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26 NOVEMBER 2021 VOLUME 23 ISSUE 47

Media Coverage

  • US Launches Mother-to-Child HIV Prevention Programme in Lagos

    The United States (US) Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched the Community Prevention of Mother to Child HIV Transmission (cPMTCT) programme in Lagos to support a healthier population in Nigeria.

    November 24, 2021
    Treatment
    The Guardian Nigeria

  • US Systematic Review Finds Poor HIV Outcomes for Trans Women and Research Gap for Trans Men

    Substantial improvements in HIV care outcomes are needed for trans women in the United States, according to the authors of a systematic review and meta-analysis published recently in AIDS.

    November 24, 2021
    General
    aidsmap

  • After Losing His Mom and Sister to AIDS, Jake Glaser Overcomes 'Survivor's Guilt' to Help Others

    Jake Glaser remembers coming home on Dec. 3, 1994 and finding his father, Starsky and Hutch actor Paul Michael Glaser, sitting alone. He immediately knew that his mother, HIV/AIDS activist Elizabeth Glaser, had died.

    November 23, 2021
    General
    People

  • Dr Will Nutland Explains the History of PrEP in England

    Will Nutland, DrPH, is cofounder of PrEPster, an honorary assistant professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and an activist. PrEPster, based in England, was established in October 2015 to educate communities in England about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and how to access it, and to advocate for political progress in establishing the availability of PrEP in England and beyond.

    November 23, 2021
    PrEP
    AJMC

  • HIV/AIDS Still Burden of Disease in Vietnam

    This year, the number of HIV patients has increased more than last year because the fourth wave of the COVID-19 epidemic has distracted the attention given to HIV, disrupting treatment and prevention programs; consequently, it leads to a rise in disease burden and even HIV incidence.

    November 23, 2021
    General
    Saigon Online

  • Sadly, HIV Discrimination Still Happens. Here’s What to Do if You Experience It

    In a settlement deal, the US government said that a Durham nail salon, Diva Nails, had to pay an unnamed customer $7,500 in damages for denying him future service after learning that he had HIV. The settlement also required the salon to create and post at its entrance a nondiscrimination policy addressing HIV and other disabilities, and to give all its employees HIV education and nondiscrimination training, including the fact that HIV transmission in a salon setting is virtually impossible.

    November 23, 2021
    General
    The Body

  • Biomedical HIV Research Crucial

    Biomedical HIV research is crucial in Zimbabwe’s fight against the disease as reports show that the number of key populations and vulnerable groups in the country is unknown, an official has said. Key populations include female sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), people who inject drugs and prisoners.

    November 23, 2021
    General
    Chronicle

  • Zena Stein, 99, Dies; Researcher Championed Women’s Health

    Dr. Zena Stein, a South African-born epidemiologist whose influential work encompassed the effects of famine on children, the health of entire communities afflicted by poverty and the impact of the AIDS crisis on women in Africa. She came of age in South Africa during World War II and started her career in the early years of institutionalized apartheid.

    November 23, 2021
    General
    New York Times

  • Come For the Needle Exchange, Stay For the COVID-19 Vaccine

    Two presentations featured last week at the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care conference (ANAC 2021) in Washington, DC, highlighted how co-locating COVID-19 vaccination and substance use services with HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment could remove some barriers to reaching the most vulnerable populations.

    November 22, 2021
    General
    The BodyPro

  • Trans People Inadequately Represented in HIV National Strategic Plans

    A study found trans people were not substantively included in many countries’ HIV national strategic plans, despite being disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS.

    November 22, 2021
    General
    Contagion Live

  • One Third of Men With HIV Unaware of Their Positive Status in Sub-Saharan Africa

    Many men in sub-Saharan Africa may have HIV without being aware of it and are therefore at increased risk of poor health outcomes, a study in 13 sub-Saharan African countries found. The analysis was made using results from nationally representative household surveys carried out from 2015 to 2019 in Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

    November 22, 2021
    General
    aidsmap

  • Why HIV Is Twice Higher Among Young Girls, Women

    Statistics from Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) indicate that the prevalence of HIV in women at 6.8 percent, is nearly double the 3.9 percent prevalence in men. This implies that nearly seven in every 100 women are living with HIV, while about four in every 100 men are also living with the virus.

    November 21, 2021
    General
    Monitor

  • Top 10 HIV Clinical Developments of 2021

    As each year winds down, we at TheBodyPro ask a critical question: Once the dust of the past 12 months has settled, what are the new developments in HIV that will turn out to have the greatest impact on our ability to prevent onward transmission and provide effective care to people living with the virus?

    November 19, 2021
    General
    The BodyPro

  • What Is Stopping Sex Workers From Testing for Syphilis?

    Researchers in Uganda have interviewed sex workers about their experiences testing for syphilis and for HIV to identify common barriers that could be addressed to encourage regular testing.

    November 18, 2021
    General
    Avert

  • Kenya in Acute Condom Shortage Crisis

    Kenya is in the grip of an acute shortage of condoms amid rising cases of teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS among the youth and resurgence of sexually transmitted illnesses.

    November 18, 2021
    Male and Female Condoms
    Nation

Published Research

  • Integration of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Services Into Public HIV Care Clinics in Kenya: A Pragmatic Stepped-Wedge Randomised Trial

    We observed high uptake, reasonable continuation with high adherence, frequent PrEP restarts, and low HIV incidence. Integration of PrEP services within public HIV care clinics in Africa is feasible.

    December 1, 2021
    PrEP
    Lancet Global Health

  • HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Implementation in Africa: Some Early Lessons

    In The Lancet Global Health, Elizabeth Irungu and colleagues5 conducted a pragmatic stepped-wedge randomised trial in 25 public clinics to evaluate Kenya's PrEP scale-up programme. Their study of 4898 PrEP initiations showed that integration of PrEP in public health-care settings was feasible, with substantial increases in PrEP initiations. This study provides several lessons for the scale-up of PrEP across Africa.

    December 1, 2021
    PrEP
    Lancet Global Health

  • mRNA Vaccines: Hope Beneath the Hype

    mRNA vaccines have proven themselves as the most effective COVID-19 vaccines, and their makers are now seeking to help conditions from cancer to HIV. Andy Extance investigates their promise and limitations.

    November 24, 2021
    General
    BMJ

  • Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Stigma and Beliefs in the Efficacy of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis: An Analysis of a Cross-Sectional Survey of Male Couples in the United States

    Individual and partner risk behaviors, including substance use, binge drinking, and higher number of condomless casual sex partners, were associated with lower levels of both PrEP stigma and belief in the efficacy of PrEP. Networks that supported PrEP use were associated with decreased PrEP stigma and increased belief in PrEP efficacy. Stigma-informed PrEP interventions for couples should be considered foundational to the success of the United States' Ending the HIV Epidemic campaign.

    November 22, 2021
    PrEP
    JANAC

  • The Importance of Partnerships in Accelerating HIV Vaccine Research and Development

    Given the complexities that make HIV a confoundingly difficult target for vaccine development, and the lack of market opportunity that would encourage pharmaceutical companies to make substantial and sustained at-risk investments, innovative partnerships for HIV vaccine development have offered a promising path forward. Just as HIV vaccine science has provided the leading edge of vaccine development innovation, the models of collaborative science pioneered in the HIV vaccine field also represent innovations.

    November 21, 2021
    HIV Vaccine
    JIAS

  • Fitting a Vaccine Into the HIV Prevention Landscape

    In this article, we will discuss the current state of HIV treatment and prevention and describe the research agenda that will help advance the next generation of strategies. In the context of this rapidly evolving prevention and treatment landscape, the levels of efficacy expected from an HIV vaccine increase. While using some of the lessons learned from SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, we will also point out that a safe, efficacious and durable HIV vaccine is achievable and remains a worthy goal.

    November 21, 2021
    HIV Vaccine
    JIAS

  • Shifts in UNAIDS Ethics Guidance and Implications for Ethics Review of Preventive HIV Vaccine Trials

    There have been several shifts in the UNAIDS ethics guidance with implications for HIV vaccine researchers submitting applications for initial ethics review or re-certification, and for RECs conducting such reviews. This review may assist RECs in a more efficient and consistent application of ethics recommendations. However, additional tools and training may further help stakeholders comply with new UNAIDS ethics recommendations during protocol development and ethics review.

    November 21, 2021
    HIV Vaccine
    JIAS

  • Structure-Guided Envelope Trimer Design in HIV-1 Vaccine Development: A Narrative Review

    Resolving high-resolution structures of the HIV-1 Env trimer was instrumental in understanding and improving recombinant HIV-1 Env trimers that mimic the structure of viral HIV-1 Env spikes. Newly emerging techniques in structural biology are aiding vaccine design efforts and improving immunogens. The role of structural biology in HIV-1 vaccine design has indeed become very prominent and is unlikely to diminish any time soon.

    November 21, 2021
    HIV Vaccine
    JIAS

  • Current Approaches to HIV Vaccine Development: A Narrative Review

    HIV vaccine developers have applied lessons learnt from previous successes and failures to innovative vaccine design approaches. These strategies have yielded novel mosaic antigen constructs now in efficacy testing, produced a diverse pipeline of early-stage immunogens and novel adjuvants, and advanced the field towards a globally effective HIV vaccine.

    November 21, 2021
    HIV Vaccine
    JIAS

  • HIV Prevention Today: Do We Still Need a Vaccine? A Community Perspective

    Despite tremendous advances made in the global HIV response, overall progress in HIV prevention efforts remains too slow to reach the 2030 targets. In 2019 alone, 1.7 million people acquired HIV, three times more than the UNAIDS 2020 target. About 62 percent of the new infections were among key populations, these are men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people and people who inject drugs, and their sexual partners, and one in four new infections in sub-Saharan Africa are among adolescent girls and young women.

    November 21, 2021
    HIV Vaccine
    JIAS

  • HIV Vaccines: Progress and Promise

    As the end of 2021 nears, the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. SARS-CoV-2, the etiological agent of COVID-19, has infected over 200 million individuals and claimed the lives of over 4 million of them. COVID-19 continues to periodically surge in many parts of the world. Even though highly effective vaccines were identified and granted emergency use authorization in 2020, most middle- and lower-income countries have yet to obtain and distribute sufficient doses to afford large-scale protection against new infections.

    November 21, 2021
    HIV Vaccine
    JIAS

  • A Transformed Global Enterprise for an HIV Vaccine

    The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the global scientific community, public and private funders, as well as governments, can come together to develop safe and effective vaccines in record time. Success was in large part due to the focus on harnessing existing and new science to develop a vaccine urgently needed for global public health use. That sense of urgency, as well as proof-of-concept that a vaccine was possible, drove the rapid discovery of COVID-19 vaccines.

    November 21, 2021
    HIV Vaccine
    JIAS

  • Broadly Neutralizing Monoclonal Antibodies for HIV Prevention

    Iterative phase 1 trials are acquiring safety and pharmacokinetic data on dual and triple bnAbs and bi- and trispecific antibodies in preparation for future AMP studies that seek to translate findings from the VRC01 efficacy trials and achieve acceptable levels of overall prevention efficacy.

    November 21, 2021
    Antibody Related Research
    JIAS

  • Strategies for Induction of HIV-1 Envelope-Reactive Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies

    A fully protective HIV-1 vaccine needs to induce durable high titers of bnAbs that can be generated by a sequential set of Env immunogens for expansion and maturation of bnAb B cell lineages in a permitted immunological environment. Moreover, multiple specificities of bnAbs will be required to be sufficiently broad to prevent the escape of HIV-1 strains during transmission.

    November 21, 2021
    Antibody Related Research, HIV Vaccine
    JIAS

  • Communication Needs for Improved Uptake of PrEP and HIVST Services Among Key Populations in Nigeria: A Mixed-Method Study

    The study documented barriers and facilitators to the uptake of PrEP and HIVST among key populations in Nigeria. It highlighted that KPs are willing to receive PrEP and HIVST messages. The policy actors should consider the preferences of the KPs and the key influencers in reducing barriers to communication and increasing the uptake of PrEP and HIVST services; ensure it reflects in a tailored communication strategy. Since multi-linguistics and multi-channels of presentation were enablers to acquiring PrEP and HIVST messages, the communications strategy for HIV prevention should incorporate these recommendations and adapt to context-specific approaches for effective messaging.

    November 20, 2021
    General, PrEP
    AIDS Research and Therapy

  • A Systematic Review of HIV Testing Implementation Strategies in Sub-Saharan African Countries

    Here, we present a conceptual framework that outlines effective HIV testing strategies for four target groups. This framework is based on a systematic literature review of articles published from January 1st, 2008, to December 31st, 2019. The effectiveness of HIV testing strategies depends on various factors including the setting, type of test and service providers. Multiple strategies are needed to reach the UNAIDS target of 95 percent of individuals knowing their HIV status.

    November 19, 2021
    General
    AIDS and Behavior

  • The Development of an Explanatory Model for Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

    The model describes the process by which contextual, extrinsic and intrinsic variables interact to determine an individual male’s response to VMMC, thus providing a guide to primary healthcare providers on care, practice and policy interventions to support the uptake of VMMC in the rural primary healthcare context of KZN, South Africa.

    November 16, 2021
    Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision
    South African Family Practice

  • Validation of Spectrophotometric Method To Quantify Cabotegravir in Simulated Vaginal Fluid and Porcine Vaginal Tissue in Ex Vivo Permeation and Retention Studies From Thermosensitive and Mucoadhesive Gels

    The developed method was found to be accurate and precise without being affected by dilution integrity. These methods were successfully applied to quantify the amount of CAB in gel preparations, in vitro, and ex vivo studies, showing uniformity of drug content and controlled release manner in the permeation profile for 24 h for both thermosensitive and mucoadhesive vaginal gels. Further analytical method is required to be developed for the quantification of CAB in in vivo studies.

    November 13, 2021
    Microbicides
    Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy

  • “I Felt Very Small and Embarrassed by the Health Care Provider When I Requested To Be Tested for Syphilis”: Barriers and Facilitators of Regular Syphilis and HIV Testing Among Female Sex Workers in Uganda

    HIV programs are likely to be important entry points for syphilis testing among FSW. Multi-level interventions to address testing barriers should consider focusing on these service delivery points. Extending the dual syphilis and HIV testing approach to FSW may improve testing uptake for both infections at public health facilities and decrease population-level incidence.

    November 2, 2021
    General
    BMC Public Health

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