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24 June 2016 VOLUME 17 ISSUE 25

Media Coverage

  • PrEP initiation gains mostly seen in males, whites

    While there was a more than 500% increase in the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, for HIV prevention in the United States between 2013 and 2015, initiation has been slow among blacks, Hispanics, women and young people, according to data presented here.

    June 23, 2016
    PrEP
    Healio

  • The confidence booster

    Dan Barouch’s lab is a bustling hive working on complex initiatives in many areas of HIV research. On the brink of a big vaccine study, Barouch reflects on the painstaking steps required to build a formidable investigative operation—and to feel sure about decisions in a field known for uncertainty.

    June 23, 2016
    IAVI Report

  • In long road to HIV vaccine, local clinical trials begin with new approach

    The new tactic, known as passive immunity, might be seen as something of a workaround or stepping stone on the way to a proper vaccine — but you knew that a real, honest-to-god cure for HIV remains elusive.

    June 23, 2016
    HIV Vaccine
    SFist

  • Powerhouse: Prof Quarraisha Abdool Karim

    Prof Quarraisha Abdool Karim is one of SA’s most recognised and awarded medical scientists [and] clearly in the corner of adolescents and young women – the two groups impacted most profoundly by SA’s HIV/AIDS pandemic. She’s also unafraid of Big Pharma and speaks openly of the difficulties of working around large corporates who were uninterested in helping her when she was Principal Investigator of the landmark Caprisa 004 tenofovir gel formulation in 2010.

    June 22, 2016
    Microbicides
    Destiny

  • Namibia: Teenagers born with HIV...society's worst kept secret

    Some children born with HIV remain unaware of their status and have started indulging in risky sexual behaviour.... Karolina Shiyagaya, Ministry of Health and Social Services, said although it is very important for children to be made aware of their status and educated about the virus, nurses and other health workers do not have the right to inform such children that they are infected without parental consent.

    June 22, 2016
    New Era

  • UMass team nabs $17M from NIAID to produce HIV vaccine

    As HIV researchers around the globe work to advance vaccines against the devastating virus, the NIAID has awarded $17.3 million to the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Dr. Shan Lu and colleagues to develop and manufacture a prime-boost candidate for a midstage trial.

    June 22, 2016
    HIV Vaccine
    Fierce Pharma

  • Antibody shots keep HIV in check

    In selected HIV patients, a single weekly injection of a [CCR5] monoclonal antibody can keep the virus at bay, a researcher said [at the ASM Microbe conference]....In a small phase IIb study, 10 patients on PRO140 for more than a year -- and in some cases approaching 2 years -- have fully suppressed HIV despite not taking antiretroviral medications.

    June 22, 2016
    Antibody Related Research
    MedPage Today

  • New tenofovir easy on the kidneys

    In a series of deep dives into completed clinical studies, researchers [at the ASM Microbe 2016 meeting] observed that tenofovir alafenamide [TAF] -- designed to prevent 'off target' toxicities -- appeared to protect HIV patients at risk of kidney and bone damage.

    June 22, 2016
    PrEP
    MedPage Today

  • New therapy keeps HIV at bay without daily drug regimen, study says

    A human antibody that already has shown promise in protecting people against HIV infection has demonstrated the ability to suppress the resurgence of the infection for as long as 19 weeks in infected people who stopped taking their anti-retroviral medications.

    June 22, 2016
    Antibody Related Research
    LA Times

  • Africa: From cleaning corpses to sex with strangers, widow rituals fuel disease in Africa

    Widow inheritance, cleansing rites and eviction of women from their homes are fuelling transmission of HIV across the continent and may have contributed to the...Ebola outbreak in West Africa. "Widows are damned if they go through the rituals and damned if they don't," Karen Brewer of Widows Rights International told Thomson Reuters...."If you accept these...rituals, you run the risk of disease. If you don't, you are condemned for not saying goodbye to your husband, and are abused and ostracised."

    June 21, 2016
    Reuters

  • Uptake of PrEP among US women: knowledge is power

    A highly respected HIV researcher and a cab driver chat. Both are Black women, both painfully aware of HIV. The researcher brings up...pre-exposure prophylaxis...that HIV-negative people can take to reduce their risk of getting the virus....The cab driver is stunned and...becomes angry. “How come I don’t know about this already? Why aren’t they telling people about it? I need to be talking to my kids about this!!”...This is a very common reaction when women hear about PrEP.

    June 21, 2016
    PrEP
    Huffington Post

  • Panel examines challenges of HIV prevention

    According to Jim Pickett, director of advocacy for AIDS Foundation of Chicago, "We're in revolutionary, paradigm-shifting times" when it comes to HIV prevention.” But Pickett, speaking as part of [a] panel at AFC, noted that..."Now we have technologies that are super-effective, but have people who have very fraught relationships with our health care system.”

    June 21, 2016
    Windy City Media

  • Merck's Gardasil leads to major HPV declines, but coverage holes remain: Study

    High-profile medical organizations have joined an effort to urge more vaccination against HPV,...even calling the vaccines “tragically underused” and decrying low uptake in the US as a “public health threat.” Now, those groups will have more firepower for their arguments as a new analysis--citing a decade’s worth of real-world data for Merck’s Gardasil--documented dramatic HPV reductions following vaccine introduction in various countries.

    June 21, 2016
    Fierce Pharma

  • New York Times Letters To Editor address efforts needed to end AIDS by 2030

    The New York Times published three letters to the editor in response to its recent editorial on the need for vigorous global efforts to end AIDS by 2030. The authors, Kimberly Cernak, Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; Judith Bruce, Population Council; and Greg Perry, Medicines Patent Pool, highlight several strategies including community engagement and public-private partnerships.

    June 21, 2016
    Kaiser Family Foundation

  • NIH finalizes single IRB policy to reduce redundancies

    The National Institutes of Health on Monday finalized a policy that will require NIH-funded clinical studies to be overseen by a single institutional review board (sIRB), beginning in May of next year....NIH says that changes in the research landscape have made it necessary to make changes to how IRBs handle multi-site trials....[and] plans to release guidance documents detailing how to comply with the new policy.

    June 20, 2016
    RAPS

  • Herpes vaccine cuts shedding, lesions

    An investigational therapeutic vaccine sharply reduced the rate of viral shedding for a year in people with genital herpes (HSV2). In a phase II clinical trial, patients getting the highest dose of the vaccine -- dubbed GEN-003 -- saw about a 60% reduction in shedding a year after vaccination compared with their baseline rate.

    June 20, 2016
    MedPage Today

  • Cipla and Nacimbio in MoU on hep C, HIV therapies

    Mumbai-based Cipla will work to transfer expertise in manufacturing to make new active pharmaceutical ingredients that treat HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C to Russia's National Immunobiological Company (Nacimbio) in a deal that will be closely watched....Cipla has a well-known program backed by civil groups such as the Clinton Global Initiative to make retroviral HIV drugs for use in poor countries.

    June 19, 2016
    Fierce Pharma

  • Lancet: World's transgenders do not receive adequate health care

    A report Friday in the Lancet medical journal says the world's 25 million transgender people - a population facing a 60 percent rate of depression, and who have an almost 50 times greater risk of the HIV virus than the general population - are not receiving adequate medical health care.

    June 17, 2016
    VOA News

  • Planes, hearses and caravans dot 'Gilead Greed Kills!' protests from AIDS foundation

    The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation has already sued Gilead Sciences and asked lawmakers to investigate the company over its drug pricing. But it’s not stopping there. The foundation has launched a “Gilead Greed Kills!” advocacy campaign and staged two protests, the latest of which took place Wednesday in front of the California company’s Foster City headquarters.

    June 16, 2016
    Fierce Pharma

Published Research

  • Health of female sex workers and their children: a call for action

    Many female sex workers have risk factors for maternal morbidity and mortality, especially HIV-related mortality and complications and death from unsafe abortions. However, little is known about the global impact of maternal morbidity and mortality on female sex workers compared with HIV and violence against them.

    July 1, 2016
    Lancet

  • Global estimates of human papillomavirus vaccination coverage by region and income level: a pooled analysis

    [Between June 2006 and October 2014,] many women from high-income and upper-middle-income countries [were] vaccinated against HPV. However, populations with the highest incidence and mortality of disease remain largely unprotected. Rapid roll-out of the vaccine in low-income and middle-income countries might be the only feasible way to narrow present inequalities in cervical cancer burden and prevention.

    July 1, 2016
    Lancet

  • Infections reveal inequality between the sexes

    The immune systems of men and women respond very differently to infection — and scientists are taking notice. Research presented last week at a microbiology meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, suggests that the split could influence the design of vaccination programmes and lead to more targeted treatment of illness....A study set to begin later this year could help to tease apart the relative influence of genes and hormones on infection.

    June 23, 2016
    HIV Vaccine
    Nature

  • The need for pediatric formulations to treat children with HIV/AIDS

    Over 3.2 million children worldwide are waiting....Innovations in pediatric formulations must strive towards (1) safe and effective ART, (2) palatable and easy-to-swallow medications, (3) fixed-dose combinations..., (4) once-a-day formulations, (5) medications easy to transport and store, (6) formulations simple for caregivers to administer, and (6) incentives to drive investments.

    June 23, 2016
    AIDS Research and Treatment

  • Treatment of dermatological conditions associated with HIV/AIDS: The scarcity of guidance on a global scale

    Skin diseases associated with HIV infection are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. In resource-limited settings, nondermatologists and lay health care providers on the front line of HIV care provide much of the treatment for these conditions....This review highlights the need for evidence-based summary guidelines that address treatment for HIV-related skin conditions in an accessible format.

    June 23, 2016
    AIDS Research and Treatment

  • Prevalence of HIV and associated risks of sex work among youth in the slums of Kampala

    Among the youth who had ever had sexual intercourse (n = 590), 13.7% reported engaging in sex work. Self-reported HIV prevalence was 13.9% among the total sample (n = 81) and 22.5% (n = 18) among youth engaged in sex work. Engaging in sex work was associated with being female, being an orphan, ever drinking alcohol, and experiencing any rape.

    June 23, 2016
    AIDS Research and Treatment

  • Experience and impact of stigma and discrimination among people on antiretroviral therapy in Dar es Salaam: a qualitative perspective

    A range of ways in which stigma and discrimination affect ART adherence were found in this study,...many consistent with those in other studies, others new and unique to this setting....The first section discusses dimensions of stigma and discrimination among people on ART,...the second the impact of stigma and discrimination on ART adherence, and the third discusses coping mechanisms.

    June 23, 2016
    AIDS Research and Treatment

  • HIV-1 antibody 3BNC117 suppresses viral rebound in humans during treatment interruption

    Here we report the results of a phase IIa open label clinical trial evaluating 3BNC117, a broad and potent neutralizing antibody (bNAb) against the CD4 binding site of HIV-1 Env1, in the setting of analytical treatment interruption (ATI) in 13 HIV-1-infected individuals.

    June 22, 2016
    Antibody Related Research
    Nature

  • New study reveals how HIV enters cell nucleus

    Loyola University Chicago scientists have solved a mystery that has long baffled HIV researchers: How does HIV manage to enter the nucleus of immune system cells? The discovery, reported in the journal PLOS Pathogens, could lead to effective new drugs to treat HIV/AID.

    June 21, 2016
    Science Daily

  • US presidential candidates urged to support health research

    Advocates for medical research are eager to hear how the presidential candidates would advance the search for new treatments. Susan Jaffe, The Lancet's Washington correspondent, reports....Biomedical researchers, physicians, and advocacy groups want the candidates campaigning for the White House to address...substantive matters they worry about: NIH funding, advancing Alzheimer's disease research, speeding up drug development, and a host of research-related issues.

    June 18, 2016
    Lancet

  • Expression of human immunodeficiency virus Type 1 neutralizing antibody fragments using human vaginal lactobacillus

    Eradication of HIV type 1 by vaccination with epitopes that produce broadly neutralizing antibodies [bNAb] is the ultimate goal for HIV prevention....Expression of bNAbs by vaginal colonizing lactobacilli provides an approach to passively target these antibodies to the mucosa. We tested the feasibility of expressing single-chain and single-domain antibodies (dAbs) in Lactobacillus to be used as a topical microbicide/live biotherapeutic.

    April 13, 2016
    AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses

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