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18 FEBRUARY 2022 VOLUME 24 ISSUE 7

Media Coverage

  • Young Women Prefer Vaginal Ring as HIV Prevention

    When given the option, adolescent girls and young women in Africa overwhelmingly opted to use either a drug-eluting vaginal ring or oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to protect against HIV infection, a researcher reported.

    February 18, 2022
    Microbicides, PrEP
    MedPage Today

  • The Link Between HIV Viral Suppression and Violence

    Adolescent girls and young women who experience intimate partner violence are 70 percent less likely to be virally suppressed when on HIV treatment than other young women, analysis from South Africa suggests.

    February 17, 2022
    General
    Avert

  • Injected PrEP: Cabotegravir Maintains Its Advantage Over Four Years

    An update on HPTN 083, the study that established that PrEP given as an injection every two months had superior efficacy to a daily pill in gay and bisexual men and transgender women, was presented this week at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2022).

    February 17, 2022
    PrEP
    aidsmap

  • One Person Remains Undetectable Without HIV Drugs Almost Four Years After Using an Antibody-Based Therapy

    The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2022) yesterday included a widely reported study of a woman apparently cured of HIV after a stem-cell transplant. The same conference session also heard about another study participant for whom scientists are avoiding the word ‘cure’, but who has been off antiretroviral therapy (ART) with an undetectable viral load for over 3.7 years after he was given a combination of a broadly-neutralising antibody and a drug that prevents HIV-infected cells becoming latent and hiding from the immune system.

    February 16, 2022
    Cure
    aidsmap

  • Breakthrough HIV Reported in Injectable PrEP Trial; Experts Say Drug Still Very Effective

    In a large clinical trial assessing Apretude, ViiV Healthcare’s recently approved injectable drug, as a form of HIV prevention, seven participants contracted the virus despite receiving their injections on schedule. The new findings indicate that, just as with those who take daily pills to prevent HIV, breakthrough infections are possible among people receiving Apretude.

    February 15, 2022
    PrEP
    NBC News

  • Overall Lifetime Risk of Being Diagnosed With HIV in the US Decreases by 11 Percent, but Stark Racial and Geographical Disparities Persist

    While the overall lifetime risk of receiving an HIV diagnosis in the US has decreased by 11 percent when comparing 2010-2014 to 2017-2019 – with a new estimate of 1 in 120 – stark racial and geographic disparities remain, Dr Sonia Singh from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported to the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2022) yesterday.

    February 15, 2022
    General
    aidsmap

  • A Woman Is Cured of HIV Using a Novel Treatment

    A woman of mixed race appears to be the third person ever to be cured of HIV, using a new transplant method involving umbilical cord blood that opens up the possibility of curing more people of diverse racial backgrounds than was previously possible, scientists announced on Tuesday.

    February 15, 2022
    Cure
    New York Times

  • What’s an Endpoint?

    Understand what matters most about clinical trial endpoints for both advocates and researchers. This conversation includes Jeanne Baron, the host of Px Pulse; Matthew Rose, a director at Global Health Strategies; Dave Glidden, a professor of biostatistics at the University of California at San Francisco; Erica Lessem, a senior strategist for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; and Meagan O’Brien, the senior medical director of early clinical development and clinical experimental sciences at Regeneron.

    February 14, 2022
    General
    POZ

  • Zero Vertical Transmissions From Over 5000 Pregnant Women With Undetectable HIV in France

    Data collected since the year 2000 show an HIV transmission rate of 0 percent among women who were taking HIV treatment at the time of conception, had an undetectable viral load at childbirth and did not breastfeed, the National French Perinatal Cohort reports to the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2022).

    February 14, 2022
    Treatment
    aidsmap

  • Could Antibodies Be Used for Children With HIV Instead of Pills?

    In a study presented at this week’s Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2022), a combination of two broadly neutralising antibodies (bNAbs) enabled almost half of a group of children born with HIV to maintain an undetectable viral load over a six-month period. Dr Roger Shapiro of Harvard Medical School conducted the study in collaboration with research institutes in the US and Botswana.

    February 14, 2022
    Treatment
    aidsmap

  • Why Women Discontinue PrEP More Frequently Than Men

    Cisgender women who utilize PrEP have a greater propensity to discontinue it than men. As such investigators from Harvard, Fenway Institute, Washington University in St. Louis, OCHIN, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center examined the factors for why women were discontinuing usage.

    February 14, 2022
    PrEP
    Contagion Live

  • Sex Education Classes Teaching Pleasure Are More Effective at Preventing Unwanted Pregnancies. Study Finds

    Sex education classes that feature discussions around pleasure and desire are more likely to reduce STDs and prevent unwanted pregnancies, new research has found.

    February 13, 2022
    General
    Independent

  • After More Than 40 Years, ‘HIV Vaccine Remains Elusive’

    After more than 40 years, a vaccine against HIV “remains elusive” because of several significant barriers, including the complexity of the virus and shifts in focus to other infectious diseases, like COVID-19, an expert said.

    February 13, 2022
    HIV Vaccine
    Infectious Disease News

  • HIV PrEP Awareness Increases Significantly, but Usage Still Lagging

    Hispanic/Latinx men who have sex with men (MSM) are at disproportionately high risk of HIV infection. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a safe and effective preventative option, yet only 1/3 of Latinx MSM at risk of HIV reported discussing PrEP with a healthcare provider.

    February 13, 2022
    PrEP
    Contagion Live

  • HIV Prevention Ring Withdrawn From FDA Consideration

    After much research and advocacy, a flexible vaginal ring loaded with the antiretroviral drug dapivirine will not be coming to American women. The ring’s developer, the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM), announced in a statement that it was voluntarily withdrawing the ring from Food and Drug Administration (FDA) consideration.

    February 11, 2022
    PrEP
    POZ

  • Imbokodo Trial Results Highlight Challenge of Developing an HIV Vaccine and Urgent Need for Access to Proven Prevention Tools

    At the end of August, disappointing results were released from Imbokodo, a phase IIb clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of an HIV vaccine candidate developed by the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. Among cisgender women recruited in five African countries, the vaccine regimen didn’t offer significant protection against acquisition of HIV infection. The outcome underscores the difficulty of inducing protective immunity against HIV compared to other pathogens, and highlights the importance of making effective biomedical prevention options—oral or injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and the dapavirine ring—accessible to those in need, including women in the communities where Imbokodo took place.

    September 13, 2021
    PrEP
    Treatment Action Group

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