Email Updates

You are here

Home

23 June 2017 VOLUME 18 ISSUE 25

Media Coverage

  • Should everyone be getting the HIV prevention pill as part of this new study?

    More than 500 people have signed up since December to be part of the country’s largest HIV vaccine trial, but some experts are crying foul over what they say is unequal access to the HIV prevention pill among participants.

    June 22, 2017
    PrEP
    Bhekisisa

  • 'Remarkable' drop in new HIV cases among men

    For the first time, new diagnoses of HIV have fallen among men who have sex with men in England, according to data from Public Health England.

    June 22, 2017
    PrEP
    BBC

  • Best delivery mode for potential HIV vaccine tested

    For decades, HIV has successfully evaded all efforts to create an effective vaccine but researchers at The Scripps Research Institute and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology are steadily inching closer. Their latest study, published in the current issue of Immunity, demonstrates that optimizing the mode and timing of vaccine delivery is crucial to inducing a protective immune response in a preclinical model.

    June 20, 2017
    HIV Vaccine
    Science Daily

  • Among anti-HIV drugs, only Sustiva has possible impact on contraceptives

    Most HIV drugs have little or no impact on the effectiveness of hormonal contraceptives, according to a 46-study analysis. A possible exception is the drug Sustiva (efavirenz, Stocrin, contained in Atripla), which may limit the effectiveness of implants and combined oral contraceptive pills, but the link is not very strong....Overall, researchers conclude women taking antiretrovirals for HIV treatment or prevention "should have access to the full range of hormonal contraceptive options."

    June 20, 2017
    Hormonal Contraceptives and HIV
    Body

  • This is how effective PrEP is!

    PrEP is the safest way of HIV prevention for now. However, one has to make sure they take this pill daily to maximize the effectiveness at preventing HIV. Taking PrEP every day will keep you from getting HIV infection. However PrEP will not protect you from other STI’s such as gonorrhea, genital wars, syphilis etc. or unwanted pregnancy. You must use condoms correctly and consistently in order to be fully protected from all STI's and unwanted pregnancy.

    June 20, 2017
    PrEP
    Kenyan News

  • As government retrenches, philanthropy booms

    In Washington, D.C., where it’s already difficult to get things done, governing is likely to get exponentially harder...as the baby boomers retire and fiscal pressures mount sharply....So where will the leadership and money come from to take on urgent challenges? In Michigan and beyond, we’re already seeing an answer: philanthropy will increasingly slide into the driver’s seat of public life, with private funders tackling problems that government can’t or won’t.

    June 20, 2017
    New York Times

  • Weight gain poses higher diabetes risk with HIV in US veterans study

    Every 5 pounds of weight gained in the first year of antiretroviral therapy raised diabetes risk 14% in HIV-positive veterans. In contrast, 5 pounds of weight gained in a year raised diabetes risk only 8% in HIV-negative veterans.

    June 19, 2017
    BodyPRO

  • Molecules with potential against HIV produced by scientists

    As the HIV/AIDS epidemic approaches its fourth decade, each year brings promising news of pioneering research.... At City College of New York scientists to the list with a rapid method to access new molecules that could inhibit the virus that causes AIDS. The CCNY research...focuses on modification of nucleosides,...genetic building materials in all living organisms.

    June 19, 2017
    Science Daily

  • Financial incentives increase viral suppression in HIV patients

    Gift cards used as financial incentives significantly increased viral suppression and continuity in care among patients with HIV, according to a recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The study, HPTN 065, is the largest to date that examines the effect of financial incentives on HIV–related care outcomes, according to Wafaa El-Sadr, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, and colleagues....[They] noted that...additional analyses are needed to determine the cost-effectiveness of financial incentives.

    June 19, 2017
    Healio

  • HIV threatens our teens

    South Africa can be proud of the progress it has made in treating HIV and reducing AIDS-related deaths, but its continued failure to prevent new HIV infections among young people is threatening to reverse strides achieved in the past few years, warns a report by...UNAIDS....Experts attending the eighth SA AIDS Conference in Durban this week said South Africa needed more than just treatment if it hoped to achieve its goal of having an HIV-free generation.

    June 18, 2017
    News 24

  • This week in HIV research: Stable housing improves viral suppression and CD4 counts

    This week, a study finds that stable housing can impact CD4 counts and viral load suppression rates in people living with HIV. Another study finds that treatment initiation is often delayed because of assistance program eligibility and provider inexperience. And a study links interleukin-8 levels to viral load in semen. Finally, a nanoparticle version of lopinavir shows good pharmacokinetics in a rat study.

    June 16, 2017
    BodyPRO

  • SUNY Downstate to lead HIV research training program in Ukraine

    The New York State International Training and Research Program of SUNY Downstate Medical Center has received a $1.5 million, 5-year grant from the NIH to develop and implement a training program that will improve HIV care in Ukraine.

    June 16, 2017
    Healio

  • Trump doesn't care about HIV. We're outta here

    Five of my colleagues and I resigned this week from the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). As advocates for people living with HIV, we have dedicated our lives to combating this disease and no longer feel we can do so effectively within the confines of an advisory body to a president who simply does not care.

    June 16, 2017
    NewsWeek

  • WHO starts work on essential list of diagnostics to facilitate access, lower prices

    The elaboration of this list comes after a recommendation in the report of the WHO Expert Committee on the Selection of Essential Medicines, which further recommended that the essential diagnostics list focus on priority areas such as TB, malaria, HIV, and Hepatitis B & C, but “expanded as soon as possible to other important conditions, including other antimicrobials and non-communicable diseases.”

    June 16, 2017
    IP Watch

  • Healthy fathers and men help build healthy communities

    On this Father’s Day, PEPFAR celebrates...the millions of men around the world playing vital roles in ensuring their own health, the welfare of their families and societies, and our collective efforts to control the HIV/AIDS pandemic. These are the men who get tested for HIV, go for VMMC, consistently take their antiretroviral medications if they are diagnosed with HIV,...[and] support their partners and children to stay HIV free or...access life-saving treatment.

    June 16, 2017
    Huffington Post

  • Nominee for USAID administrator Mark Green sails through Senate hearing

    Lawmakers questioned Green about his views on US global development policy, often contrasting the nominee’s career working in and with developing countries to the Trump administration’s proposal to slash foreign aid spending....The picture that emerged from Green’s first hearing...was of a nominee with broad support from an engaged and interested congress that seems to expect him to forge an independent path for US development programs.

    June 16, 2017
    Devex

  • Plant compound found to be effective against drug-resistant HIV

    A plant found throughout Southeast Asia traditionally used to treat arthritis and rheumatism contains a potent anti-HIV compound more powerful than the drug AZT, according to a new paper published in the Journal of Natural Compounds. The chemical, patentiflorin A, is derived from the willow-leaved Justicia, and was identified in a screening of more than 4,500 plant extracts for their effect against the HIV virus.

    June 15, 2017
    News-Medical

  • Good and bad mainstream media attention to HIV

    Props to journalist Linda Villarosa for bringing mainstream media attention to HIV among gay and bisexual Black men in the South. Her recent article for The New York Times, “America’s Hidden HV Epidemic,” takes readers down South where, unknown to many non-POZ readers, HIV remains a dire crisis and progress is slow to come....The problem? Well, a large part of it is lack of resources.

    June 15, 2017
    POZ

  • New HIV infections climb among young women in South Africa

    Among people socializing in a tavern in Johannesburg is...a slight, attractive 19-year-old...[who] often meets one of her partners here. He is more than twice her age. [She] explains that sex with older men is sometimes "rough" and always without a condom. At the South African National AIDS Conference this week,....Mark Heywood, director of Section 27..., [said]: "We have seen, shockingly, a decline in knowledge of HIV amongst young people. It is like we have taken our foot off the accelerator.”

    June 15, 2017
    VOA

  • Americans should be more afraid of HPV

    “When we started looking at this about 10 years ago,...the increase was most prominent at younger ages,” said an NIH researcher who studies the epidemiology of HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer. Now,...they find HPV-related oral cancer is increasing in both the less than 60 years age group and in older groups as well — the people most likely to have had oral sex....Cervical cancers are most common among women, oropharyngeal cancers...most common among men.

    June 15, 2017
    Vox

  • WATCH: 9 things you need to know about the monthly HIV vaginal ring

    As Durban hosts the 8th SA AIDS Conference, some organisations such as the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM), are working tirelessly to expand women's options when it comes to protecting themselves from HIV during vaginal sex. This includes the first long-acting, self-initiated HIV prevention method which has been tried and tested in two Phase III trials.....Here are nine things you may not have known about a HIV vaginal ring.

    June 15, 2017
    Daily News

  • Drug-carrying adherence sensor does not alter levels of TDF/FTC

    An adherence-tracking ingestible sensor (IS) added to a capsule containing standard tenofovir/emtricitabine (TDF/FTC, Truvada) did not alter levels of the two antiretrovirals. IS technology is cleared by the FDA and could offer a reliable means to monitor drug-taking adherence.

    June 14, 2017
    NATAP

  • Evidence of smaller HIV reservoirs in a Ugandan cohort

    The size of the reservoir of replication-competent HIV that persists in individuals on ART has been described in several studies from North America, but no information has previously been presented from the African continent, where the burden of HIV infection is greatest. A study just published in Clinical Infectious Diseases by Jessica Prodger and colleagues takes a first step toward filling this gap, and the results may be surprising.

    June 12, 2017
    Cure
    BodyPRO

  • International AIDS Society announces Dr Kenneth Mayer is new JIAS Editor-in-Chief

    Among his other accomplishments, Dr Mayer is the founding Medical Research Director of Fenway Health and Co-Chair of the Fenway Institute, and a member of the PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board, amfAR’s Program Advisory Council, and the IAS Governing Council....IAS President Linda-Gail Bekker said, “Under [Ken's] leadership, the high standards of the JIAS brand to publish quality research will continue to grow and develop. I can’t imagine anybody more suited for the role.”

    June 12, 2017
    IAS Society

  • Fast-Track Cities progress toward UNAIDS’ 90-90-90 goal

    Cities throughout the world have been making progress toward treatment targets set for 2020, but officials must not become complacent, an HIV/AIDS specialist said at ASM Microbe. Benjamin Young, senior vice president and chief medical officer of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), presented data from the Fast-Track Cities Initiative, an effort to expedite HIV care linkage globally.

    June 12, 2017
    Healio

  • Achieving zero HIV transmissions will require SF to address stigma, disparities

    Dr. Susan Buchbinder, director of an HIV prevention research unit in DPH, told the Health Commission that the city is not expected to meet the 90 percent reduction goal by 2020. She said "we could be getting close" to the 90 percent reduction for new diagnoses "on our current schedule." However, she noted that the downward trend may not remain constant since testing and other services are not reaching all segments of the population uniformly.

    June 11, 2017
    SF Examiner

  • MPii supports Namibia’s efforts for accelerated introduction of HIV prevention products

    Namibia’s fifth edition of national HIV/AIDS guidelines...include a chapter providing recommendations for oral PrEP for people at substantially high risk of contracting HIV. Recently, the Namibian Medical Research Council announced regulatory approval for generic oral PrEP, which will help planned PrEP activities under PEPFAR....Namibia is the first country to create national target...that consider the overall prevention product pipeline during a five-year period.

    June 7, 2017
    PrEP
    MPii

  • HIV status may affect the progression of HPV infection to cervical pre-cancer

    Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection was more likely to develop into cervical pre-cancer in women living with human immunodeficiency virus, a study of Senegalese women has shown...in research published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

    June 1, 2017
    Science Daily

Published Research

Announcements