Email Updates

You are here

Home

15 JULY 2022 VOLUME 24 ISSUE 28

Media Coverage

  • Monkeypox & the Media: Let’s Not Repeat the Mistakes Made With HIV/AIDS

    A recent opinion piece in the New York Times, “America May Soon Have Another Sexually Transmitted Infection,” was accompanied by a photo of vials labeled “Monkeypox Virus (MPXV).” The inaccuracy and harm from that headline – and article – was a gut punch to anyone who remembers the early, stigmatizing media about HIV/AIDS that set a tone that took decades to try and recover from. Early coverage in other outlets does not bode well for a repeat of the damage done as HIV emerged in the 1980s.

    July 14, 2022
    General
    LGBTQ Nation

  • Six Ways To Improve HIV Prevention Pill Uptake Among Young Women in Zimbabwe

    Adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa have a very high risk of acquiring HIV. The latest global AIDS update report suggests that a staggering six out of seven new infections among 15-19-year-olds in sub-Saharan Africa are among girls. Entrenched gender inequalities make young women and girls more vulnerable to coercive behaviour that leaves them unable to negotiate safe sex.

    July 13, 2022
    PrEP
    The Conversation

  • The Radical Plan for Vaccine Equity

    An invisible divide formed early last year as COVID-19 vaccines spread through rich countries, while the rest of the world waited. In one part of the globe, newly vaccinated doctors and nurses breathed sighs of relief and grandparents hugged their grandchildren for the first time in months. In the other part, hospitals overflowed with an unmitigated surge of COVID-19.

    July 13, 2022
    PrEP
    Nature

  • The Visa Hurdle: Why Conference Applicants From the Global South Can’t Always Clear It

    Tanaka Chirombo was afraid he wouldn't make it to the 24th International AIDS Conference taking place in Montreal later this month. Chirombo lives in Malawi, and his life work revolves around HIV. His interest in the virus began with his father, who delighted him with made-up stories as a boy. His dad contracted HIV but delayed seeking medical help because of the stigma of the disease and the cost of treatment. It progressed into AIDS, and he passed away when Chirombo was 4 years old.

    July 13, 2022
    General
    NPR

  • Matter of Urgency: HIV Prevention and Support for Women

    Young girls and women in SA between 15 and 24 continue to be most at risk of HIV, yet access to preventative measures and support remains low. According to UNAIDS, young women in sub-Saharan Africa are twice as likely to become infected with HIV than males. Peaceful Kgomo, 27, often leaves her local clinic empty-handed. “Testing services and condoms are easily available, but PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) isn’t. Most of the time when we go to the clinic, we are told that there isn’t stock,” said Kgomo.

    July 12, 2022
    General
    Health-E News

  • NIH Starts Trial of Moderna’s mRNA Nipah Virus Vaccine

    Researchers in the US have started a clinical trial of a vaccine against Nipah virus, a serious infection caught from animals that has a fatality rate of between 40 percent and 70 percent, developed by mRNA specialist Moderna. Nipah is one of the pathogens that Moderna has identified as the targets of its global public health strategy, an initiative aimed at developing vaccines for 15 infectious diseases that pose the biggest public health risk worldwide.

    July 12, 2022
    General
    pharmaphorum

  • On-Demand PrEP Works as Well as Daily Pills

    On-demand pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) taken before and after sex—known as PrEP 2-1-1—was as effective and well tolerated as daily pills, according to the latest findings from the French PREVENIR study recently published in The Lancet HIV. Daily PrEP using tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine (TDF/FTC, sold as Truvada or generic equivalents) reduces the risk of HIV acquisition by around 99 percent when taken consistently and correctly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

    July 12, 2022
    PrEP
    POZ Magazine

  • HIV PrEP Use Among Insured Persons Who Inject Drugs

    Though it is highly effective at preventing HIV infection, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is underutilized among injection drug users. Thus, investigators from the Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center sought to determine the prevalence of HIV PrEP among commercially insured individuals who use injection drugs. The cross-sectional study, published today in JAMA, included 547709 commercially insured persons with opioid and/or stimulant use disorder. Data were analyzed from November 1, 2020-July 1, 2021.

    July 12, 2022
    PrEP
    Contagion Live

  • Acclaimed Global Activist To Lead U=U Innovations in Advocacy for Health Equity

    I’m beyond thrilled and honored to share that Micheal Ighodaro joins the Prevention Access Campaign (PAC) as Director, Global Policy Advocacy today. Awarded the “2015 Champion of Change” by U.S. President Barack Obama, Micheal is a globally recognized and award-winning thought leader, public speaker, and global human rights advocate. One of the most outspoken, courageous, and effective advocates in the global HIV/AIDS response, Micheal is a brilliant strategic leader with tremendous warmth, authenticity, and charisma.

    July 11, 2022
    General
    POZ Magazine

  • ERHA Conducts Regional HIV Testing

    Over 255 persons accepted the invitation of the Eastern Regional Health Authority to know their status by taking the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) test during an awareness campaign held in observance of Regional HIV Testing Day. During the period 1-30 June, 2022, the Authority collaborated with key stakeholders such as the HIV and AIDS Coordinating Unit (HACU); the Ministry of Sport & Community Development; Office of the Member of Parliament for Toco/Sangre Grande; CEPEP and Community groups, to host activities that provide easy access to testing for vulnerable groups.

    July 11, 2022
    General
    Daily Express

  • Why Is Testing for HIV Important?

    According to the Uganda AIDS Commission, countrywide, there are 22,000 deaths and 38,000 new HIV infections annually. This translates to 105 new infections daily. The new infections are mainly among adolescent girls and young women as well as some vulnerable populations such as the fishing population, female sex workers and partners in discordant relationships.

    July 11, 2022
    General
    Monitor

  • Monopolies Are Getting in the Way of mRNA Vaccines

    Two and a half years into the COVID pandemic, the numbers are grim. While 80 percent of people living in the richest countries on earth have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, the corresponding figure for those in the poorest countries is 18 percent. The loss of life was incalculable, literally: no one is sure how many people have died from COVID.

    July 11, 2022
    General
    Scientific American

  • Meet the Black Woman Who Invented an Improved HIV Test

    Catherine Kibirige knew she wanted to work in the area of HIV research at an early age. In addition to being very interested in science as a child, she also witnessed firsthand HIV’s devastation on her family’s homeland of Uganda. “I was born and raised in Kenya,” says Dr. Kibirige. “My parents are both of Ugandan heritage but fled to Kenya during the civil war. So, I was born and raised in Nairobi [Kenya’s capital].” She explains that civil wars had only exacerbated the problem of HIV in the country, and could have possibly been the origin of the virus in the area.

    July 11, 2022
    General
    Plus Magazine

  • Antidepressants Improve Treatment Adherence for People Living With HIV

    Depression is associated with lower adherence to antiretroviral treatment for people living with HIV, but taking antidepressants can help, a group of Taiwanese researchers report in PLoS One. The study found that HIV-positive people who experience depression were only half as likely as their nondepressed peers to adhere to antiretroviral therapy (ART). The difference was driven almost entirely by those with untreated depression; for those taking antidepressants, there was not a significant difference in adherence.

    July 11, 2022
    General
    POZ Magazine

  • Better PrEP Retention Strategies Are Needed, As Increasing Numbers of Ex-PrEP Users Are Diagnosed With HIV

    A quarter of gay and bisexual men diagnosed with HIV in 2021 had used PrEP at some time before their diagnosis, clinicians in Seattle report. This number had hugely increased 2014, when it was only 2 percent. Furthermore, over half of the men were diagnosed less than six months after stopping PrEP. This echoes the findings of a large UK study from 56 Dean Street which also showed sharp increases in the percentage of newly diagnosed men with HIV who had recently taken PrEP. In that case, it was suspected that many of those men had caught HIV prior to starting PrEP.

    July 11, 2022
    PrEP
    aidsmap

  • Victory for COVID … What about HIV?

    During June, the US commemorates HIV Long-Term Survivors Day to honor people who acquired HIV prior to the advent of anti-retroviral treatments (1996). The drugs changed the trajectory for those with HIV—meaning, these survivors beat the odds and have lived with HIV over 25 years. That has not been the fate for all. In fact, even in the era of the most advanced therapy, when HIV deaths are preventable, 15,000+ people with HIV die annually in the US and of those, 1 in 3 died of HIV-related causes (not car accidents, for example).

    July 11, 2022
    General
    PLOS One

  • The AIDS Activists Who Took On Big Pharma in South Africa

    In the late 1990s cases of HIV/AIDS soared in South Africa. By 1998 almost 3 million people were infected, and AIDS was the country’s leading cause of death. Yet anti-retroviral drugs were too expensive for all but the richest South Africans. Activists began a long campaign for the right to import and use cheaper versions of the vital drugs. Video in link.

    July 10, 2022
    BBC

  • The HIV Epidemic and Black Trans Communities

    The four decades since the beginning of the HIV epidemic have brought lifesaving medical advancements in treatment and prevention. The primary advocates for these advancements have been Black LGBTQ activists across different racial and gender lines. When it was time to collect the victories in the form of living well with HIV, however, the face of the victor can be described with the same four adjectives: “gay”, “white”, “cisgender”, and “male”.

    July 10, 2022
    General
    Good Men Project

  • Georgia Has Some of the Highest HIV Rates in the Country; but Treatment Has Never Been Easier

    DeMarcus Beckham performs multiple HIV tests a week. "I've tested people in Kroger parking lots," Beckham said. "College campuses, church campuses, high schools, in back of cars." Beckham is executive director for Bibb County-based HIV/AIDS advocacy group Reach to Impact. He's licensed through the Georgia Department of Public Health to test for HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, the virus connected to AIDS. He uses a rapid blood test that takes about five minutes. If it comes back positive, Beckham reports the result to the state and steers the client to counseling and medication.

    July 10, 2022
    General
    Chattanooga Times Free Press

  • Makerere University Researchers Join Study To Find Cure for HIV

    Based at the Makerere University Walter Reed Project (MUWRP), the researchers are joining other scientists based in the US to explore whether a strategy dubbed; Block, Lock and Excise can help them defeat the virus that has so far had no vaccine despite over 30 years of research. Dr Betty Mwesigwa, the deputy executive director of MUWRP said that with this strategy, they are currently in the laboratory developing chemicals or programmed epi-genetics that will help them make the virus inactive and then wipe it out of the body something they have coined into block, lock and excise.

    July 9, 2022
    Cure
    Dispatch

  • How Does HIV Persist for Decades in People on Antiretrovirals?

    Two HIV researchers received a Campbell Foundation grant to tackle a conundrum. They’re studying a group of Botswanan children who were born with HIV several years ago or were infected during birth but started HIV medications within their first year of life. Today, they’re adolescents and young adults. The question is: How exactly does HIV persist for decades in people who take antiretrovirals?

    July 8, 2022
    Treatment
    POZ Magazine

  • From COVID to HIV: John Nkengasong, the African Hero of Modern Pandemics

    At the helm of the Africa CDC, the Cameroonian-born scientist John Nkengasong coordinated the continent’s Covid-19 response. He has just taken over as head of the US AIDS programme, an organisation that is very active in Africa. According to him, whether it is Covid or AIDS, the fight is far from over.

    July 8, 2022
    General
    The Africa Report

  • 10 Years Later, Where Are My Options?

    Over 10 years ago, I stood in front of a group of experts and regulators at the FDA and asked fundamental questions about the shocking increase in the number of new infections of HIV among people who look and live like me. I explained that the current system was failing us and that the available options were insufficient to address the burden sweeping through our community.

    July 6, 2022
    PrEP
    POZ Magazine

Published Research

Announcements