mechanisms could lead to a breakthrough HIV-1 vaccine, they wrote in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. “So far, these results suggest that the mechanisms linking [Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)] and smallpox vaccines with protection against HIV-1 warrant further investigation.”

    June 30, 2017
    Healio

  • Discovery of T cell exhaustion offers new pathway to more powerful immunotherapies

    St. Jude Children's Research Hospital immunologists have discovered how immune cells called T cells become "exhausted" -- unable to do their jobs of attacking invaders such as cancer cells or viruses....The finding offers a new pathway to more powerful and durable immunotherapies, as well as immune therapies for viruses such as HIV that would marshal the immune system to kill the virus.

    June 28, 2017
    Therapeutic Vaccines
    News-Medical

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