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18 August 2017 VOLUME 18 ISSUE 33

Media Coverage

  • Editorial: It's time to end the war on women's health

    As this article is being written in July, Republicans in Congress are engaged in a frenzied effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA),...[including] cuts [that] threaten to affect women more than men....Current events are just the latest insult in a long history of male-centric medicine, often driven not by politicians but by scientists and physicians.

    September 1, 2017
    Scientific American

  • Cambodian medic who spread HIV asks for court's mercy

    An unlicensed Cambodian medical practitioner sentenced to 25 years in prison for infecting more than 100 villagers with HIV has told an appeals court he only sought to provide care and acknowledged his mistake in reusing syringes. The court in...Battambang in December 2015 found Yem Chrin guilty of cruel behavior resulting in death, intentionally spreading HIV and practicing medicine without a license.

    August 17, 2017
    AP

  • Progress Reported on Monthly HIV Shot

    A clinical trial published in the Lancet showed a new injectable antiretroviral therapy (ART) given every four or eight weeks may be just as effective as the daily oral medications that are currently used to keep the virus under control.

    August 17, 2017
    PrEP
    Healthline

  • How a Blue Pill Is Stopping the Spread of HIV

    Thirty-six years after a rare lung infection in gay men in Los Angeles heralded the start of the AIDS epidemic, more than half of all people living with HIV are on virus-suppressing treatment. And thousands of people are using Gilead Sciences’ Truvada in a PrEP trial that’s curbing the spread in communities from London to San Francisco.

    August 17, 2017
    PrEP
    Bloomberg

  • President Lungu's speech during the commemoration of the HIV testing, counselling and treatment day

    The HIV Testing, Counselling and Treatment day (htct)...will be commemorated every year on the 15th of August as a symbol of my government’s resolve to eliminate aids in Zambia by 2030. This year’s theme is: “Test and Treat: Towards Ending Aids”....Let’s not wait for people to fall sick before they can start life-saving treatment. Let’s take intergrated health services including HIV testing and treatment to the communities.

    August 15, 2017
    Lusaka Times

  • Making PrEP standard of care against HIV in the South

    In 2012, Charlotte-Paige Rolle, MD, MPH, and her team at Emory University were in the middle of a study of gay black men....Then, as results started to come in, the FDA approved Truvada for HIV prevention....But when it came to actually getting PrEP, lack of health insurance and lack of primary care physicians were blocking men from getting their hands on the medication. So...Dr Rolle and her team...went small—and in so doing created a new framework for PrEP rollout in low-resource settings in the United States.

    August 14, 2017
    PrEP
    Medscape

  • Bill Gates says US likely to maintain aid levels for Africa

    [W]ith Congress in control of the budget, it’s unlikely that all cuts proposed by the Trump administration will go ahead next year, Gates said in an interview in Dar es Salaam:....“I’m hopeful they won’t make any cuts at all, but that’s still subject to debate.”....At the same time, the administration’s focus on domestic issues and challenges in the Middle East make it unlikely that new aid programs will emerge under Trump, he said.

    August 14, 2017
    Bloomberg

  • Uganda: Stepping up male circumcision to fight HIV

    "The number of men getting circumcised kept growing and by 2013 we were circumcising more than 800,000 people. But after 2014 we saw a sharp drop...and are trying to pick up again," Dan Byamukama, who heads HIV Prevention at the Uganda's Aids Commission, told DW. The drop was mainly due to Ugandans not realizing the importance of the procedure, but also because of a lack of proper equipment.

    August 14, 2017
    Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision
    Deutsche Welle

  • Incidence of anal cancer has already peaked among HIV-positive gay men; reductions can be achieved with expanded ART coverage and screening

    The incidence of anal cancer among HIV-positive gay men peaked in 2009 and will decline substantially by 2030, even with current levels of ART coverage and no cancer-screening programme, Swiss investigators report in AIDS: “Our modeling study...predicts that the introduction of yearly anal Pap screening or anoscopy screening, or CD4 cell guided anoscopy screening would reduce anal cancer incidence further.”

    August 11, 2017
    Treatment
    aidsmap

  • Osteopenia: Zoledronic acid has greater impact than switching from tenofovir disoproxil fumarate regimens

    At the 9th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science in Paris, Andrew Carr of St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney reported that the results of a randomized control trial showed that, if a patient required intervention for low bone mineral density [BMD], just switching from TDF would not be enough [http://programme.ias2017.org/Abstract/Abstract/5640].

    August 10, 2017
    The Body

  • The evidence for U=U: Why negligible risk is zero risk

    Over the last year, hundreds of HIV organisations have joined a new campaign to endorse the statement that HIV sexual transmission does not occur when viral load is undetectable on ART. This article summarises selected key studies from 20 years of accumulating evidence that should directly challenge the prejudice and fear of HIV that is still widespread.

    August 9, 2017
    HIV i-Base

Published Research

  • Effect of non-monetary incentives on uptake of couples' counselling and testing among clients attending mobile HIV services in rural Zimbabwe: A cluster-randomised trial

    From May 26, 2015, to Jan 29, 2016, of 24,679 participants counselled with data recorded, 57.1% were in the intervention group and 42.9% in the comparison group....Conclusion: Small non-monetary incentives, which are potentially scalable, were associated with significantly increased CHTC [couples HIV testing and counselling] and HIV case diagnosis....The intervention could help achieve UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets.

    September 1, 2017
    Lancet Global Health

  • MIV-150 and zinc acetate combination provides potent and broad activity against HIV-1

    Herein, we used in vitro approaches to study the antiviral properties of ZA and the MIV-150/ZA combination, compared to other NNRTIs....Notably, resistant virus was not selected when cultured in the presence of both ZA and MIV-150. This underscores the potency and breadth of the MIV-150/ZA combination, supporting preclinical macaque studies and the advancement of MZC microbicides into clinical testing.

    August 15, 2017
    Drug Delivery and Translational Research

  • Pregnant and breastfeeding women: A priority population for HIV viral load monitoring

    Although the importance of routine viral load (VL) monitoring for HIV-infected individuals on ART is widely recognised, there has been minimal attention to VL monitoring in pregnancy and the postpartum period. Here we discuss key considerations for VL monitoring in pregnant and breastfeeding women in the context of expanding access to VL monitoring.

    August 15, 2017
    PLoS Med

  • Attitudes and perceptions towards novel objective measures of ARV-based vaginal ring use: Results from a global stakeholder survey

    Methods that require no additional input from the participant and require no modifications to the existing ring product...were viewed as being more acceptable to trial participants and more feasible to implement in the field. Respondents saw value in using objective measures to provide real-time feedback on adherence. However, approaches that involve unannounced home visits for sample collection or spot checks of ring use, which could provide significant value to adherence feedback efforts, were met with skepticism.

    August 14, 2017
    Microbicides
    PLoS One

  • Cancer risk in HIV-infected people in the USA from 1996 to 2012: a population-based, registry-linkage study

    Among 448,258 people with HIV, 21,294 incident cancers were diagnosed during 1996–2012. In these people, compared with the general population, risk was elevated for cancer overall....Risk for several cancers was higher after AIDS onset and declined across calendar periods....For several virus-related cancers and lung cancer, declining risks over time in HIV-infected people probably reflect the expansion of ART since 1996.

    August 10, 2017
    Lancet

  • Multipurpose tenofovir disoproxil fumarate electrospun fibers for the prevention of HIV-1 and HSV-2 infections in vitro

    Electrospun fibers comprised of FDA-approved polymers, poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) and poly(DL-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone), incorporating tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, exhibited sustained-release for up to 4 weeks, and provided complete in vitro protection against HSV-2 and HIV-1 for 24 hr and 1 wk, respectively. In vitro cell culture and EpiVaginal tissue tests confirmed their safety...in vaginal and cervical cells, highlighting their potential...as multipurpose next-generation drug delivery vehicles.

    August 7, 2017
    Intl J Pharmaceutics

  • Comparative efficacy and safety of second-line antiretroviral therapy for treatment of HIV/AIDS: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

    To inform the 2016 revision of the WHO ART guidelines, we assessed the comparative effectiveness and safety of available second-line ART regimens for adults and adolescents in whom first-line NNRTI-based regimens have failed....Findings: With exception of ritonavir-boosted lopinavir plus raltegravir, the evidence base is unable to provide strong support to alternative second-line options to ritonavir-boosted protease inhibitor plus two NRTIs, and thus more trials are warranted.

    August 4, 2017
    Lancet

  • Multipurpose prevention technologies: a global sexual and reproductive health priority

    Despite the complementarity of sexual and reproductive health services, providers tend to offer them separately, rather than integrating them into a comprehensive plan of care. Integration of sexual and reproductive health is defined as offering patients comprehensive health services that include, but are not limited to HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STI), and family planning.

    July 28, 2017
    Multipurpose Prevention Technologies
    J Assn Nurses in AIDS Care

  • Current issue of Journal of Virus Eradication now available online

    Included in this issue (Volume 3 Issue 3, July 2017) are papers on a range of topics and reviews on three different viruses: Zika; hepatitis C; and HIV, all written by experts in the field....Also included are the Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine HIV clinical guidelines on pre-exposure prophylaxis.

    July 3, 2017
    J Virus Eradication

  • Strategies to improve the uptake of effective contraception in perinatally HIV-infected adolescents

    A single arm, 48-week prospective study was conducted with 77 sexually active adolescents in five sites in Thailand....Conclusion: Offering continuous RH care, linked with HIV care, resulted in increased use of dual contraception. Healthcare providers played a significant role in the process. RH education should address the main predictors for EC use by adolescents, including past, personal experience.

    July 3, 2017
    J Virus Eradication

  • Towards an ideal antiretroviral regimen for the global HIV epidemic

    Here, we highlight five aspects to be considered when thinking of an ideal global ART regimen: (1) the co-administration with other medications especially tuberculosis treatment; (2) treatment for specific populations such as women, children, adolescents, older people and acutely infected individuals; (3) efficacy; (4) safety, tolerability and convenience; and (5) affordability and global access for all PLWH.

    July 3, 2017
    J Virus Eradication

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