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26 NOVEMBER 2014 VOLUME 15 ISSUE 48

Media Coverage

  • We Can't Wait Five Years to See if the AIDS Response is on Track

    UNAIDS' recent global goals offer a meaningful vision of what the "end of AIDS" might really mean. Now it's time to sit down, roll up our sleeves, write the plan to achieve them — and implement at scale, with increased pace and with urgency.

    November 26, 2014
    General
    Huffington Post

  • Looking to a new era for women's HIV prevention

    This World AIDS Day, global resolve to end the AIDS epidemic has never been stronger. With its new Fast-Track strategy, UNAIDS has set ambitious goals for accelerated action in the fight against HIV. As Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS, said in launching the strategy, we have bent the trajectory of the epidemic and now have a five-year window of opportunity to break it for good.
     
    November 25, 2014
    Huffington Post

  • All Zimbabwean families to be tested for HIV/AIDS

    Government has embarked on a family test and treat HIV and AIDS campaign aimed at increasing the number of men and children accessing anti-retroviral drugs. Officially launching the campaign, expected to see over 120 000 people getting tested in the next 10 days in Harare alone, Minister of State for Harare Province Miriam Chikukwa said voluntary medical male circumcision would also be carried out at all health institutions.
    November 24, 2014
    Bulawayo24

  • Feds want more trial results made public

    The Department of Health and Human Services and National Institutes of Health are proposing new rules that would greatly expand the number of clinical trials required to publicize their results. Under the new rules, the makers of unapproved drugs and devices would have to post summaries of study results on ClinicalTrials.gov, the government's public portal, within a year of trial conclusion....HHS and NIH are soliciting feedback on the proposal from industry and academia through Regulations.gov.
    November 24, 2014
    Fierce CRO

  • Drastic measures needed in fight against HIV/AIDS

    Desperate times call for desperate measures, especially in the country’s continuing battle against HIV/AIDS. At a media workshop on Gender Based Violence and matters relating to HIV/AIDS, it was highlighted that drastic measures need to be taken to reduce the HIV prevalence rate in the country, like distributing condoms in correctional facilities.
     
    November 23, 2014
    Swazi Observer

  • Insurance bill on government agenda for parliament session

    The [Indian] government has an ambitious legislative agenda for the winter session with a slew of bills slated to be tabled. These include the drugs and Cosmetics (Amendment) Bill, which proposes changes in the regulation of the import, export, manufacture, distribution and sale of drugs, cosmetics and medical devices and to ensure safety, efficacy, quality and conduct of clinical trials.
    November 23, 2014
    Mangalorean

  • HIV prevention drug Truvada focus of controversy

    Len Tooley, a sexually active gay man in Toronto, began taking Truvada to prevent against HIV two years ago and says that in many ways for him it has been a "game-changer"....“PrEP is one part of what I really consider a huge change in the way that we look at, understand and address HIV,” says Tooley, the co-ordinator of community health-promotion programming at CATIE....
    November 23, 2014
    PrEP
    Toronto Star

  • What is World AIDS Day?

    SIn about two weeks’ time Swaziland Hospice at Home will join the rest of the world in commemorating World AIDS Day. One may ask what’s this World AIDS Day all about. Briefly, World AIDS Day is held on December 1 each year and is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died. World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day and the first one was held in 1988.
     
    November 22, 2014
    Swazi Observer

  • Kenya: HIV high in young girls

    HIV prevalence is highest among women and men aged 25 and 44, statistics from the National AIDS Control Council have shown. NACC Gender Specialist Eunice Odongi, who released the numbers yesterday, said HIV-AIDS is most reported in young women aged 15 to 24. Odongi said in 2013 an estimated 50,530 women were infected with HIV. "Approximately 87,000 women living with HIV get pregnant annually," she said during a Nairobi forum on ensuring women living with virus can access family planning services.
    November 22, 2014
    The Star

  • Out of Africa ... HIV, Ebola

    While Ebola dominates the headlines today, it's just the latest in a series of diseases that have arisen in Africa to plague humanity -- and it probably won't be the last. The continent is fertile ground for novel zoonoses, animal-borne diseases like Ebola and HIV that can make the jump to humans, according to Benhur Lee, MD, of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City....Lee's opinion is not just theoretical....
     
    November 21, 2014
    MedPage Today

  • New documentary focuses on African grandmothers at the front lines of the AIDS pandemic

    Janine Reid decided to join the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign long before she had grandchildren of her own.
     
    November 21, 2014
    Straight

  • Rodriguez appointed to AIDS task force

    Apicha Community Health Center is pleased to announce that CEO Therese R. Rodriguez has accepted her appointment by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to the Ending AIDS Epidemic in New York State Task Force. “It is an honor to serve on this historic task force. I salute Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to create the task force and for making it part of New York State’s strategy to achieve the goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2020,” said Rodriguez.
    November 21, 2014
    Filipino Reporter

  • Anti-HIV medicines can cause damage to fetal hearts, research shows

    New research published in the journal AIDS raises concern about potential long-term impact of 'antiretroviral therapy' on in-utero infants whose mothers are HIV-positive but who are not infected with HIV themselves.
    November 21, 2014
    Science Daily

  • Ebola hampers HIV/AIDS care in Liberia

    Ebola has crippled provision of treatment and care to people living with HIV/AIDS in Liberia, according to health workers and patients....An estimated 30,000 people [are] living with HIV in Liberia....Before the Ebola outbreak, more than 70 percent of them had access to treatment via 144 HIV/AIDS care centres....but due to a shortage of health workers and fear about Ebola transmission, more than 60 percent of these facilities have shut their doors.
     
    November 21, 2014
    IRIN

  • Gates Foundation to require immediate free access for journal articles

    Breaking new ground for the open-access movement, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to require that the researchers it funds publish only in immediate open-access journals. The policy doesn’t kick in until January 2017; until then, grantees can publish in subscription-based journals as long as their paper is freely available within 12 months....Articles must also be published with a license that allows anyone to freely reuse and distribute the material.
     
    November 21, 2014
    Science

  • Where's better birth control?

    When the combined oral contraceptive pill hit the market, about fifty years ago, it seemed to signal the start of a new era for women. The pill, as it quickly came to be known, would not only change the lives of the women who used it—it would spur further developments in contraception and in medicine. The medication was heralded in the first issue of Cosmopolitan. Loretta Lynn sang its praises. 

    November 21, 2014
    New Yorker

  • Only half of patients take their medications as prescribed: are there interventions that will help them?

    The cost of patients not taking their medications as prescribed can be substantial in terms of their health.
    November 20, 2014
    Science Daily

  • HIV/AIDS drugs could be repurposed to treat AMD, researchers suggest

    A landmark study published today in the journal Science by an international group of scientists at the University of Kentucky, reports that HIV/AIDS drugs that have been used for the last 30 years could be repurposed to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD), as well as other inflammatory disorders, because of a previously undiscovered intrinsic and inflammatory activity those drugs possess.
    November 20, 2014
    Science Daily

  • The agony of childbirth: one foot on the grave

    There is an African proverb that says: “every woman who gives birth has one foot on her grave”....Sadly this is still true today, especially within the context of the AIDS pandemic where the majority of HIV positive women lose their lives while giving birth, says Miriam Gathingah.
    November 20, 2014
    Southern Times

  • As “most improved” for transparency among US agencies, PEPFAR is one to watch in 2015

    With obstacles to information on how the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief planned, spent, and tallied the worth of its funding earning the world’s largest public health initiative a “very poor” rating last year on the 2013 Aid Transparency Index — well below the US Military —  the agency’s “fair” rating earned this year, and revealed in early October, was something to celebrate....
    November 17, 2014
    Science

  • South Africa to spend $2.2 billion on HIV drugs in next two years

    South Africa plans to spend $2.2 billion over two years to buy HIV/AIDS drugs for public hospitals, a government minister said on Monday, as a study shows the prevalence of the virus is rising. Speaking at a manufacturing plant of drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said the government aims to buy three quarters of the drugs from local manufacturers.
    November 17, 2014
    Reuters

  • Why some people may be immune to HIV-1: Clues

    Doctors have long been mystified as to why HIV-1 rapidly sickens some individuals, while in others the virus has difficulties gaining a foothold. Now, a study of genetic variation in HIV-1 and in the cells it infects reported by University of Minnesota researchers in this week's issue of PLOS Genetics has uncovered a chink in HIV-1's armor that may, at least in part, explain the puzzling difference -- and potentially open the door to new treatments.
    November 14, 2014
    Science Daily

  • HIV R4P: Vaginal rings show promise for HIV prevention

    A silicone intravaginal ring that releases the antiretroviral drugs dapivirine and darunavir was shown to reach levels expected to be effective in vaginal and cervical fluid and tissues in monkeys, researchers reported at the HIV Research for Prevention meeting last week in Cape Town. A related study found that a single ring can potentially serve multiple purposes, preventing HIV, genital herpes, HPV, and pregnancy.
     
    November 4, 2014
    HIV & Hepatitis

Published Research

  • Focusing NIH HIV/AIDS research for maximum population impact

    Progress in advancing research on the pathophysiology, prevention, treatment and impact of HIV disease is threatened by the decaying purchasing power of NIH dollars. A working group of the NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR) Advisory Council was charged by the NIH Director with developing a focused and concise blueprint to guide the use of limited funding over the next few years. 

    November 26, 2014
    Clinical Infectious Disease

  • Dose-response for starting and stopping HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for MSM

    This study estimated the number of daily tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/ emtricitabine (TDF/FTC) doses required to achieve and maintain (after discontinuation) intracellular drug concentrations that protect against HIV infection for men who have sex with men (MSM).
    November 26, 2014
    PrEP
    Clinical Infectious Disease

  • Global, regional, and national estimates of pneumonia burden in HIV-infected children in 2010: a meta-analysis and modelling study

    Globally, a small proportion of pneumonia episodes and pneumonia deaths occur in HIV-infected children. However, in the highest HIV-burden countries in sub-Saharan Afric, up to a fifth of all pneumonia cases and 60% of pneumonia deaths occur in HIV-infected children. In these countries, major reductions in child pneumonia mortality can be achieved only if the systemic challenges plaguing the health system...can be overcome.
    November 25, 2014
    Lancet

  • Acceptability of the nestorone/ethinyl estradiol contraceptive vaginal ring: development of a model; implications for introduction

    Satisfaction was high (89%) and related to higher method adherence and continuation. Attributes of CVR use representing items from four domains — finding it easy to remove, not complaining of side effects, not feeling the CVR while wearing it and experiencing no change or an increase in sexual pleasure and/or frequency — were associated with higher odds of satisfaction, which was associated with adherence and continuation. Results provide a scientific basis for introduction and future research.
     
    November 25, 2014
    Contraception

  • Changes in sexual risk behavior in the Mombasa Cohort: 1993–2007

    The Mombasa Cohort is an open cohort study following HIV-seronegative women reporting transactional sex. Established in 1993, the cohort provides regular HIV counseling and testing at monthly visits....Although sexual risk has declined among women participating in the Mombasa Cohort, HIV acquisition continues to occur and interventions to promote and reinforce safer sex are clearly needed.
     
    November 25, 2014
    PLoS ONE

  • Interventions to promote adherence to antiretroviral therapy in Africa: a network meta-analysis

    We obtained data for 14 randomised controlled trials, with 7110 patients. Interventions included daily and weekly short message service messaging (SMS; text message), calendars, peer supporters, alarms, counselling, and basic and enhanced standard of care (SOC). Compared with SOC, we found distinguishable improvement in self-reported adherence with enhanced SOC, weekly SMS messages, counselling and SMS combined , and treatment supporters. Treatment supporters with enhanced SOC and weekly SMS messages were significantly better than basic SOC.

    November 25, 2014
    Lancet

  • Effects of medical male circumcision (MC) on plasma HIV viral load in HIV+ HAART naïve Men; Rakai, Uganda

    Medical male circumcision (MC) of HIV-infected men may increase plasma HIV viral load and place female partners at risk of infection. We assessed the effect of MC on plasma HIV viral load in HIV-infected men in Rakai, Uganda. We observed no increase in plasma HIV viral load following MC in HIV-infected, HAART naïve men.
    November 25, 2014
    Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision
    PLoS ONE

  • Understanding the HIV disparities between black and white men who have sex with men in the USA using the HIV care continuum: a modelling study

    Disparities in the rates of HIV transmission could be reduced by improving the outcomes of the HIV care continuum, but racial disparities in HIV prevalence are likely to continue sustaining the higher incidence in black MSM for decades to come....
    November 25, 2014
    Lancet

  • Aid externalities: evidence from PEPFAR in Africa

    Do targeted aid programs have unintended consequences outside the target issue area? We [examine] one of the largest targeted aid programs: the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Critics worry that a targeted program focusing on single diseases has a negative externality, in which the influx of massive amounts of target aid damages broader public health systems in countries that receive PEPFAR funds....We find statistical evidence that supports critics of targeted aid.
     
    November 25, 2014
    World Development

  • Effect of a smartphone application incorporating personalized health-related imagery on adherence to antiretroviral therapy: a randomized clinical trial

    Greater usage of the augmented application [which contained components that illustrated participants' current estimated plasma concentrations of antiretroviral drugs and the immune protection provided by ART] was associated with greater perceived understanding of HIV infection and increased perceived necessity for ART. Smartphone applications that incorporate personalized health-related visual imagery may have potential to improve adherence to ART.
     
     
    November 25, 2014
    AIDS Patient Care and STDs

  • Men’s knowledge and attitudes about cervical cancer screening in Kenya

    Specific knowledge about cervical cancer risk factors, prevention, and treatment was low. Only half of the men perceived their partners to be at risk for cervical cancer, and many reported that a positive screen would be emotionally upsetting. Nevertheless, all participants said they would encourage their partners to get screened. Further research is needed among both men and couples to better understand barriers to male support for screening and treatment and to determine how to best involve men in cervical cancer prevention efforts.
    November 22, 2014
    BMC Women's Health

  • HIV drugs can dampen inflammation, too

    Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) stop HIV in its tracks by blocking reverse transcription, a process critical for HIV to replicate its genome. Fowler et al. found that in mice, these drugs also block inflammation caused by a large protein complex called the NLRP3 inflammasome.
    November 21, 2014
    Science

  • Intimate partner violence and HIV in ten sub-Saharan African countries: what do the demographic and health surveys tell us?

    We systematically assessed the association [between intimate partner violence and HIV in women], and under what condition it holds, using data from 10 sub-Saharan African countries.... Sample size varied between 11,231 and 45,550 women. The findings indicate that male controlling behaviour in its own right, or as an indicator of ongoing or severe violence, puts women at risk of HIV infection....
    November 21, 2014
    Lancet Global Health

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