24 JUNE 2022 VOLUME 24 ISSUE 25

The first large-scale study of the impact of the United States’ anti-abortion Mexico City Policy shows it likely has led to an estimated 90,000 new HIV infections and almost 30,000 maternal and child deaths annually, mostly among children. The study revealed other donors’ potential power to mitigate these effects by providing alternative funding.

More Kenyan women are willing to use the Dapivirine ring for HIV/AIDS prevention and even pay for it despite it not being available at scale in the country, reveals a new study. The ring is a female-initiated option to reduce the risk of HIV infection. The study titled ‘The Value of a Ring to Women In Kenya: A Willingness-to-Pay’ was presented in May at this year’s INTEREST 2022 conference in Kampala, Uganda by Dr. Urbanus Kioko of the University of Nairobi.

An assessment by the US Presidential Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to determine the impact of COVID-19 mitigation strategies in 41 PEPFAR supported countries reported overall gains of 5 percent in the number of people on HIV treatment and a 2 percent increase in the number with viral load suppression in the first year of COVID-19 pandemic, despite challenges in delivery of services for HIV prevention and treatment the world over. There was less progress on HIV testing with an overall 19 percent decline in new HIV-positive diagnoses.

ICASA is a major biennial international AIDS conference organized by the Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA). The Office of the President of Uganda is preparing a bid to host the 2023 conference, which must be submitted to SAA by July 30. In this year’s bid, Uganda is attempting to show that it is working with key populations to scale back the spread of HIV by highlighting a meeting attended by homosexuals, sex workers and drug users that was organised by the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC), the central coordinating body for the country’s AIDS response.

Despite the progress made to ensure access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and HIV prevention tools like condoms, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and others, viral suppression and prevention of new infections among young people remains a challenge. These sentiments were shared during the first International Conference on Reducing HIV among Adolescents and Youths (RHAY) in Eastern and Southern Africa held in Kisumu, Kenya which will run from 21-24, June 2022.

Hundreds of delegates from Asia, Africa and Latin America scheduled to attend a major AIDS conference in Montreal next month are in limbo because Ottawa has not issued them visas, organizers say, while dozens of others have seen their applications rejected. Those who have either been denied visas or have not received a response from the Canadian government include researchers scheduled to present their work and delegates who received scholarships to attend the conference.

Clinical trials are critical to advancing lifesaving medications and treatments. But the US is falling woefully short in making sure that these trials represent the broader population, as some researchers don’t even record the racial and ethnic makeup of the people in their trials.

Kisumu is set to host an HIV-AIDS conference that targets the youth and adolescents from various countries in Africa. The conference convened by Impact Research and Development Organisation will look into the gains and challenges in the fight against the disease.

Federal research and regulatory authorities have long sought to increase the number of people from underrepresented racial and ethnic populations who are included as participants in clinical research. Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has required, in conditionally approving Aduhelm (aducanumab) for use in clinical trials, that those trials enroll representative numbers of people of color.

The Last Gift is an observational HIV cure-related research study conducted with people with HIV at the end of life (EOL) at the University of California San Diego. Participants agree to voluntarily donate blood and other biospecimens while living and their bodies for a rapid research autopsy postmortem to better understand HIV reservoir dynamics throughout the entire body. The Last Gift study was initiated in 2017.

Over the past 2 years, as 1 million lives have been lost in the United States, the coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the shortcomings of the country’s haphazard approach to public health. Recent reports on the pandemic response have identified major gaps in leadership, coordination, communications, testing, and attention to critical issues of equity.

Routine screening for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) facilitates early diagnosis and treatment, thereby preventing morbidity and onward transmission. Researchers estimated the prevalence of prior HIV/STI testing among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TGW) in Bangkok, Thailand, and identified factors associated with prior testing.

From September to November 2021, researchers conducted qualitative interviews with 28 HIV-negative, adult (≥18 years) PWID in San Diego County, CA, to explore their perspectives on daily oral PrEP pills and long-acting PrEP modalities (i.e., injections, implants, intravaginal rings, and broadly neutralizing antibodies), which were explained using standard scripts. Thematic analysis identified variations in PrEP modality interest and acceptability.

The high proportion of individuals with HHVL suggests that the UNAIDS 95–95-95 goal of HIV viral suppression is less likely to be achieved. Based on performance and visualization evaluation, MCA was selected as the best and essential exploration tool for identifying and understanding categorical variables’ significant associations and interactions to enhance individual epidemiological understanding of high HIV viral load.

There is a need to better understand the influence of structural violence on the well-being of people with HIV (PWH) in the Deep South. To address this gap in the literature, researchers interpreted data using a Structural Violence framework. In this community-based participatory research, in-depth interviews (n = 40) were conducted with PWH who previously established HIV medical care. In their study, they found that SV can have a widespread impact in communities, negatively impacting access to key tangible and emotional resources.