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17 FEBRUARY 2023 VOLUME 25 ISSUE 7

Media Coverage

  • Uganda Prepare for Rollout of Injectable PrEP

    After several research findings establishing that injectable antiretrovirals are effective in preventing HIV infection, the Government will next month launch a policy to guide their use in the country. The revelation was made by health ministry director of the AIDS Control Programme Dr Joshua Musinguzi.

    February 16, 2023
    PrEP
    New Vision

  • Providing Accurate Information Doesn’t Always Reduce People’s Anxieties About HIV

    HIV was a prominent cause of anxiety among people using an online sexual health service, Canadian researchers report. The provision of accurate information didn’t always correct people’s perception of risk or feelings of anxiety. The analysis of anonymous chat conversations from a sexual health website shows how different forms of shame and stigma appeared to shape users’ perceptions of risk. It highlights how nurses working on the website used strategies including empathising, normalising and destigmatising sexual health experiences.

    February 16, 2023
    General
    aidsmap

  • Big Pharma Must Value African Lives Above Profits, Warns Head of UNAIDS

    The head of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima, has strongly criticised pharmaceutical giants for prioritising profits over saving lives, and warned that “racist” inequalities are undermining progress towards ending AIDS, especially in Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for more than half of all new infections, with women and marginalised groups facing higher new infection rates. AIDS-related illnesses were the leading cause of mortality among African women, and adolescent girls and young women were three times more likely than men to get HIV.

    February 16, 2023
    General
    The Guardian

  • HIV/AIDS Initiative That Was ‘An Astonishing Act of Vision’ Is All Grown Up, but Still Faces Compelling Challenges

    <p>This year is the 20th anniversary of Pepfar — the US ‘President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief’. It is the most important public health/foreign assistance initiative ever undertaken, becoming a template for international efforts against other diseases.</p>

    February 16, 2023
    General
    Daily Maverick

  • HIV Prevention Model in Zambian Prisons May Be Extended to Other Criminal Justice Facilities

    A recent study performed in Zambia by University of Maryland School of Medicine's (UMSOM) Institute of Human Virology researchers found that high uptake of HIV preventative medicine, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), is possible in prison populations with adequate resources and support from the criminal justice health system. In Sub-Saharan Africa, HIV infection disproportionately affects people detained within the criminal justice system. These vulnerable populations may not access regular medical care before and during incarceration.

    February 16, 2023
    General
    News Medical

  • Africa CDC Criticizes Exclusion from Pandemic Fund

    The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said its inability to serve as an “implementing entity” for the new Pandemic Fund cripples its ability to protect the health of African citizens. The Pandemic Fund, which is hosted by the World Bank, and is led from a technical standpoint by the World Health Organization, is a pool of public and private financing aimed at helping low- and middle-income countries in pandemic preparedness and response.

    February 15, 2023
    General
    Devex

  • Ending the HIV Epidemic: What Is Past Is Not Prologue

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) initiative of Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) in the United States is an audacious action plan with a goal of reducing 75 percent and 90 percent of new HIV infections by 2025 and 2030, respectively. Targeting focused efforts on HIV prevention, treatment, and comprehensive care is a formidable—but not insurmountable—task, even for the lionhearted.

    February 15, 2023
    General
    Contagion Live

  • Study Reveals Gatekeeping and Stigmatising Attitudes Towards Migrant Women Among Belgian PrEP Professionals

    Very few migrant women of African origin in Belgium use PrEP, a situation which is attributed to low levels of knowledge about the HIV prevention tool. According to a recent study, this low awareness is partly explained by gatekeeping by HIV prevention professionals, who withhold information about PrEP because of (often stigmatising) beliefs about migrant women’s ability to access and use PrEP.

    February 15, 2023
    PrEP
    aidsmap

  • Women Are Missing From HIV Treatment Trials

    Women living with HIV are underrepresented in Phase III clinical trials of new treatments relative to their share of the HIV population, and the disparity is particularly stark for Black women, according to study results published in the journal AIDS. Representative trial participation is important because therapies may work differently or have different side effects in men and women.

    February 15, 2023
    Treatment
    POZ Magazine

  • Self-Testing HPV Kit a Game-Changer

    According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), globally, cervical cancer ranks as the fourth-most frequently diagnosed cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer death in women, and yet it is a preventable disease. The WHO has a global strategy to eliminate cervical cancer as it envisions a world without the disease.

    February 14, 2023
    General
    The Star

  • Can COVID-19 Vaccination Reduce Hepatitis B Viral Load?

    Unlike other strains of hepatitis, there is a vaccine for hepatitis B (HBV) that enables most infected individuals to clear the virus in fewer than 6 months. However, infections that last 6 months or longer are classified as chronic hepatitis B.

    February 14, 2023
    General
    Contagion Live

  • Thai Government Shuts Down Key-Population Led PrEP Services

    Thailand’s government has stopped the country’s leading pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) services from operating, jeopardising an approach that has attracted international attention and is at the heart of Asia’s largest PrEP programme. Around 80 percent of people using PrEP in Thailand receive it from a clinic led and staffed by members of the community that it serves. But under new rules, only government doctors can prescribe PrEP and community services cannot dispense it. Another rule change stops PrEP being issued to people excluded from the country’s main health insurance system.

    February 13, 2023
    PrEP
    aidsmap

  • Conversations About Sex – We Must Do Better for Young People

    Conversations with young people about sex can lead to safer sexual behaviour, like delayed sexual debut, the use of condoms and other contraceptives, and having fewer concurrent sexual partners. But we need to give pupils and young people clear and reliable information so that they can make informed choices relating to their health.

    February 13, 2023
    General
    Daily Maverick

  • How Did COVID Affect HIV Care?

    The nation’s ability to prevent HIV was “dealt a hard blow” early in the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analysis. But a rapid rebound in services “is a testament to quick, resourceful local innovations that, if scaled up and sustained, could help reach national HIV prevention goals.”

    February 13, 2023
    General
    POZ Magazine

  • COVID Vaccine Response in People With HIV

    With more than two years’ worth of data, most HIV-positive people can feel confident that COVID-19 vaccines provide good protection, especially if they receive booster shots. However, individuals with poorly controlled HIV or moderate to advanced immune suppression may not fare as well.

    February 13, 2023
    General
    POZ Magazine

  • Researchers Voice 'Frustration' at Failed HIV Vaccine Trial

    The failure of phase 3 of the MOSAICO trial (HVTN 706/HPX3002) has led to outpourings of "disappointment," "frustration," "sadness," and "pain" by the researchers and participants involved. The trial tested the efficacy and safety of a preventive regimen of two vaccines against HIV in more than 50 sites in eight countries, including Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, and Brazil.

    February 13, 2023
    HIV Vaccine
    Medscape

  • Mental Resilience Against HIV Stigma is Key in Ending the Epidemic

    A recent Rutgers study has highlighted the unmet needs of addressing psychological trauma experienced by aging people living with HIV. Older patients who endured a time when HIV was considered a death sentence have a lot of fear and trauma around being treated. Although people with the virus are now living longer, healthier lives, the aging population faces many mental and psychosocial health challenges that not only impact their wellbeing but also the overall trajectory of the virus.

    February 13, 2023
    General
    Plus Magazine

  • Still Much To Do

    AVAC looks ahead with Anthony Fauci, MD, to what’s next in the fight against HIV and COVID-19. Prior to his departure as head of the national institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Anthony Fauci, MD, spoke with Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, on November 28, 2022, in advance of World AIDS Day. In the interview, they discuss what has been accomplished so far in the fight against HIV and COVID-19 and what’s ahead for Fauci and pandemic preparedness. Below is an edited excerpt.

    February 13, 2023
    General
    POZ Magazine

  • Dr. Meeks Paves the Way by Leading Maryland’s First Dental Clinic for Patients With HIV, AIDS

    Video: Dr. Meeks paves the way by leading Maryland's first dental clinic for patients with HIV, AIDS.

    February 12, 2023
    General
    Yahoo News

  • Opinion: Will New Blood Donation Rules Finally Stop Stigmatizing Gay Men?

    As a sophomore in college in 2011, I was deferred from donating blood for being a gay man. I was confronting the homophobia built into the FDA’s blood donation ban for men who have sex with men.

    February 11, 2023
    General
    Los Angeles Times

  • Mississippi Hit By 900 Percent Increase in Newborns Treated for Syphilis

    The number of babies in Mississippi being treated for congenital syphilis has jumped by more than 900 percent over five years, uprooting the progress the nation’s poorest state had made in nearly quashing what experts say is an avoidable public health crisis. The rise in cases has placed newborns at further risk of life-threatening harm in a state that’s already home to the nation’s worst infant mortality rate.

    February 11, 2023
    General
    NBC News

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