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28 AUGUST 2020 VOLUME 22 ISSUE 33

Media Coverage

  • AVAC Webinar With Barney Graham: COVID-19 Vacines Targets, Timelines, Efficacy and Ethical Issues

    An excellent webinar from AVAC on deleopments in COVID-19 vaccine research is now online featuring a talk by Barney Graham, Director of US NIH Vaccine Research Centre (VRC). The talk reviews the rapid development timeline for COVID-19 vaccines, including the role played by HIV researchers and trial networks, and covers some of the recent research developments.

    August 27, 2020
    General
    i-base

  • Another Epidemic of Inequities: HIV Among Young Black Men

    COVID-19 has disproportionately affected Black adults, laying bare how racism in health care and society have left Black communities vulnerable to health disparities. Unfortunately, younger Black populations endure other glaring health inequities. A recent study found that Black children are three times more likely to die within a month of surgery as white children. And for years, Black youth have silently shouldered an unequal burden of another widespread and insidious infection: HIV.

    August 27, 2020
    General
    The Advocate

  • Zimbabwe Introduces New HIV Prevention Option for Women

    Zimbabwe is introducing the Dapivirine Vaginal Ring to expand HIV prevention options for women. In a Twitter interview with a local publication, a histopathologist with experience in conducting HIV trials in women of reproductive age in Harare, Dr. Nyaradzo Mgodi said women need female-controlled longer-acting products like the ring.

    August 27, 2020
    Microbicides
    All Africa

  • PrEP Use Does Not Worsen Mental Health Outcomes, Finds Amsterdam Study

    A three-year study following gay and bisexual men and transgender women who use pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in Amsterdam finds no evidence to suggest it increases risky behaviours or leads to worsening mental health.

    August 27, 2020
    PrEP
    Avert

  • A Woman May Have Been Cured of HIV Without Medical Treatment

    A woman who was infected with HIV in 1992 may be the first person cured of the virus without a risky bone-marrow transplant or even medications, researchers reported on Wednesday.

    August 26, 2020
    Cure
    New York Times

  • Inside the Second Wave of the HIV Epidemic in the Philippines

    In the Philippines, the HIV epidemic is not part of a distant past; it’s an ongoing reality that affects Filipinos today. According to a recent report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Philippines has had the highest number of new HIV infections in Asia and the Pacific over the past decade: The country reported a 203 percent increase in new cases, tailed by Pakistan with 57 percent. Experts attribute the increase in cases to a lack of condom use and continued stigma surrounding homosexuality and HIV/AIDS.

    August 26, 2020
    General
    Xtra Magazine

  • How ‘Elite Controllers’ Tame HIV Without Drugs

    A tiny fraction of the 38 million HIV-infected people in the world have what seems like a superpower. Without the help of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, they keep the AIDS virus at undetectable levels in their blood, sometimes for many years, even though they still have HIV genes woven into their chromosomes. Now, the most in-depth genomic analysis of these rare individuals, who account for less than 0.5 percent of all HIV infections, reveals a clue to their success, which scientists hope will ultimately lead to new strategies to corral the virus in others.

    August 26, 2020
    General
    Science Magazine

  • Treating HIV And Tuberculosis Simultaneously Could Greatly Boost Patient Survival

    People living with HIV have a 16 to 27 times greater risk of contracting a second infectious disease: tuberculosis. This double whammy of infection, especially given rising rates of tuberculosis that is resistant to existing treatments, is particularly challenging. The World Health Organization estimates that in 2015 1.2 million people, around 11 percent of the 10.4 million tuberculosis cases worldwide, were also infected with HIV. Sub-Saharan Africa is currently the worst affected with the dual epidemic.

    August 26, 2020
    Treatment
    Forbes

  • Over a Million People Have Switched to a New HIV Drug, but Weight Gain Is a Worrying Side Effect

    Two years after it was announced that the antiretroviral medicine dolutegravir would become part of standard first-line HIV treatment in South Africa, it is finally reaching significant numbers of people. But new research about a worrying side effect – weight gain (particularly in women) – has muddied its otherwise stellar reputation.

    August 26, 2020
    Treatment
    Daily Maverick

  • Half of People Living With HIV Who Need a Repeat Viral Load Test Received It Late

    The first national analysis of repeat viral load testing in South Africa finds that 85 percent of people on HIV treatment, with increasing viral loads, received further monitoring – but only half did so within the recommended time.

    August 25, 2020
    General
    Avert

  • It Puts Everyone in Danger if Rich Countries Hoard a Vaccine

    In 2003 — when I first engaged with global health issues at the White House — the global distribution of treatments for HIV/AIDS was in a state of almost complete inequity. While the overwhelming majority of Americans who needed antiretroviral drugs were receiving them, almost no one in Africa was. The world’s poor were at the end of the queue when it came to life-saving medicine. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, initiated by President George W. Bush, dedicated $15 billion over five years to address this deadly imbalance.

    August 24, 2020
    General
    Washington Post

  • Uganda Listed Among First Countries to Benefit From Vaginal Ring Rollout

    Uganda has been listed among the first seven countries that will benefit from the roll out of the vaginal ring used in prevention against HIV, the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) has revealed. IPM’s external relations director Dr. Leonard Solai told journalists that other countries to benefit are Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi and South Africa.

    August 22, 2020
    Microbicides
    Independent

  • Experimental HIV Vaccine Stimulates Production of Neutralizing Antibodies

    A new experimental HIV vaccine using the same approach as a leading COVID-19 vaccine triggers production of neutralizing antibodies that protected monkeys from infection with an HIV-like virus, researchers reported last month at the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020: Virtual).

    August 21, 2020
    HIV Vaccine
    POZ

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