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19 DECEMBER 2014 VOLUME 15 ISSUE 51

Media Coverage

  • Laws of men: for women in South Africa, HIV stigma still runs strong

    Yvette Raphael left the medical clinic in Midrand, Johannesburg with one thought running through her mind. She wanted to be dead....As Yvette, 39, recalls that day 15 years ago when she found out she was HIV positive, she looks healthy and bright like the yellow patterned dress she is wearing. She had come to Cape Town from her home of Johannesburg to take part in the first-ever HIV Research for Prevention Conference.
    December 19, 2014
    Global Post

  • Premarital sex blamed for failing HIV campaign

    Lack of moral values and premarital sex have been blamed for escalating HIV/AIDS infection rates among adolescents in Masaka District. Ms Robinah Ssentongo, the director of Kitovu Mobile AIDS Organisation, a local NGO, attributed this to general complacency and people’s refusal to pay attention to the core principles of abstinence and remaining faithful. She also said it has become much harder to persuade adolescents to avoid risky behaviour.
     
    December 18, 2014
    Daily Monitor

  • A fresh setback for efforts to cure HIV infection

    Researchers are reporting another disappointment for efforts to cure infection with the AIDS virus. Six patients given blood-cell transplants similar to one that cured a man known as "the Berlin patient" have failed, and all six patients died...."[W]e always knew that was a risk," but it should not doom efforts to cure HIV infection through other means, said Dr. Steven Deeks, an AIDS specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.
    December 18, 2014
    Yahoo News

  • Global population living six years longer than in 1990: study

    Global life expectancy has risen by more than six years since 1990 thanks to falling death rates from cancer and heart disease in rich countries and better survival in poor countries from diarrhea, tuberculosis and malaria....One notable exception is southern sub-Saharan Africa, where deaths from HIV/AIDS have erased some five years of life expectancy since 1990.
    December 18, 2014
    Reuters

  • The unbroken chain: three decades of HIV/AIDS nursing

    From the earliest days of the epidemic through advances that have transformed HIV infection from a death sentence into a manageable chronic condition, nurses and nurse scientists have played a critical role in crafting and improving HIV/AIDS care on many levels and in many places—and changing all of nursing in the process.
    December 18, 2014
    Medscape

  • Anti-gay legislation could defeat goal to end AIDS in Zimbabwe by 2015

    Despite a mandate to eradicate HIV/AIDS under the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Zimbabwe has done little or nothing to reduce the rate of infection among vulnerable gays and lesbians, say activists here....Gays and lesbians activists here say more needs to be done because population groups such as men who have sex with men and transgender people remain at the periphery of the country’s intervention strategies.
    December 18, 2014
    IPS

  • Strategies to reduce risks in ARV supply chains in the developing world

    Key strategies of the main ARV procurement program for PEPFAR to reduce supply chain risks include: (1) employing pooled procurement to reduce procurement and shipping costs and to accommodate changing country needs by making stock adjustments at the regional level, and (2) establishing regional distribution centers to facilitate faster turnaround of orders within defined catchment areas.
    December 18, 2014
    Glob Health Sci Pract

  • Syphilis spikes among sexually transmitted diseases in US: study

    Syphilis is rapidly spreading among gay and bisexual men in the United States, leading to the highest new case numbers reported in two decades, while other common sexually transmitted diseases appear to be under control....“We’re concerned about this increase,” said Gail Bolan, director of the CDC’s division of sexually transmitted disease prevention. ”The traditional tools we have been using do not seem to be as effective.”
     
    December 17, 2014
    Reuters

  • Seattle researchers are a significant step closer to an HIV vaccine

    A team of researchers have discovered a vaccine candidate that is expected to stimulate the production of neutralizing antibodies that defend against infection from a broad spectrum of HIV strains. A manuscript published in Science magazine details the work and discovery from a team of Seattle-based researchers led by Dr. Leo Stamatatos....
    December 17, 2014
    Infection Control Today

  • Chinese villagers seek to banish HIV-infected boy - state media

    Authorities in a Chinese village have launched a "thought education" campaign after more than 200 villagers signed a petition to banish an eight-year-old boy infected with the HIV virus, state media said Wednesday.... Although the government has implemented polices and legislation aimed at stopping HIV/AIDS discrimination, enduring misconceptions about the disease have led to children being barred from school and parents abandoning children.
    December 17, 2014
    Reuters

  • Sex workers missing out on development funds

    Organisations led by sex workers that support sex-worker rights need more funding to eliminate violence against women, halt the spread of HIV and end discrimination on the grounds of gender, according to a report published Wednesday. About half of the €8m earmarked by foundations and NGOs to fund sex-worker rights last year...but the report, Funding for Sex-worker Rights, said this amount is insufficient to bring long-term change.
     
    December 17, 2014
    Guardian

  • This is now the average life expectancy worldwide

    Life expectancy across the globe has increased by more than six years since 1990 to 71.5 years, according to a new study....Still, despite the improvement, the number of deaths from a number of ailments increased. Perhaps most dramatically, deaths from HIV/AIDS joined the list of the top 10 causes of premature death, [rising] from 2.07 million in 1990 to 2.63 million in 2013, the equivalent of a 344% increase in years of lost life.
    December 17, 2014
    Time

  • Could big data be the new gender equality tool?

    Even in the age of big data, some numbers pertaining to women are glaringly missing....To begin tackling this problem from the bottom up, Data2X—a joint project of the Clinton Foundation, United Nations Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—announced new regional and topical partnerships at a press event in New York City Monday.
    December 17, 2014
    Newsweek

  • US global aid chief to resign; oversaw secret Cuba programs

    The head of the nation's global development agency said Wednesday he will step down from his post in February, following an announcement by the US government that it would start talks toward restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba. Rajiv Shah, the administrator for the US Agency for International Development, gave no public reason for leaving the agency he's led since 2000. In a statement released Wednesday morning, he said he had "mixed emotions" but did not elaborate.
     
    December 17, 2014
    Associated Press

  • CDC collaboration issues new prevention recommendations for people with HIV

    The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with several government, professional, and non-profit organizations, last week issued updated recommendations about biomedical, behavioral, and structural interventions to help people with HIV reduce the risk of onward transmission of the virus.
    December 17, 2014
    HIV & Hepatitis

  • Latest CDC sexually transmitted disease report shows gonorrhea stable, syphilis rising

    The number of cases of chlamydia declined slightly from 2012 to 2013, while cases of gonorrhea remained nearly stable and syphilis increased by 10%, according the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) annual STD surveillance report. These broad trends, however, mask some notable differences between population groups, including high STD rates among gay men.
    December 17, 2014
    HIV & Hepatitis

  • Strategies to improve male partner involvement in microbicide research needed

    [E]vidence presented at the HIV Research for Prevention conference (R4P) held in Cape Town, South Africa in October suggests that microbicide trial participants usually choose to talk to steady partners about their product use and that male partners’ knowledge and acceptance of microbicide use promoted product acceptability and self-reported adherence to microbicide regimens among women. Women in several microbicide trials also reported that involving their male partners in microbicide use benefited their relationships.... 
    December 17, 2014
    aidsmap

  • Lessons from an outbreak: how Ebola shaped 2014

    I asked several experts...what they've taken away from watching the Ebola outbreak and what lessons we, as a society, should learn to better deal with this outbreak, and future ones. [Anthony Fauci, director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health]....”The Ebola outbreak has cast a bright light on how disparities in healthcare infrastructure can profoundly affect the vulnerability of certain populations to the spread of certain infectious diseases.”
     
    December 17, 2014
    Atlantic

  • More than 80 Cambodian villagers test positive for HIV/AIDS

    More than 80 residents of a remote village in northwestern Cambodia, including children and elderly women, have tested positive for HIV/AIDS and may have been infected by contaminated needles during medical treatment, health officials said Tuesday. One official has described the result as unprecedented in the country and the authorities have ordered a verification.
    December 16, 2014
    Radio Free Asia

  • Home- versus mobile clinic-based HIV testing and counseling in rural Africa

    Home- and community-based HIV testing and counselling services can achieve high participation uptake in rural Africa but reach different populations within a community and should be provided depending on the groups that are being targeted, according to new research published in this week's PLOS Medicine by Niklaus Labhardt, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, and colleagues from the Swiss SolidarMed ART-project in Lesotho (SMART 3).
    December 16, 2014
    Science Daily

  • Nigeria struggles to care for its adolescents living with HIV

    HIV among teenagers is devastating families in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, where AIDS has become the No. 1 killer of adolescents....In Nigeria, half of the 3.1 million people living with HIV are aged 15-24 years. Drivers of HIV infection among adolescents include scarce information about sexual reproductive health and HIV, unprotected sex and sexual violence....
     
    December 15, 2014
    IPS News

  • Good news you may have missed in 2014

    We Hit a Big Milestone in Fighting AIDS....New data released this month show that 2013 was the first year when more people started getting treatment than became infected with HIV. Why does that matter? Because treating people not only keeps them alive, it also dramatically reduces the odds that they will pass the virus on to anyone else. As the epidemiologists say, we can start to bend the curve of the disease.
    December 15, 2014
    GatesNotes

  • California: Court upholds condom rule for actors in pornographic films

    A Los Angeles County ordinance requiring actors in pornographic films to use condoms does not violate the industry’s First Amendment rights of free expression, a federal appeals court ruled Monday....The ordinance, adopted by Los Angeles County voters in 2012, was championed by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation as a means of reducing sexually transmitted diseases.
    December 15, 2014
    New York Times

  • Occasional heroin use may worsen HIV infection

    Researchers at Yale and Boston University and their Russian collaborators have found that occasional heroin use by HIV-positive patients may be particularly harmful to the immune system and worsens HIV disease, compared to persistent or no heroin use. The findings are published in the journal AIDS and Behavior.
     
    December 15, 2014
    Science Daily

  • Alere gets FDA waiver for rapid HIV test

    The FDA has granted a waiver...for expanded use of the Alere Determine HIV-1/2 Ag/Ab Combo test for HIV infection in doctor’s offices, clinics and public health settings. The test...[can detect] HIV-1 and HIV-2 antibodies and free HIV p24 antigen, which appears just days after infection and before the HIV antibody is detectable, [helping] healthcare providers detect HIV infection earlier in the course of the disease.
    December 15, 2014
    FDAnews

  • US budget deal gives small increases to research

    [T]he National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease would receive $238 million for research that includes testing experimental Ebola vaccines. But NIAID’s parent agency, the National Institutes of Health, would not fare as well overall. The spending legislation would increase the NIH budget by only $150 million over the 2014 level — roughly 0.5%. That is disappointing, given that inflation is rising at 2% per year....
    December 14, 2014
    Nature

  • World Health Organization: Heal thyself

    The WHO has faced wide criticism for its role in allowing Ebola...to rage out of control in west Africa....As Ebola spread, it dawdled, leaving overstretched aid groups to pick up the slack. This is symptomatic....The WHO's failure to lead the response to the Ebola crisis should be used as a spur to rethink what the WHO is for, and how it is financed and run.
     
    December 13, 2014
    The Economist

  • Community organization educates sex workers in Mozambique about HIV/AIDS prevention

    “If they won’t wear a condom, I just walk away,” says Julia, 20, who has been working on the streets of Maputo since 2012. “… ‘We tell the women: first life, then money,’ says Esperanza Malumbe, founder of a local community-based organization, Abavamo, which aims to educate and empower Mozambican sex workers...Nonetheless, despite a new awareness of HIV and Aids, there remains a large gap between knowledge and a change in behaviour.
    December 12, 2014
    Guardian

  • AIDS response is leaving African men behind

    Mention gender inequality in AIDS and the fact that  more women than men live with HIV pops up. But another, rarely spoken about gendered difference is proving lethal to men with HIV. Research reveals that, across Africa, men have lower rates of HIV testing, enrollment on antiretroviral treatment, adherence, viral load suppression and survival, than women.
     
    December 12, 2014
    IPS

  • Gay men still can’t donate blood following FDA panel decision

    Back when the AIDS crisis was first becoming a major public issue, gay and bisexual men who had had sex with another man since 1977 were prohibited from donating blood. Now, 32 years later, they still can’t donate,....The FDA's 17-member Blood Products Advisory Panel met last week to review the status of the rule and whether it’s appropriate to retract it. They decided the prohibition needs to stay in place.
     
    December 12, 2014
    MedCity News

  • Somalia sexual offences bill hailed as vital step towards lasting change

    The first bill to define and address sexual offences in Somalia is expected to be presented to the cabinet before the end of this year, updating legislation in place since 1930. The bill will define rape as a crime against a person, rather than against morality as characterised at present. It will criminalise gang rape and introduce legislation against child marriage, human trafficking, sexual harassment and offences committed against vulnerable groups
     
     
    December 11, 2014
    Guardian

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