29 April 2016 ISSUE 17 VOLUME 17

Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute‚ Dr. Helen Rees is an internationally renowned expert in HIV prevention‚ reproductive health‚ vaccines and drug regulation....Rees is among four Wits recipients of National Orders this year - the others are Professor Benedict Wallet Vilakazi (posthumous) (Father of Zulu poetry)‚ Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng (President of Wits Convocation)‚ and Wits alumna‚ Sylvia “Magogo” Glasser (choreographer).

Since 2008, HIV infection cases have been on the decline in Goa state, but infection in women is on the rise. Presently out of every three cases detected, one is a female compared to one in eight or 10, a few years ago.

The Kenyan ministry of health and partners on Monday launched an HIV/Aids research hub to strengthen evidence-based interventions to contain [the]...epidemic. Speaking during the launch ceremony in Nairobi, Cabinet Secretary for health Cleopa Mailu said Kenya aims to become a continental hub for cutting edge research on HIV/Aids prevention, treatment and management, [and]...will enhance web-based interactions and sharing of information among key stakeholders.

Between April 2015 and February 2016, almost 28,000 people have paid £29.95 for a kit allowing them to test for HIV at home, according to a presentation at the British HIV Association conference last week....User feedback has been positive, with 97% saying that they would use the test again and 98% saying that the test was easy to perform....But HIV self-testing may involve harms as well as benefits.

The research...team assessed data from more than 700 sexually experienced adolescents in Eastern Cape Province, South Africal....83 percent of the participants had experienced at least one type of intimate partner violence within the past year. Girls who reported suffering more instances of IPV were less likely to use condoms the last time they had sex,...[but] boys who experience IPV and who have lower relationship power are more likely to use condoms.

The amount of money spent by wealthy countries reached an all-time high in 2015. But an aid transparency group says most of these countries are not living up to commitments to publish their data to the internationally accepted standard. With only 10 donors meeting their commitments, some 75 percent of the more than $130 billion in aid spent in 2015 is not transparent.

But not all diseases can be tackled rapidly. There are some...for which the body does not naturally build an effective immunity, including, most notably, the HIV virus. “For [these] we have to go through a lot of kinds of tricks,” Dr [Anthony] Fauci says. Mark Feinberg, head of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative,...[says]: "I remain an optimist, but this is perhaps the most complicated scientific challenge in vaccine development”.

Expanding human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programs to include males in Canada will help protect them against HPV-related cancers, according to an analysis published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in Canada [and] men who have sex with men are at high risk of HPV-related diseases.

Women are, to a certain extent, the silent face of HIV. Gay men constitute one of the most empowered groups living with HIV,...at the forefront of HIV activism for thirty years. Like gay men, women face a multiplicity of issues...I am a confident gay and HIV positive man. I went through an empowering process of acceptance around my sexuality and HIV status. It is important to show solidarity with women living with HIV.

Comparing patients in London who did not attend regularly with those who did, the researchers found that a wide range of social and health factors were associated with missing appointments. Although there were some points in common, the circumstances which make engaging with medical care difficult are specific to each individual.

Researchers report that zinc deficiency may contribute to chronic inflammation among HIV-positive individuals. Theirs is believed to be the first investigation to explore the association between serum zinc levels and inflammation among people with HIV infection, while taking their antiretroviral therapy into account.

HPV vaccination rates increased among high-risk urban youth with health-seeking behaviors, highlighting the significant influence health care providers have over vaccine adherence, according to research presented at the Annual Conference on Vaccine Research.

TPP is really big...[and] could happen soon....But what does it have to do with HIV?...Currently, patents have different lifespans in different countries. But under TPP, these would not only be uniform, but also longer in most cases....So, longer lifespans for pharma patents means longer waits for generics. This is huge for people living with HIV.

We conducted conversation analysis of audio-recorded encounters between 34 providers and 58 patients reporting ARV non-adherence in post-encounter interviews. Among 42 visits where adherence status was unknown by providers, clinicians asked 75 ARV-related questions. Negatively-framed questions were 3.8 times more likely to elicit accurate disclosure than all other question types. Providers can improve disclosure probability by asking directly about missed doses.

Despite hopes...that nations would step back from the ‘war on drugs’ rhetoric that has defined international policy — and science — for decades, instead the UN blandly reformatted the existing status quo....This will disappoint the many readers of Nature who want to see a more evidence-based approach....If the overall message coming down from the highest levels remains the same, then so does the stance taken by those who fund research.

Privacy concerns...limited the organic reach of the intervention by confining the intervention to those who already held the norms diffused through it, and by discouraging participants from sharing and commenting on content. Care should be taken to address concerns when designing interventions delivered through social media. Gated interventions may be more beneficial for marginalised communities, while large-scale interventions...may provide a useful backdrop for face-to-face interventions.

Cross-sectional data from 212 Youth living with HIV, ages 16–29, collected between 2011–2014 in Chicago were analyzed to assess the relationship of multiple psychosocial conditions (e.g., depressive [and] anxiety symptoms, moderate/heavy marijuana use, moderate/heavy alcohol use, HIV-related stigma) to ART adherence (i.e., a “syndemic.”). In regression analysis, likelihood of ART adherence decreased with the number of syndemic conditions as did odds of viral load suppression.