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17 MARCH 2023 VOLUME 25 ISSUE 11

Media Coverage

  • Is HIV Self-Test Among the Missing Links to Reach the #EndAIDS Goal?

    Almost half the countries worldwide have not yet included HIV self-test in their AIDS response. Only one-fourth of all nations globally do HIV self-test routinely. This is despite the strong evidence which exists not only for HIV self-test, but also how self-tests for COVID-19, diabetes, or pregnancy, have yielded major public health and development gains. Then why wait to expand HIV care cascade by including HIV self-test, asks Dr Ishwar Gilada, who was the first medical doctor to begin HIV medical management when first case got diagnosed in the country in 1986.

    March 16, 2023
    General
    Modern Ghana

  • New York Woman Cured Of HIV With New Treatment

    A woman appears to have been cured of HIV after receiving a transplant of stem cells from umbilical cord blood, scientists announced Thursday, joining only a handful of people cured from the virus following a novel procedure that increases the odds of making a cure available to a more racially diverse group of people than would be possible using other treatments.

    March 16, 2023
    Cure
    Forbes

  • Andrew Spieldenner Talks About PrEP and ‘A Pill for Promiscuity"

    Over the past decade in the US and other relatively privileged Western nations, many men who have sex with men have given up condoms for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)―the HIV prevention regimen consisting of a daily pill, or more recently, a periodic injection. It’s been a remarkable cultural shift—after all it took to get gay men to start using condoms amid the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s through the first decade of the 21st century, we’re now living through a reversal back to the pre-condom 1970s, even as we acknowledge that not everyone wants to go on PrEP or has easy access to it.

    March 15, 2023
    PrEP
    TheBody

  • Fight Over LGBTQ Rights Threatens Access to HIV Care in Tennessee

    In Tennessee, a fight has been brewing over another public health issue. Gov. Bill Lee rejected more than $8 million in federal funding for HIV prevention. It comes as several Republican-led states have moved to restrict the rights of LGBTQ people. White House Correspondent Laura Barrón-López visited Memphis where advocates have sounded the alarm about the looming impact of those efforts.

    March 15, 2023
    General
    PBS

  • The State of SA’s HPV Vaccination Programme in 2023 – Successes and Setbacks

    South Africa’s HPV vaccination programme has by all accounts been a resounding success over the past decade, likely helping to prevent many cases of cervical cancer. But the programme has suffered major setbacks due to COVID-related disruptions. In addition to getting it back on track, some argue vaccine eligibility should be expanded to include boys as well as older girls and women newly infected with HIV.

    March 15, 2023
    HPV Vaccines
    Daily Maverick

  • Why Are Sexually Transmitted Infections on the Rise in the US?

    Rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), such as syphilis, have been rising over the past few years in the US. But why are STI rates surging now, and what can be done to reverse that trend? Reduced public health focus on sexual health has been a big factor in rising STI rates, experts told Live Science.

    March 15, 2023
    General
    Live Science

  • Researchers Test Quick-Dissolving Rectal PrEP for HIV Prevention

    Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has been a beneficial fight against the spread of HIV. What started with the pills Truvada and Descovy transitioned into a PreP ring and a recent long-acting injectable to help people avoid the day-to-day doses. Outside of the medically prescribed daily dose of PrEP, however, some people take the PrEP pills only before and after sex instead of all the time, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has noted that some off-label, “on-demand” PrEP is protective for men having anal sex with no condom.

    March 14, 2023
    PrEP
    Plus Magazine

  • Urine Test Shows Predictive Values for PrEP Adherence

    In a recent study presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections 2023 in Seattle, WA, researchers calculated the predictive values of urine point-of-care tenofovir (POC-TFV) tests, self-reported recent pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use, and TFV-diphosphate (TFV-DP) in dried blood spots. Although the accuracy of self-reported PrEP use can be called into question at times, self-reporting is one of the most frequently used reporting methodologies in research.

    March 14, 2023
    PrEP
    Consultant 360

  • The US Program That Brought HIV Treatment to 20 Million People

    In the 20 years since its inception, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has delivered lifesaving treatment to more than 20 million people in 54 countries, the most successful global health campaign of its kind, according to a report released on Tuesday. The $7.5 billion program, housed in the State Department, is due for reauthorization by Congress this year. In the past, it has received strong bipartisan support.

    March 14, 2023
    General
    New York Times

  • Surge in Gonorrhoea Cases Recorded Across Scotland

    he number of cases of gonorrhoea recorded in Scotland has soared since the end of COVID lockdown restrictions. New figures from Public Health Scotland (PHS) show there were 5,641 diagnoses of the sexually transmitted infection last year, a 49 percent increase on 2019. The end of social distancing restrictions and more people being checked at sexual health clinics is partly to blame for the rise. The majority of those diagnosed with the disease were younger men.

    March 14, 2023
    General
    BBC

  • 13 Times More Babies Born With Syphilis in Canada Over 4 Years, Data Shows

    There has been a sharp increase in the number of babies born in Canada with syphilis, an infection that one doctor says "can be particularly devastating in pregnancy." "It can lead to outcomes such as fetal demise … or stillbirth," said Dr. Darrell Tan, an infectious disease physician at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, and the Canada Research Chair in HIV Prevention and STI Research.

    March 14, 2023
    General
    CBC

  • Deciphering the New CDC Hepatitis B Screening and Testing Guidelines

    Last week, the CDC launched new recommendations for screening and testing for hepatitis B (HBV). This was the first update since 2008, and offered some big changes including the CDC’s recommendation that all adults in the United States be universally tested for HBV at least once in their lifetime, and to test for total antibody to HBcAg, which may determine HBV in the window period and pick-up recent infection.

    March 14, 2023
    General
    Contagion Live

  • 20 Million People Worldwide Received HIV Treatment Through US-Led Program

    Approximately 20 million people with HIV in 54 countries have received antiretroviral therapy (ART) through the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) as of September 2022, the CDC reported. This represents an increase of 300-fold from the 66,550 reported in September 2004, according to Helen M. Chun, MD, of the Division for Global HIV and TB, Center for Global Health at the CDC, and colleagues.

    March 14, 2023
    Treatment
    Medpage Today

  • Dapivirine Vaginal Ring: Increasing SA’s HIV Arsenal

    The dapivirine vaginal ring will soon be available to women and young girls at limited pilot sites from June. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) approved its use by women ages 18 and older to reduce their HIV risk in March last year. Health ministry spokesperson Foster Mohale says these pilot sites will be determined following consultations with the research partners and the Global Fund supported partners.

    March 13, 2023
    PrEP
    Health-E News

  • Fewer Chlamydia Scrips in COVID Lockdowns

    Azithromycin prescriptions for chlamydia fell by 26 percent during the initial lockdowns in 2020 and remained below average for over a year, according to new population-level data. University of Queensland researchers suggest reduced sexual activity and reduced access to health services during the pandemic may explain their findings, with other research conducted in Victoria and across Australia echoing the results.

    March 13, 2023
    General
    Media Republic

  • Triple Infection With HIV, HBV and HCV Raises Risk for Liver Failure

    People who are living with HIV as well as hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are more likely to develop end-stage liver disease compared with those who have HIV and HCV coinfection, according to study results published in AIDS. What’s more, people HIV and HBV coinfection had a lower risk of liver failure than those with HIV and HCV. Over years or decades, chronic hepatitis B or hepatitis C can lead to serious complications, including cirrhosis, liver cancer and end-stage liver disease (ESLD), or liver failure.

    March 13, 2023
    General
    POZ Magazine

  • The US Helped Prevent AIDS From Being a Death Sentence in Africa. Now the Epidemic Is at a Crossroads

    Fourteen-year-old Philasande Dayimani carries a burden that no child should carry. Last year, she started getting sores in her mouth and struggled to breathe. She says a clinic doctor told her to test for HIV. “It wasn’t easy for me to accept. Many people cry when they hear about their status. I also cried,” she says, seated in her small shack in Tembisa, an informal settlement north of Johannesburg, South Africa.

    March 11, 2023
    General
    CNN

  • AIDS Cases Among Women on the Rise in Himachal: Health Minister

    Dhani Ram Shandil, Health and Family Welfare Minister, said today that the number of women suffering from AIDS was rising in the state. He was addressing a gathering after inaugurating a state-level International Women’s Day function organised under the aegis of the State AIDS Control Society and the Health Department at Thodo Ground here.

    March 11, 2023
    General
    The Tribune

  • Study Sees Possible Benefit of Tenofovir Against COVID-19, but Questions Remain

    An analysis of COVID-19 outcomes among people being treated for HIV or taking PrEP for HIV prevention found that the HIV medication tenofovir was associated with a lower rate of clinical events, suggesting a protective effect. The study also found, as some others have, that severe COVID-19-related outcomes were more common among people with HIV than the general population before the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.

    March 11, 2023
    Treatment
    Healio

  • Health Experts Decry Limited Access to HPV Vaccines, Blame High Cost

    Health experts have lamented the limited access to the Human Papillomavirus Vaccine (HPV), due to high cost and poor awareness, stressing that it was putting Nigerian women at risk of cervical cancer. A regenerative medicine specialist and head of Reproductive and Sexual Health, at Nisa Premier Hospitals, Amina Isah, stated that cervical cancer has remained one of the major causes of fatality among women despite being 100 percent preventable.

    March 10, 2023
    HPV Vaccines
    The Guardian

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