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19 JUNE 2015 VOLUME 16 ISSUE 25

Media Coverage

  • Namibia: Medical Male Circumcision the Healthier Route

    The Ministry Of Information and Communication Technology in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the centre for Disease Control in America are collaborating on a National Strategic framework known as the Voluntary Medical Male programme which is a joint government effort to eradicate the long struggle of HIV/AIDS infections.

    June 19, 2015
    Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision
    All Africa

  • In Global Fight Against HIV, China’s Circumcision Device Makes the Cut

    The World Health Organization announced it has approved the quality and production of a Chinese circumcision device to aid HIV prevention. The disposable device, called ShangRing, doesn’t require hospital surgical facilities and will be key in reducing HIV transmission, the WHO said.

    June 18, 2015
    Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision
    Wall Street Journal

  • Designer proteins produce potent HIV defense

    Three new studies report progress in the drive to rationally design AIDS vaccines that can teach the immune system how to mount an effective antibody response against the virus. Ultimately, researchers believe they will need to combine the nanoparticle, natural trimer, and other unknown immunogens to make a vaccine that can stop most every HIV variant circulating through humans around the world.

    June 18, 2015
    HIV Vaccine
    Science

  • HIV vaccine approaches human trial

    Studies published Thursday demonstrate that the immune system can be accelerated so it’s primed and ready to block HIV infection. The studies describe a multi-pronged approach to an HIV vaccine, each one demonstrating a component of the process. Assembling all these components into a vaccine for humans is the final step. Testing could take place in about two years, the scientists say.

    June 18, 2015
    HIV Vaccine
    San Diego Union-Tribune

  • After 30 Years, Why Don’t We Have An HIV Vaccine?

    Three studies published Thursday make modest advances toward finally developing a vaccine against HIV. Despite billions of dollars in funding, researchers say they’re still far from solving one of the hardest scientific problems of our time.

    June 18, 2015
    HIV Vaccine
    BuzzFeed

  • Neutralizing HIV

    Broadly neutralizing antibodies, those that could squash a wide swath of virus types, are the supreme goal of HIV vaccine development. Although some people infected with HIV develop these antibodies naturally over time, scientists have not been able to recapitulate them through vaccines developed in the lab. Now, three studies published today (June 18) advance two different strategies for inducing such broadly neutralizing antibodies.

    June 18, 2015
    HIV Vaccine
    The Scientist

  • House committee discusses diminished medical research budget, while Fauci talks to HIV prevention scientists

    As members of a House subcommittee met this morning on Capitol Hill to discuss allocations that will affect health, human services, education and training programs in the year ahead, Dr. Anthony Fauci addressed HIV prevention researchers to review progress and work ahead....[He] noted that although how dollars will be distributed in the year ahead remains to be seen in final reports, and then votes, on House and Senate Appropriations bills, he has seen disquieting signs.

    June 17, 2015
    Science Speaks

  • Kenya banks on local fund raising to cushion its anti-AIDS fight

    Kenya still suffers from a significant HIV financing gap,...estimated to widen as traditional donors grapple with global economic pressures or shift priorities to fund emerging health problems....To address the funding problem, NACC [National AIDS Control Counc] partnered with Excelsior Group to establish Kenya’s first HIV/AIDS Sustainable Financing Strategy (HSFS).

    June 17, 2015
    Business Daily

  • It's time to pay attention to "below-the-belt" cancers

    ...Thursday, June 18, is the start of the third “Globe-athon to End Women’s Cancers,” two days of events in New York City dedicated to making people more aware of the cancers that strike more than 1 million women a year and figuring out the best strategies for diagnosis and treatment. There’s a particular emphasis on getting the message out in the developing world, where cervical cancer rates are on the rise.

    June 17, 2015
    New England Public Radio

  • UAB studying HIV-prevention ring in teenage women

    Researchers at [the University of Alabama] are enrolling women ages 15 to 17 in a study of [the safety of] a vaginal ring...that contains a drug called dapivirine that inhibits the ability of HIV to replicate in cells, said Dr. Craig Hoesley, professor of medicine at UAB....Researchers have enrolled five teenage women in the study and are seeking about 15 more.

    June 17, 2015
    Microbicides
    www.al.com

  • The price of good health: nations have spent $228 billion on global health projects in poor countries over the past 15 years

    For only the second time in 15 years, global spending on health programs in impoverished nations dropped in 2014 as compared to the year prior. This dip comes despite the fact that countries spent $1 billion to control the outbreak of Ebola last year, according to a new report by a health research center at the University of Washington.

    June 16, 2015
    International Business Times

  • HIV+ people sue state over invasive data directive

    Two people living with HIV have moved to court to challenge a directive by President Uhuru Kenyatta that seeks to collect data and prepare a report on all schoolchildren living with the virus....,with the aim of offering support to the affected and infected. High Court judge Mumbi Ngugi certified the matter urgent and directed the parties to return to court tomorrow.

    June 16, 2015
    The Star

  • House bill would give NIH $1.1 billion more in 2016

    The National Institutes of Health (NIH) would receive a $1.1 billion boost in 2016 under a draft measure released by a House of Representatives spending panel today. That 3.6% increase, to $31.2 billion, is $100 million more than the president’s request. But although good news for NIH, the bill would also abolish the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which supports studies of evidence-based medicine.

    June 16, 2015
    Science Insider

  • Gilead gets whistleblower case over AIDS drug tossed

    A federal judge has dismissed a whistleblower lawsuit accusing drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc of distributing HIV/AIDS drugs for about three years after switching manufacturers without government approval. US District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco said on Friday that while Gilead was required to get approval from the Food and Drug Administration to switch manufacturers, failing to do so did not give rise to a whistleblower claim.

    June 15, 2015
    Reuters

  • Drug stock outs cast long shadow over AIDS conference

    Research into medicine shortages by the civil society coalition Stop the Stock Outs Project cast a long shadow over this year’s national AIDS conference [in South Africa]. Conducted among about 60 percent of the country’s health facilities....], the project’s second annual survey found that a quarter of facilities had faced stock outs in the three months prior to the survey and almost 20 percent were currently experiencing outages on the day they were interviewed.
    June 15, 2015
    Health E-News

  • Disease-specific advocacy groups appeal to Congress for R&D funding

    As Congress assembles its budgets..., patient advocacy groups for specific diseases issue public pleas for more money for medical research,...general support for the National Institutes of Health and other politically popular health causes.…Behind the scenes, however, [g]roups are jockeying to prioritize their particular diseases and stay on offense, anticipating that tight budgets brought about by the budget sequester could force lawmakers to choose between spending on Alzheimer’s and HIV/AIDS.

    June 15, 2015
    CQ Weekly

  • A feminist's case for decriminalizing prostitution

    ...Anti-prostitution activists need to get up off the ignorance couch and look at science. Here’s the verdict of a 2014 study published in the Lancet journal: If countries were to decriminalize sex work, they could benefit from a 33 to 46 percent reduction in HIV infection rates among prostitutes and their clients. This is highly relevant for countries where HIV is an epidemic. In HIV/AIDS circles, sex workers are considered a key population.

    June 12, 2015
    Playboy

  • MSF urges India not to 'cave to pressure' on affordable drugs

    Charity Medecins Sans Frontieres appealed to India on Thursday not to give in to pressure from Europe, the United States and Japan to make it easier for big firms to get patents in the country, potentially blocking the production of cheap generics. MSF said changes proposed at negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade agreement - of which India is a part - contain "damaging provisions, all of which go beyond India's obligations under international trade rules".

    June 11, 2015
    Reuters

  • Dendritic cells may hold key to elite controllers' immune response

    Dendritic cells, part of the innate human immune system, are better able to recognize HIV-1 infection in elite controllers, which may help this special patient population to control the virus without drug treatment, according to recent findings published in PLoS Pathogens....

    June 11, 2015
    Cure
    Healio

  • CDC: Sexual behaviors associated with frequency of HIV testing

    A research brief from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics suggests people who exhibit behaviors that put them at risk for HIV — including having one or more same-sex partners or numerous opposite-sex partners — are more likely to get tested for HIV than the rest of Americans. “Results from this report can be used to track the number of people who are routinely tested for HIV, particularly among higher-risk population groups.”

    June 11, 2015
    Healio

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