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18 MARCH 2022 VOLUME 24 ISSUE 11

Media Coverage

  • HIV Outbreak Among Drug Users Accelerates in Boston

    A Boston-based HIV outbreak among people who inject drugs may have accelerated during the past year, with nearly 60 new cases identified since last March, according to state data. Since 2018, when state and city public health officials began tracking infections among intravenous drug users, the Boston cluster of cases now totals 171 cases, an increase of 58 identified cases since March 2021.The state’s Department of Public Health linked the spike to the “persistent presence of fentanyl” in the drug supply, which is known to increase the frequency of injections, as well as the likelihood of users sharing unsterile needles.

    March 18, 2022
    General
    Boston Globe

  • How the Vaginal Ring for HIV Prevention That Has Been Approved for Use by Women Above 18 in SA Works

    If you bring your index finger to your thumb then make a circle, that’s about how small this silicone ring is. Its size is tiny but its impact enormous, which is why SAHPRA’s decision to give South Africa the regulatory go-ahead to make the dapivirine vaginal ring (DVR) available monthly to women 18 and older has been lauded by women’s health and reproductive rights advocates as seismic.

    March 18, 2022
    Microbicides
    News24

  • TRIPS Waiver Compromise Draws Mixed Response

    A potential waiver of some intellectual property restrictions on COVID-19 vaccines negotiated by South Africa, India, the United States, and the European Union leaked this week to mixed reactions.

    March 17, 2022
    General
    Devex

  • Study Shows Biktarvy for PEP Has Fewer Side Effects and Better Completion Rates

    Patients at a study at Fenway Health taking a daily single pill of the fixed drug combination bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide (Biktarvy) for PEP after sexual exposure had fewer side effects and better completion rates than participants in previous studies of other PEP regimens, Professor Kenneth Mayer and colleagues report in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

    March 16, 2022
    General
    aidsmap

  • Testing Cord Blood Transplants as a Cure for Leukemia—and HIV

    When the news came out last month that a New York woman was likely cured of HIV/AIDS by the same cord blood transplant she had received to save her from leukemia, Dr. Filippo Milano’s telephone at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center began to ring.

    March 16, 2022
    Cure
    POZ

  • Study Suggests Potential Role for Broadly Neutralising Antibodies in Treating Children Living With HIV

    Broadly neutralising antibodies (bnAbs) are one of the most active and exciting areas in HIV research. Last year, Spotlight reported on a ‘proof of concept’ study showing that a specific bnAb can successfully prevent infection with certain strains of HIV. Now, we also have intriguing findings suggesting that bnAbs may have a role in the treatment of HIV in children.

    March 16, 2022
    Antibody Related Research
    Daily Maverick

  • Advocates to Government: 'Go Big' on HIV Prevention Efforts

    The US needs a dramatic overhaul of its HIV prevention program, revamping everything from cost to access, according to a panel of experts and advocates.

    March 16, 2022
    PrEP
    Medpage Today

  • Send Every American a Free Home HIV Test

    The White House’s COVID test program was, in one light, a triumph. On Jan. 18, the government launched a website enabling every US household to order four free at-home kits. Sure, it had to be goaded into providing them after Jen Psaki’s “should we just send one to every American” gaffe. Yes, the program started after the omicron surge had reached its peak. And four tests per household? Good luck if you have roommates or kids.

    March 16, 2022
    General
    Slate

  • More HIV Prevention Options for SA Women As Vaginal Ring Is Approved

    South African women who are at risk of HIV infection will now have more options for protecting themselves against infection after the approval of a vaginal ring by the country’s regulator.

    March 16, 2022
    Microbicides, PrEP
    Times Live

  • New Study Tests Three mRNA HIV Vaccine Candidates

    A new clinical trial testing experimental HIV vaccines that use the same messenger RNA (mRNA) technology as highly effective COVID-19 vaccines is now underway. The three vaccine candidates deliver different versions of HIV spike proteins, which the virus uses to enter cells.

    March 16, 2022
    HIV Vaccine
    POZ

  • Can HIV Mutate and Escape CAR-T Gene Therapy Developed as a Cure?

    The Campbell Foundation awarded a $90,000 grant to Otto Yang, MD, an infectious disease scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), to study how HIV might mutate and evade CAR-T gene therapy developed as an HIV cure.

    March 16, 2022
    Cure
    POZ

  • War in Ukraine Risks Reversing Gains in Fight Against HIV, Tuberculosis

    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could spark an upsurge in HIV and tuberculosis and undo a decade of gains in public health, experts warn.Ukraine has long wrestled with high rates of both diseases. Public health reforms spearheaded by government and civil society groups have made inroads, but the war has disrupted supplies of antiretroviral drugs against HIV and TB medication. This, combined with the poor conditions for displaced people fleeing the frontlines, has created an ideal environment for the spread of disease and left patients worried about a very uncertain future.

    March 15, 2022
    General
    POLITICO

  • Dapivirine Vaginal Ring: SA Rollout Put on Ice for Now

    South African women will have to wait before laying their hands on the newly-approved dapivirine vaginal ring (DPV-VR) – while the National Department of Health assesses the effectiveness of the HIV prevention device.

    March 15, 2022
    Microbicides
    Health-E News

  • Late HIV Diagnosis of Older People Is an Increasing Problem, in Most Parts of the World

    Among people diagnosed with HIV over the age of 50, the proportion diagnosed at a late stage is higher than among younger people, in almost all global regions examined by Professor Amy Justice of Yale University in The Lancet HIV. While rates of late diagnosis have fallen among younger people in many regions in recent years, there has been less progress for older people.

    March 15, 2022
    General
    aidsmap

  • Medicines Regulator Approves Vaginal Ring for HIV Prevention

    SA’s medicines regulator has approved a vaginal ring that slowly releases the drug dapirivine, offering women protection from HIV for up to a month at a time. The development has been hailed by HIV advocates as a milestone in the quest to provide women with more options for reducing their risk of contracting the virus, but it is not clear when it will be available in SA.

    March 14, 2022
    Microbicides
    Business Day

  • Trans Women 66 Times More Likely To Have HIV, With Trans Men Nearly 7 Times More Likely, Global Analysis Finds

    Updated prevalence estimates based on a systematic review by Dr Sarah Stutterheim and colleagues at Maastricht University published in PLOS ONE show that not only are trans women much more likely to acquire HIV than previously thought, trans men are also at as substantially higher risk than the general population.

    March 14, 2022
    General
    aidsmap

  • ‘Culture Is the Medicine We Need’: Indigenous-Centred HIV Program Launched in Vancouver

    A health-care facility in Vancouver unveiled a new initiative for Indigenous people living with HIV. Vancouver's Dr. Peter Centre, which specializes in care for people with HIV/AIDS, announced on Friday that it had received funding to hire dedicated staff and to launch an Indigenous-centred program called "Culture of Care." The Dr. Peter Centre said more than one-third of its clients identify as Indigenous, and that the rate of people with HIV is significantly above average among First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities.

    March 13, 2022
    General
    CBC

  • COVID Chaos Fueled Another Public Health Crisis: STDs

    Two-plus years of pandemic isolation didn’t lower the nation’s record rates of sexually transmitted diseases. Instead, they got much worse.

    March 12, 2022
    General
    POLITICO

  • I'm A Porn Performer Living With HIV. Here's What Needs To Change In My Industry — And Beyond.

    “When did you come out?” A simple question asked of every queer person, but it’s never been enough to come out just once. You have to come out to every person you meet, in many ways. I’ve come out as gay, as trans, as a sex worker. I found an accepting home in the sex worker community and the porn industry, working for myself without an agent or manager or boss in a way I never imagined possible, supporting myself and even winning industry awards like Best Trans Clip Artist in 2020.

    March 12, 2022
    General
    Huffington Post

  • Prioritise HIV Prevention Injection, Activists Say

    Rolling out a new HIV prevention injection should be a priority in South Africa, says Thandi Maluka, Executive Director of HIV activist group Positive Women’s Network (PWN). She says an HIV prevention injection, administered every two months, is going to make life easier for many people, especially young people. This is because the injection can be taken more discreetly than prevention pills.

    March 3, 2022
    PrEP
    Health 24

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