Email Updates

You are here

Home

15 April 2016 VOLUME 17 ISSUE 15

Media Coverage

  • Challenging road ahead for universal health care in low- and middle-income countries

    In a study today in The Lancet, Dr. Joseph Dieleman at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and colleagues estimate that only half of governments in low- and middle-income countries will meet the $86 per person spending target recommended...to provide access to primary care.... By 2040,...low-income countries are on track to spend the same amount on health per person as high-income countries did 50 years ago. These findings underscore the importance of continued global health funding from donors, which is stagnating.

    April 13, 2016
    Humanosphere

  • Chief Science Officer of IAVI departs to lead Human Vaccines Project

    After nearly 17 years at the helm of the research and development program at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Wayne Koff left his full-time role as Chief Science Officer at the organization in March to assume a new role as President of the Human Vaccines Project. This recently formed non-profit venture is focused on rational design of vaccines against a variety of challenging pathogens.

    April 13, 2016
    IAVI Report

  • People not taking HIV treatment feel under pressure to ‘do the right thing’

    Australian people living with HIV who have chosen not to take antiretrovirals and who have doubts about HIV medicine report feeling excluded and silenced within HIV organisations and communities, according to a qualitative study published online ahead of print by Medical Anthropology Quarterly.

    April 13, 2016
    Treatment
    aidsmap

  • Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit visits Tanzania to evaluate AIDS response

    Since 2003, Her Royal Highness, Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway has been a strong advocate for empowering women and children in responding to the AIDS epidemic throughout the world. Earlier this week, she visited the United Republic of Tanzania to assess the response of youth to the AIDS response in the country and mother-to-child transmission of AIDS....[She] engaged with young activists at the Stepping Stones Community of Practice [where] youth and adolescents can receive a full range of life-skills training where they learn about gender equality and HIV and sexual education.

    April 13, 2016
    Norway News

  • Animal study paints picture of the earliest immune responses to HIV; insights for development of HIV prevention tools

    New research in monkeys exposed to SIV, the monkey equivalent of HIV, suggests that the virus spreads rapidly in the body and triggers early host responses that suppress antiviral immunity, thus promoting viral replication. The study...findings suggest that the window of opportunity to contain or eliminate the virus at its mucosal port of entry is more limited than previously appreciated.

    April 13, 2016
    NIH

  • ASCO pushes more HPV vaccine use in published recommendations

    Calling the situation "alarming," all 69 NCI-designated cancer centers in February joined together to warn about the severely low rate of HPV vaccination in the United States. Following up on that call to action, the American Society of Clinical Oncology this week released some of its own recommendations to boost uptake.

    April 13, 2016
    HIV Vaccine
    Fierce Vaccines

  • People not taking treatment

    Two recent studies shed light on the experiences of people [in Australia and London, UK] who have chosen not to take HIV treatment or who have had difficulties taking treatment regularly. Researchers have called on clinicians and policy makers to pay more attention to the experiences of people who have fears or concerns about HIV treatment.

    April 13, 2016
    Treatment
    aidsmap

  • Resistance to anti-HIV drugs in steep decline in Switzerland

    Prevalence of antiretroviral drug resistance has declined significantly among patients in Switzerland, investigators report in the online edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. As many as 57% of patients taking HIV therapy in 1999 had resistance to at least one anti-HIV drug, but prevalence had declined to 37% in 2013.

    April 13, 2016
    aidsmap

  • To have, to hold, to avoid STDs: Science tackles evolution of monogamy

    The towering edifice of marriage, with its emphasis on having, holding and forsaking all others, may be nothing more than a defence against germs. By forcing monogamy on each other, our agrarian ancestors were collectively less likely to succumb to the ravages of sexually transmitted diseases. The idea is the latest in a long line of theories that seek to address why many human cultures seem to reinforce and demand monogamous behaviour.

    April 13, 2016
    Globe and Mail

  • HIV field’s current contours show in Boston

    HIV prevention was the top story at CROI 2016, but issues of adherence and uptake still loom large in the battle to stop HIV’s spread.

    April 13, 2016
    IAVI Report

  • Stop HIV cuts: campaign to retain vital services

    I am a trustee for the Sophia Forum, the only organisation in the UK focused on the protection and promotion of the good health of women living with HIV....Cuts to these services are severing a lifeline for people with HIV. For this reason, Sophia Forum has joined with many others in the HIV and sexual health sector in a new campaign, Stop HIV Cuts.

    April 12, 2016
    Huffington Post

  • Liberia: include financing to end AIDS

    The civil society organizations are urging member states of the United Nations and partners to ensure that response to HIV is fully funded, and that financing for community-led action is increased significantly over the next few years. Speaking at an informal interactive Civil Society hearing on HIV, the CSOs also called for access to life-saving HIV treatment by 30 million people by 2020, as well as for ambitious HIV prevention targets to be met.

    April 12, 2016
    New Dawn

  • Member of Parliament warns focus on HIV and AIDS lacking at international department

    There is increasingly a perception that the Department for International Development (DFID) "does not have the focus on HIV and AIDS that it once did", a Conservative backbencher claimed. Mike Freer, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on HIV and AIDS, argued the newly published UK aid strategy made no reference to HIV or AIDS. Mr. Freer said it "gives no indication of how the UK intends to contribute to meeting the SDG (UN sustainable development goals) target to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030".

    April 12, 2016
    Guernsey Press

  • Can PrEP dosing for anal sex be 'event-driven' instead of daily?

    Last December, France became the second country in the world after the United States to approve pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention....France remains a pioneer on at least two counts....It's the first country to offer PrEP on an event-driven dosing schedule, otherwise known as intermittent PrEP....If the Europeans demonstrate event-driven PrEP to be durable and effective in everyday use, could practice evolve in the United States?

    April 12, 2016
    PrEP
    TheBody.com

  • Access to HIV treatment averted about a million serious illnesses, saved nearly $50 million in 2013 alone, review finds

    A review analyzing data from around the world on adults living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries found that initiation of antiretroviral treatment lowered the risks of opportunistic infections during the first year of treatment from as much as 57 percent to 91 percent....They conclude that the data...illustrate the continued importance of expanding access to the treatment.

    April 12, 2016
    Treatment
    Science Speaks

  • 'Female' condoms cost too much: a call for HIV prevention equality for receptive sex partners

    What if female condoms cost the same as male condoms? Despite their higher price, receptive sex partners of all genders are using female condoms for vaginal or anal sex, including to prevent HIV transmission. The Female Health Company, the world's largest manufacturer of the FC2 female condom, announced at an international conference in December that it had just sold its 500 millionth female condom.

    April 12, 2016
    Male and Female Condoms
    TheBody.com

  • People who use drugs still adherent to PrEP

    New research conducted with a group of PrEP clients at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation PrEP clinic suggests that people who use substances adhere to PrEP and stay in care at about the same rate as people who do not use drugs.

    April 12, 2016
    PrEP
    BetaBlog

  • Making the most of clinical trial data

    Data from past clinical trials can be used to draw new conclusions about diseases and treatments long after a trial is over. But researchers rarely take advantage of this valuable resource even though access to a full data set...can help further research on how certain groups of people respond to a treatment or how people with an illness fare over time.

    April 12, 2016
    NY Times

  • Mymetics' HIV vaccine candidate confirms promise in preclinical study

    Mymetics Corporation...announced today that its innovative HIV vaccine candidate has shown to generate significant protection in groups of twelve female monkeys against repeated AIDS virus exposures during part of the preclinical study. The blinded study was led by Dr. Ruth Ruprecht, Scientist & Director of the Texas Biomed AIDS Research Program, and was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

    April 11, 2016
    HIV Vaccine
    Medical XPress

  • A third of MSM with HIV/HCV co-infection have HCV in their semen

    Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is present in the semen of a third of co-infected HIV-positive men who have sex with men, investigators from the United States report in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. Levels of HCV in semen were plausibly high enough to transmit the infection. The authors believe their findings show that condoms should be used for anal sex to prevent HCV transmission.

    April 11, 2016
    aidsmap

  • Plan for poorer countries to fund HIV response raises concerns

    Calls for low and middle income countries to contribute an additional 6.1 billion dollars to the global HIV response by 2020 could see some vulnerable groups left behind, said HIV activists meeting at the United Nations last week....The proposed changes to funding could affect vulnerable groups, including adolescent girls in Sub-Saharan Africa who now make up 74 percent of new HIV infections in the 15 to 24 age group.

    April 11, 2016
    IPS News

  • HIV vaccine candidate shows promise with monkeys

    Monkeys in the study did not show signs of persistent infection until they were exposed to nearly 70,000 times the average amount of virus an infected man passes to a partner during intercourse.

    April 11, 2016
    HIV Vaccine
    UPI

  • Zomba HIV prevalence rate at 15% despite Intensive VMMC campaigns

    Zomba district continues to register a rise in HIV prevalence rate despite various interventions on the ground aimed at combating the problem.

    April 11, 2016
    Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision
    Mana Online

  • Kenya’s new policy on domestic financing of HIV research

    Unveiled last month, the Kenya HIV and AIDS Research Agenda (2014-2019) aims to increase domestic HIV research financing in the wake of diminishing external support. Kenya relies heavily on foreign donors to finance HIV AIDS projects (over 90 per cent of total in-country HIV research financing) and the newly launched policy is a major departure from this trend.

    April 11, 2016
    Key Correspondents

  • Improve health sector to retain staff: doc

    Dr. Charles Mgone has spent two decades leading world renowned research programmes on tropical diseases, helping, in the process, to make breakthroughs in vaccine discoveries for the big killer diseases—malaria and HIV/AIDS.

    April 11, 2016
    PrEP
    The Citizen

  • Is there an HIV law in the Philippines?

    When the Philippines passed the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Act in 1998, it was celebrated as a pioneering law that primarily aimed to protect the rights of people living with HIV (PLHIV) and prevent the escalation of new HIV infections....Now, almost 20 years later, the current HIV/AIDS law looks like an anachronism in light of the current epidemic faced by the Philippines.

    April 10, 2016
    Pulitzer Center

  • Clinical trial tests new HIV prevention strategy: Vanderbilt enrolls first participant in the Americas

    Enrollment has just begun in the first of two parallel, multinational clinical trials testing a new strategy in HIV prevention—the Antibody Mediated Prevention (AMP) study. Vanderbilt has just enrolled its first participant, the first to be enrolled by any of the clinics participating in the study in the Americas....“The immediate goal of antibody-mediated prevention of HIV is for each VRC01 infusion to have a protective effect that lasts for many weeks,” said Protocol Chair Myron Cohen.

    April 8, 2016
    Antibody Related Research
    Out and About Nashville

  • Researchers investigate early stages of HIV-neutralizing antibody

    Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and collaborating institutions have identified and characterized an immature, or “teenage,” antibody with broadly neutralizing signatures isolated from an elite controller.

    April 8, 2016
    Antibody Related Research
    Healio

  • Misconception: you can’t get an S.T.D. from oral sex

    Actually, you sure can — and many do.....But despite [its] pervasiveness,....the misconception that oral sex is risk-free is widespread among young adults, particularly teenagers. Studies show it is one of the most common reasons they give for having oral rather than vaginal intercourse (in addition to preserving virginity and not getting pregnant). But either before or after the deed, some people are giving that misconception a second thought.

    April 7, 2016
    NY TImes

  • HIV vaccine possibility following study of 'antibodies with loops'

    A new study suggests it may be possible to induce a rapid anti-HIV immune response in unexposed people by developing a vaccine that triggers antibodies containing loop-like structures.

    April 7, 2016
    HIV Vaccine
    Medical News Today

Published Research

Announcements