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29 JULY 2022 VOLUME 24 ISSUE 30

Media Coverage

  • Nothing About Us, Without Us: Indigenous Peoples Lead From the Front to #endAIDS

    While Canada hosts the world's largest AIDS conference (24th International AIDS Conference – AIDS 2022) in Montreal, it is facing the heat from human rights activists who say its funding for HIV has remained fixed at around Canadian dollars 73 million per year since 2008, while the number of people living with HIV in Canada has gone up by 25 percent. Though the demand for HIV services has risen but funding shortfall has forced many community-based initiatives to shut down.

    July 29, 2022
    General
    The Nation Thailand

  • Experts Welcome New HIV Drug Formulations That Cut Out the ‘Ew’ Factor for Children

    In a move widely welcomed by local experts, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) recently approved new child-friendly formulations of several important antiretroviral medicines. The approvals promise to make life easier for children living with HIV in South Africa, but it will take a while before all children have access to the new medicines.

    July 29, 2022
    Treatment
    Daily Maverick

  • Cheap Copies of GSK’s HIV Prevention Drug Could Be Ready in 2026

    British drugmaker GSK has struck a deal to allow low-cost generic versions of its long-acting HIV preventive medicine to be used in the developing world, including sub-Saharan Africa where the virus remains a leading cause of death. Each year, roughly 1.5 million new cases of HIV are recorded globally, most of which occur in resource-limited countries, and disproportionately impact women and adolescent girls.

    July 28, 2022
    PrEP
    Reuters

  • ViiV Healthcare to Allow 90 Countries to Access Generic Versions of HIV Prevention Shot

    Drugmaker ViiV Healthcare will allow 90 countries to access affordable generic versions of its bi-monthly HIV prevention shot as part of a new licensing agreement with the Medicines Patent Pool. Still, just three generic producers globally will be allowed to produce the shot under the agreement, which has been criticised for its broad limitations.

    July 28, 2022
    PrEP
    aidsmap

  • Smart Cut Figures Rising

    Following a 2009 recommendation by the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS for member countries to incorporate voluntary medical male circumcision into the minimum HIV prevention package, Namibia has recorded over 200,000 circumcision procedures. Reaching its target of 300,000 circumcisions is a work in progress, said voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) Demand Creation Manager at the health ministry Johannes Haufiku, citing a low uptake of male circumcision between 2014 and 2017 due to low levels of awareness. But through donor support, the ministry intensified the awareness campaign, and results were evidently on the increase.

    July 28, 2022
    Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision
    New Era Live

  • Longtime HIV Patient Is Effectively Cured After Stem Cell Transplant

    A 66-year-old man with HIV is in long-term remission after receiving a transplant of blood stem cells containing a rare mutation, raising the prospect that doctors may someday be able to use gene editing to re-create the mutation and cure patients of the virus that causes AIDS, a medical team announced Wednesday. For now, the crucial virus-defeating mutation is rare, leaving the treatment unavailable to the vast majority of the 38 million patients living with HIV, including over 1.2 million in the United States.

    July 27, 2022
    Cure
    The Washington Post

  • Exclusive: IAS President ‘Very Upset’ Over AIDS 2022 Visa Denials

    The president of the International AIDS Society says she’s “very upset” that many people were denied visas to attend the conference, whose main program starts on Friday. “We have all been working very hard to make this first in person conference since the COVID pandemic a big success,” Adeeba Kamarulzaman, IAS president and international co-chair of AIDS 2022, told Devex.

    July 27, 2022
    General
    Devex

  • Price of HIV Self-Tests Lowered to $1

    While HIV self tests have been out of reach for many due to high prices, a new deal — made possible through innovative financing — aims to increase accessibility. MedAccess, a social finance company, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, have negotiated with manufacturer, Wondfo, to bring the tests down to $1 per test — which makes this test the most affordable of the six HIV self-tests on the market that the World Health Organization has prequalified. Wondfo will make this test available at this price for public sector purchasers in 140 low- and middle-income countries.

    July 27, 2022
    General
    Devex

  • Taking an Antibiotic After Sex Could Help Curb Three Common STDs

    A new study has shown that taking a single dose of a widely used, cheap antibiotic within 3 days after condomless sex can help prevent chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhea, three sexually transmitted infections (STIs, also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases or STDs) that have soared in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere over the past 2 decades.

    July 27, 2022
    General
    Science

  • Six Graphs That Tell the HIV Story in South Africa

    In 2021, HIV was successfully suppressed in the bodies of about 63 percent of the almost eight million people living with the virus in South Africa. This is according to recent outputs from Thembisa, the leading mathematical model of HIV in the country. With the help of graphs, Spotlight editor Marcus Low unpacks this and other key model outputs. Using data from Thembisa, the following graphs provide a breakdown of HIV suppression in 2021, as well as other outputs from the mathematical model.

    July 27, 2022
    General
    Daily Maverick

  • HIV Infections Remain Persistently High, UN Reports

    While the world’s attention was riveted on the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the fight against an older foe lost crucial ground: More than 1.5 million people became infected with HIV last year, roughly three times the global target, the United Nations reported on Wednesday. Roughly 650,000 people died of AIDS in 2021, about one every minute, according to UNAIDS, the organization’s program on HIV and AIDS. Progress against the disease has faltered, and global infections have held steady since 2018.

    July 27, 2022
    General
    The New York Times

  • ‘Breathtaking Results’: Botswana Hits UNAIDS 95-95-95 HIV Targets

    Botswana has achieved the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets for people with HIV, according to data presented at the International AIDS Conference.

    July 27, 2022
    General
    Healio

  • Analysis: Vaccine Partnership With US Government Boosts Prospects for Local Production

    It has been just over a year since the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the selection of Afrigen Biologics, a Cape Town-based biotechnology company, to host its ambitious new project to create and transfer capacity to produce mRNA vaccines within and across developing countries. Since the announcement that Afrigen would host this WHO-backed “mRNA technology transfer hub”, the company has gone from strength to strength.

    July 26, 2022
    HIV Vaccine
    News24

  • Aggressive Expansion of PrEP for Injection Drug Users Urgently Needed

    HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP), when used as directed, can prevent HIV transmission not only from sex but also from injection drug use, which is a well-known risk factor for HIV. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in 10 new HIV diagnoses in the US are in people who inject drugs (PWID). A new study published in JAMA Network Open showed, however, that fewer than one in 500 PWID had pharmacy claims for PrEP, leading the authors to conclude that this prevention tool is even more massively under-delivered than they had assumed.

    July 26, 2022
    PrEP
    TheBodyPro

  • Obamacare Back in Court As Texans Challenge Coverage for STDs and HIV Care

    A key piece of the Affordable Care Act is on trial Tuesday as a group of Texans challenge the law’s requirement that insurers cover preventive services — everything from STD screenings and HIV prevention drugs to depression checks and flu shots.

    July 26, 2022
    General
    POLITICO

  • Opinion: Testing Our Way to a Long-Term Strategy for HIV Elimination

    It’s time to renew efforts in the fight against HIV. The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse the progress made in recent decades. Globally, HIV testing has declined 22 percent, compared with pre-pandemic levels as funding and personnel previously intended for HIV testing and treatment were redirected to combat the pandemic. On July 29, the 24th International AIDS Conference kicks off in Montreal. Enthusiasm is high, largely due to in-person attendance, the need to renew elimination efforts, and the convergence of lessons learned between the HIV epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic.

    July 26, 2022
    General
    Devex

  • As Monkeypox Spreads, Know the Difference Between Warning and Stigmatizing People

    When the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a public health emergency over the weekend, it also warned of another threat to society: "Stigma and discrimination can be as dangerous as any virus," said WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. In fact, the WHO emergency committee that had previously considered whether to issue such a declaration was unable to reach a consensus in part because of concerns about the risk of stigma, marginalization and discrimination against the communities hit hardest by the virus.

    July 26, 2022
    General
    NPR

  • Community Monitoring Uncovers Gaps in HIV and Hepatitis Services in Indian State Hard-Hit by HIV, Sparks Reforms

    A review by people living with HIV and those who inject drugs of HIV and hepatitis services in the Indian state of Manipur highlights gaps in these services, and has also shaped an evidence-based advocacy agenda. This report, published in June 2022 by amfAR’s TREAT Asia programme, presents the findings of quantitative and qualitative data collected during March-December 2021 from Manipur where a community treatment observatory was set up based on the model developed by the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition.

    July 25, 2022
    General
    aidsmap

  • The Real Cause of HIV Is Inequality

    When Phylis Wanjira learned she was HIV positive at a free testing clinic in her local Kenyan hospital, she refused to believe the news and collapsed in tears. Her father shunned her, making it clear there would be no place for an HIV-positive daughter at the family’s burial ground. Phylis tried to ignore her diagnosis, but when lesions started appearing on her face, she could no longer keep her secret. Phylis is one of 37 million people around the world living with HIV.

    July 24, 2022
    General
    The Star

  • Canada’s Restrictive Visa Policies Casting a Shadow Over IAC 2022

    The 24th International AIDS Conference (IAC) is scheduled to take place in Montreal, Canada between July 29 to August 2. Aimed at promoting the latest HIV science and exploring a range of topics from surveillance ethics and health innovation to HIV cure and vaccine research, the conference was expected to bring together tens of thousands of people from diverse backgrounds working to turn the tide on one of the most devastating public health crises of our time.

    July 24, 2022
    General
    Al Jazeera

  • Study: PrEP Availability Does Not Lead to Higher STI Rates

    A new Australian study published in The Lancet Infectious Disease journal has shown that rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among users of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which prevents HIV, stabilised rather than increased following implementation of the oral medication. The study, which is the largest of its kind globally, followed bacterial STI diagnoses in 70 percent, or 22,730, of Australian PrEP users between 2016 and 2019.

    July 23, 2022
    PrEP
    Star Observer

  • We Can End the HIV Epidemic – But Congress Must Act

    Imagine if Congress, with one simple action, could help end a 40-year-old epidemic, erase some of the racial inequities in healthcare, and save money in the process. That may sound too good to be true. But lawmakers can do it if they fund expanding access programs to a highly effective HIV drug in the 2023 spending bill. The medication is called preexposure prophylaxis, better known as PrEP. First approved 10 years ago as a daily pill, PrEP became available as a bimonthly injection last year.

    July 22, 2022
    General
    Medscape

  • $2M Awarded to 4 Groups to Boost HIV Services for Transgender Clients

    Four community health centers were awarded a total of $2 million in federal funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to improve HIV services for their transgender clients and provide them with needed care for mental health issues and substance use disorders. According to an announcement on HIV.gov, the four recipients are: St. John’s Community Health in Los Angeles, Care Resource Community Health Center in Miami, Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York City, and Whitman-Walker Health in Washington, DC.

    July 22, 2022
    General
    POZ Magazine

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