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20 JANUARY 2023 VOLUME 25 ISSUE 3

Media Coverage

  • Closure of HIV Vaccine Study Shows How Far We Have To Go

    Janssen pharmaceuticals, the research branch of Johnson & Johnson, said yesterday that they were "disappointed" that the latest HIV candidate vaccine, and the only one left in a phase III efficacy trial, had failed to reach pre-specified standards of efficacy. For this reason, they had terminated the Mosaico Study, which gave the vaccine or a placebo to 3,900 cis and trans gay and bisexual men and trans women in the Americas and Europe.

    January 19, 2023
    HIV Vaccine
    aidsmap

  • HIV Vaccine Hopes Dashed

    It’s back to the drawing board for a potential HIV vaccine, as Janssen Pharmaceuticals recently announced a Phase 3 investigational study into a potential regimen was not effective in preventing HIV infection. The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson announced in January that their independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board uncovered no safety issues with their Mosaico study, but also found it didn’t prevent HIV effectively, leading them to discontinue the trial.

    January 19, 2023
    HIV Vaccine
    Yahoo News

  • People Living With HIV Default on ARV Treatments Due to Hunger, Increasing Transport Costs To Collect Medicine

    Activists, health practitioners, and organisations that support people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) say there is a rise in people defaulting on their antiretroviral treatment due to hunger. The high cost of living and the high unemployment rate affects the quality of life for many South Africans. Not only are people struggling to afford healthy food, but millions also struggle to have regular meals. This particularly affects people who are on chronic medication as they can’t take their medicine on an empty stomach, creating a vicious cycle of ill health.

    January 19, 2023
    Treatment
    Daily Maverick

  • Drugs Commonly Used to Treat HIV and HBV May Reduce Immune Cells’ Energy

    The antiretroviral drugs tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) are used around the world to treat HIV and hepatitis B virus (HBV). While TAF and TDF have been previously demonstrated the potential to alter immunometabolism, only limited research has been done in humans. It was unknown whether higher intracellular drug levels, observed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) treated with TAF and/or TDF, altered mitochondria function and energy production in immune cells.

    January 19, 2023
    Treatment
    Contagion Live

  • Rapid, Self-Administered HIV Tests Can Increase Diagnosis

    Rapid tests for the detection of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) shorten the window period to 2 or 3 weeks, and self-tests are as reliable and accurate as those carried out by healthcare workers. Both are essential in strategies to increase the rate of diagnoses. Uncertainties when managing people with HIV relate to questions such as when to start therapy, drug interactions, treatment adherence, and the aging of this population.

    January 19, 2023
    General
    Medscape

  • US Investigating First Cases of “Concerning” New Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea Strain

    Health authorities in Massachusetts announced Thursday they have identified two cases of a new strain of gonorrhea that appears to have developed resistance to a broad swath of antibiotic treatments. Both patients got better after getting injections of ceftriaxone, the main drug currently recommended to treat cases of the sexually transmitted infection. But state health officials warn the strain that infected them shows signs of at least some resistance to almost every drug to treat the bacteria, the first of its kind confirmed in the U.S. to date.

    January 19, 2023
    General
    CBS News

  • Another HIV Vaccine Fails in Large Trial

    Another large trial has been discontinued after Johnson & Johnson’s experimental HIV vaccine, which uses the same technology as the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, was shown to be safe but did not provide protection against HIV acquisition. Today’s announcement by the National Institutes of Health adds to a long string of disappointments in HIV vaccine research.

    January 18, 2023
    HIV Vaccine
    POZ Magazine

  • HIV Vaccine Being Developed by Johnson & Johnson Fails Clinical Trial

    Yet another experimental HIV vaccine has failed. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases reported Wednesday that a Phase 3 clinical trial of a vaccine was stopped because the vaccine was ineffective at preventing HIV infection. The vaccine was being developed by Janssen, the vaccine division of Johnson & Johnson.

    January 18, 2023
    HIV Vaccine
    STAT

  • J&J Ends Large HIV Vaccine Trial in Latest Setback for Field

    Johnson & Johnson halted a big trial of its experimental HIV vaccine in the Americas and Europe, a disappointment for hopes of battling the global infectious disease after a similar form of the shot failed earlier in a study in Africa. The Mosaico study ended early after an independent data and safety monitoring board found it didn’t significantly reduce the risk of HIV infection, the company said Wednesday in a statement.

    January 18, 2023
    HIV Vaccine
    Bloomberg

  • The Only HIV Vaccine in Advanced Trials Has Failed. What Now?

    The only vaccine against HIV still being tested in late-stage clinical trials has proved ineffective, its manufacturer announced on Wednesday, another disappointment in a field long beset by failure. Dozens of HIV vaccine candidates have been tested and discarded over the past few decades. The latest defeat sets progress toward a vaccine back by three to five years, experts said. Still, other options in early-stage trials may yet turn out to provide a powerful bulwark against HIV.

    January 18, 2023
    HIV Vaccine
    New York Times

  • Tennessee To Cut Off Funding to Nonprofits for HIV Prevention, Testing, Treatment

    The state of Tennessee is cutting funding for HIV prevention, detection and treatment programs that are not affiliated with metro health departments as of May 31. Organizations across the state were formally notified Wednesday. In an email obtained by The Commercial Appeal, United Way of Greater Nashville ― which administers the funds given to the Tennessee Department of Health by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ― told partner organizations there would be a change in the state’s HIV prevention program.

    January 18, 2023
    General
    Commercial Appeal

  • ‘How HIV Has Changed in the 13 Years Since My Diagnosis’

    The 18th January marks 13 years since my HIV diagnosis. It feels strange writing that sentence, as even now my diagnosis does not seem that long ago. You see, I’ve always seen myself as part of that generation diagnosed well after the introduction of antiretroviral treatments in 1996. Only at a World AIDS Day event last year, speaking to someone diagnosed in 2021, did it fully dawn on me how different my experiences in 2010 were to their experiences now.

    January 18, 2023
    General
    Gay Times

  • PREP Act Set to Sunset in 2024 Affecting Half of US States

    Pharmacists are on the frontlines of patient care with their daily interactions with customers at local pharmacies counseling people on their medications and answering medical questions. They have also helped to serve as providers of vaccines administering them to people in need. Their value is indisputable. Not only are they some of the most trusted health care providers, they are the most accessible.

    January 18, 2023
    General
    Contagion Live

  • New Investigational Therapies for Hepatitis B Virus

    Deaths from hepatitis B virus are expected to peak at 1.14 million by 2035, highlighting the importance of finding successful interventions and treatments, according to a paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Investigators from London outlined new investigational therapies in development for hepatitis B virus in order to explain that prophylactic vaccination alone will not alleviate the hepatitis B burden.

    January 18, 2023
    Treatment
    Contagion Live

  • Opinion: Global Immunization Efforts Need a New BRAVE and BOLD Approach

    Early last year, journalist Yukfu Sylvie Bantar summed up the sluggish COVID-19 vaccine rollout in cosmopolitan Kumbo, a conflict-ridden town in northwest Cameroon, with one sentence: “Global problem, global solutions, but local resistance.” Other media reports in low- and middle-income countries have echoed that view, highlighting astounding variations in the acceptance of and demand for vaccines — not only between countries but also within countries.

    January 18, 2023
    General
    Devex

  • Vaccination To Prevent Dementia? New Research Suggests One Way Viral Infections Can Accelerate Neurodegeneration

    One in nine Americans ages 65 and over had Alzheimer’s disease in 2022, and countless others were indirectly affected as caregivers, health care providers and taxpayers. There is currently no cure – available treatments primarily focus on prevention by encouraging protective factors, such as exercise and healthy diet, and reducing aggravating factors, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

    January 18, 2023
    General
    The Conversation

  • Global Push to Treat HIV Leaves Children Behind

    The stories the mothers tell when they gather at the Awendo Health Centre in western Kenya are a catalog of small failures, missed opportunities and devastating consequences. What unites the two dozen or so women who meet periodically, on wooden benches in a bare clinic room or under a tree in the courtyard, is their children: All have HIV

    January 17, 2023
    Treatment
    New York Times

  • Using Menstrual Blood As a New Way to Detect HPV?

    New research published in Obstetrics & Gynecology could pave the way for a simple, pain-free, diagnostic test to help screen for Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Among women who tested positive for HPV, researchers found that self-collected menstrual blood samples had about the same accuracy in detecting HPV as cervical swab samples collected by doctors.

    January 17, 2023
    General
    Health News

  • I Stopped Taking My HIV Pills

    My only concern,” my doctor said to me with a tremendously heavy pause, “is that you’re working with a lot back there.” This was the politest way I’ve ever heard someone say I have a fat ass. I could see why he approached the topic so deliberately. One of the best HIV doctors in Philadelphia, he was part of the Cabenuva approval study here and is now also an expert at dealing with my mercurial personality and occasional, sometimes warranted and sometimes not, outbursts.

    January 17, 2023
    Treatment
    POZ Magazine

  • Opinion: Here Are Some of the Top Priorities for a New Africa CDC Chief

    The African Union is currently recruiting for the new director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to replace founding director Dr. John Nkengasong, following his appointment as US global AIDS coordinator and special representative for global health diplomacy. The chatter across the global health community has been whether Africa can find another leader of Nkengasong’s global stature and competence to lead Africa CDC in its next phase and tackle pressing challenges.

    January 17, 2023
    General
    Devex

  • Lower Chances of Survival for People Whose CD4 Count Remains Under 500, Polish Researchers Report

    A CD4 count remaining below 500 was associated with an increased risk of death in a ten-year analysis from Poland. The study confirms that immune restoration – regardless of how long it takes – is a powerful predictor of survival in people with HIV who are on effective antiretroviral therapy (ART). People with untreated HIV typically lose around 30 or 40 CD4 cells a year. Starting ART reverses this decline, but the size and speed and size of the increase in CD4 cells vary between people.

    January 16, 2023
    Treatment
    aidsmap

  • Trans and LBQ Sex Workers Most Hit by Sexual Violence, Uganda Report Says

    A baseline assessment on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) issues affecting sex workers in Uganda has revealed that transgender, lesbian, bisexual and queer sex workers are more prone to sexual violence compared to heterosexual female sex workers (FSWs), male sex workers (MSWs) and men who have sex with men (MSM).

    January 16, 2023
    General
    76Crimes

  • UK’s 2030 Zero HIV Vow Is Doable, But Advocates Warn of Troubling Gaps

    Ahead of World AIDS Day, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) announced that it was on track to become the first nation in the world to reach zero new HIV transmissions by 2030. This effort is possible due to the UK’s success in treating HIV over the past 10 years.

    January 13, 2023
    General
    TheBody

  • Researchers Blast US Agency’s Decision Not To Collect LGBT+ Data

    The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has decided not to include a question about sexual orientation on one of its workforce surveys, setting off a social-media firestorm. More than 1,700 researchers have now signed an open letter urging the agency’s director to reconsider the decision. They argue that it is crucial to collect such information to understand the make-up of the scientific community and craft policies that lessen disparities for people from sexual and gender minorities.

    January 13, 2023
    General
    Nature

  • What Draws Gay Men to Slamming: The Rush, Pleasure or Kinship?

    Gay and bisexual men living in the Netherlands reported intense rush, less sexual inhibition, pleasure and kinship among the perceived benefits of slamming in a master thesis titled ‘Meth, Sex, Health and Pleasure’ from Utrecht University. Slamming is the intravenous injection of crystal methamphetamine (also known as crystal meth, tina and ice).

    January 13, 2023
    General
    aidsmap

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