18 December 2015 VOLUME 16 ISSUE 51

In a new book, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy, the sociologist Linsey McGoey traces the evolution of private philanthropy’s ‘father knows best’ approach to giving....“The question is whether the practices associated with the new philanthropy – such as tighter control of grantee decision-making; a demand for swifter indicators of project success – might be stifling ingenuity and progress rather than engendering it.”

....But sixty percent of European cases diagnosed last year were in Russia. The annual surveillance report released recently by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) shows that the number and rate of new diagnoses of HIV is continuing to rise in eastern Europe, and is also rising sharply, though from a much lower base, in central Europe.

A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) [has] tracked how a family of...HIV-fighting antibodies develops over time. The research shows how a future vaccine might trigger the immune system to produce these antibodies more effectively. "If you could produce these antibodies through vaccination, that would be a really fantastic start to preventing HIV," said Ian Wilson...at TSRI. The research was published December 15, 2015, in the journal Immunity.

A trio of major clinical trials -- SMART, START, and HPTN 052 -- provide definitive evidence supporting prompt antiretroviral treatment for all people diagnosed with HIV, to improve their own health and reduce the risk of transmission to others, according to a commentary in the December 3 New England Journal of Medicine. Results from the IPERGAY study, published in the same issue, add to the growing body of evidence supporting pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention.

On Friday, the National Institutes of Health revealed that it had begun to phase out controversial monkey experiments at one of its labs in Poolesville, Maryland. The action followed an aggressive yearlong campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), but an NIH director tells ScienceInsider today that financial straits—not animal rights pressures—led to the decision.

AIDS treatment can help HIV-negative people by quelling fear of the virus and boosting mental health and productivity, a new study demonstrates.

Since 2006, the number of industry-sponsored clinical trials studying the benefits and harms of medical treatments has risen dramatically, while the number of clinical trials funded by the NIH has fallen substantially, according to new research in the Dec. 15 issue of JAMA [that suggests]...growing influence of clinical trials being conducted by companies with a vested interest in the outcome and a dilution of the impact of government-funded trials.

Young men who have sex with men and have detectable levels of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were more likely to report condomless anal sex, including with a partner not infected with HIV, than virologically suppressed young men who have sex with men, according to an article.

The experience of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) users provides important insights into sexual practices and motivations to use PrEP, which go beyond wanting to stay free of HIV. We review emerging literature on the everyday experiences of PrEP users, which emphasizes the importance of benefits that are salient, experienced in the present, and have strong a effect.

Accumulating evidence suggests that depot medroxyprogesterone acetate may increase HIV transmission, but little is known about underlying mechanisms. We propose that hypoestrogenism in depot medroxyprogesterone acetate may contribute to increased HIV transmission, present supportive evidence, and propose potential interventions to prevent or treat vaginal hypoestrogenism using vaginal estrogens.

This review summarizes recent epidemiologic and biologic data, and considers the implications of new evidence on research and programmatic efforts.

Health disparities persist across race/ethnicity for the majority of Healthy People 2010 health indicators. Most [US] physicians and scientists are informed by research extrapolated from a largely homogenous population, usually white and male....Adequate representation of diverse populations in scientific research is imperative as a matter of social justice, economics, and science.

We studied 450 patients who reported having received a new STI diagnosis, or STI treatment, 3 months earlier....Most participants reported successfully abstaining from sex until they were adequately treated for their baseline infection (89%–90%) and from sex with potentially exposed partners until their partners were tested for HIV and other STIs (66%–70%)....Improved partner communication could facilitate an important role in the adoption of protective behaviours in the interval immediately after receiving a new STI diagnosis.

Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) significantly improved the likelihood of appropriate and timely action on immunological treatment failure. We expect our findings will be generalisable to virological monitoring of patients with HIV receiving ART once countries implement the 2015 WHO recommendation to scale up viral load monitoring.

In a major shakeup for the HIV/AIDS research community, the NIH today announced it will no longer support setting aside a fixed 10% of its budget—or $3 billion this year—to fund research on the disease. The agency also plans to reprogram $65 million of its AIDS research grant funding this year to focus more sharply on ending the epidemic. The changes follow growing pressure in Congress and from some advocacy groups for NIH to reallocate its funding based on the public health burden a disease causes.