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30 JUNE 2023 VOLUME 25 ISSUE 26

Media Coverage

  • HIV Patients Susceptible to Psychosocial Challenges Like Depression and Anxiety, Finds Study

    The COVID-19 pandemic had substantial psychological impacts on the nation and around the world. New research shows patients with HIV were particularly susceptible to psychosocial challenges like depression, anxiety, substance abuse, loneliness and more. The study was co-authored by HIV/AIDS expert Michael Horberg, MD, and published in AIDS Research and Therapy.

    June 30, 2023
    General
    News Medical

  • Can You Get HIV (or Any STI) From Period Blood?

    Period sex has a long history of being negatively stigmatized. While this is certainly a common attitude to this day, it seems feelings on it are changing. Contemporary attitudes are hard to trace because of scant research and small sample sizes, but one 2009 study found that 40 out of 92 young sexually active women said they had menstrual sex. A 2020 study of 40 women found that only 13 had positive reactions to the subject. Now, we at TheBody completely support having sex on your period, if you want to.

    June 29, 2023
    General
    TheBody

  • Hepatitis C Cure Rates ‘Jarringly Low’ As Many Lack Access to Treatment

    An analysis of data from 2013 to 2022 showed that only 34 percent of people diagnosed with hepatitis C in the United States were cured or cleared of the virus, with many still lacking access to highly effective treatments. Among the approximately 2.4 million people in the US who are estimated to have HCV, up to 1 million do not know they have it, said Jonathan Mermin, MD, MPH, director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention.

    June 29, 2023
    General
    Healio

  • In-Depth: HIV Prevention Shots and Vaginal Rings – This Is Why SA Pilots Have Not Yet Started

    Last year Spotlight reported that pilot projects testing out a new HIV prevention injection and a vaginal ring in South Africa would start early in 2023. Yet, as delegates gathered for the 11th SA AIDS Conference in Durban last week, those pilots hadn’t yet started.

    June 28, 2023
    PrEP
    Spotlight

  • Disparities in HIV Prevention: New Data Reveal Racial and Regional Gaps in PrEP Usage

    It is an unfortunate reality that the communities most susceptible to an infectious disease are also the least likely to have access to necessary care and treatment. New data, published by AIDSVu, revealed the 2022 usage of HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) by race and ethnicity across the United States.

    June 28, 2023
    General
    Contagion Live

  • Challenges in Developing ‘Vital’ HIV Vaccine

    The genetic diversity of the HIV virus is greater than any other pathogen, and constructing an effective vaccine is vital, despite its scientific challenges, says Professor Glenda Gray. Gray, president of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and chief executive, said they had a rich scientific portfolio in approaches, but the hurdle lay in putting these difference approaches into a coherent vaccine regimen.

    June 28, 2023
    HIV Vaccine
    Medical Brief

  • Stigma Around U=U Affects Everyone, Not Only Those With HIV

    Caleb Brown, a youth and young adult HIV prevention manager for AIDS Foundation in Houston, Texas, fights to combat the stigma surrounding being HIV positive everyday through his work. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t have to make a switch in his own mindset when he found out his status. “I wasn’t afraid of dying or getting sick, it was what were people going to think? And I was talking to my brother one night and I was telling him about some of these fears and concerns and I realized that [their] fear is based on a lack of education. We’re afraid of what we don’t know,” Caleb shares.

    June 28, 2023
    General
    Plus Magazine

  • From Prescription to Patient: The Lifecycle of Cabotegravir for PrEP

    Long-acting injectable cabotegravir for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis was approved by FDA in December 2021 (1), and the medication has been endorsed in several guidelines. (2-4) It’s considered a game changer for providers and organizations to serve certain populations in need of HIV prevention for which daily oral PrEP has been suboptimal. However, the number of current LAI CAB PrEP clients within health centers that already provide oral PrEP services has been relatively low nationwide.

    June 28, 2023
    PrEP
    Infectious Diseases Society of America

  • Is On-Demand PrEP Feasible for Young Gay Men?

    Young gay and bisexual men may have difficulty predicting when they’re likely to have sex, which could make it challenging to use on-demand pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), according to study findings published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

    June 28, 2023
    PrEP
    POZ Magazine

  • Inequality Didn’t Rise From Hell: It’s Man-Made — And There’s Nothing Like a Pandemic To Expose It

    If you were a South African health journalist, like me, during the late 90s and early 2000s, you were mostly an AIDS reporter. Eight out of ten stories you produced, would have been about the epidemic. It was a time of unprecedented AIDS-related deaths, government policy based on politics rather than science and activism that, in many respects, was as fierce as the fight against apartheid.

    June 27, 2023
    General
    Bhekisisa

  • New Digital Assay Can Directly Measure the Presence of HIV in Single Drop of Blood

    A milliliter of blood contains about 15 individual drops. For a person with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), each drop of blood could contain anywhere from fewer than 20 copies of the virus to more than 500,000 copies. Called the viral load, this is what is measured to allow clinicians to understand how patients are responding to anti-viral medications and monitor potential progression.

    June 27, 2023
    General
    News Medical

  • Natural Proteins Could Assist the Development of an Effective HIV Vaccine

    New study findings suggest a natural technique that finds protein fragments to stimulate the immune system in order to recognize and attack HIV could be effective, according to research published by Johns Hopkins Medicine. According to a study conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), 38 million individuals globally live with HIV and 1 million more people are infected each year. The individuals infected by HIV must remain on their medication to prevent the development of AIDS.

    June 27, 2023
    HIV Vaccine
    Pharmacy Times

  • Today Marks National HIV Testing Day

    Today, June 27, marks National HIV Testing Day, which symbolizes the importance and recognition to get tested and for those who test positive, get into the continuum of care. According to HIV.gov, the theme for this year is, “Take the Test & Take the Next Step.” For people who receive a positive test result, they can begin antiretroviral therapy (ART) HIV treatment.

    June 27, 2023
    General
    Contagion Live

  • How I Rediscovered Empowerment After HIV, And You Can Too

    Tim MacKay, makeup artist with over a decade of experience in the industry, found out he was HIV positive in 2014, and at first it was a challenge to handle the news well. For years, Tim struggled to come to terms with his diagnoses, resorting to drug use and not taking care of his body, which only exacerbated his struggles. He admits, “I felt like I was damaged goods for years and that's the way I treated myself.” However, it wasn't until his friends intervened that he realized the importance of seeking support and changing his mindset towards his diagnoses.

    June 27, 2023
    General
    Plus Magazine

  • GOP Fires on Bush AIDS Program

    lashes over abortion have dimmed hopes for reauthorizing a program credited with saving tens of millions of lives from AIDS in the developing world, POLITICO’s Carmen Paun and Alice Miranda Ollstein report. Democrats and Republicans are fighting over whether federal funding is going to HIV/AIDS prevention groups that also back abortion rights.

    June 27, 2023
    General
    Politico

  • New Findings on Hepatitis C Immunity Could Inform Future Vaccine Development

    A new USC study that zeros in on the workings of individual T cells targeting the hepatitis C virus (HCV) has revealed insights that could assist in the development of an effective vaccine. Every year, hepatitis and related illnesses kill more than one million people around the world. If unaddressed, those deaths are expected to rise—and even outnumber deaths caused collectively by HIV, tuberculosis and malaria by 2040.

    June 27, 2023
    General
    Medical Xpress

  • Opinion: We Need To Make It Easier To Get, and Stay, on Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Medication for HIV Prevention

    It's been over a decade since the FDA approved the first Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) medication for HIV prevention in 2012. Now available in the US as a daily pill or every-two-months injection, the antiretroviral treatment reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by about 99 percent, by preventing the HIV virus from replicating and actually causing an infection.

    June 27, 2023
    PrEP
    Medical Xpress

  • Going Long

    From handfuls of pills taken multiple times a day to injections administered every other month, antiretroviral therapy has come a long way. HIV treatment is now more effective, better tolerated and much more convenient, which promotes good adherence. What’s more, long-acting pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) offers even better protection than daily pills.

    June 26, 2023
    PrEP
    POZ Magazine

  • Coming Out as Cured

    Marc Franke, 54, remains free of HIV a decade after receiving a stem cell transplant to treat leukemia from a donor with a rare mutation that makes immune cells resistant to the virus. Dubbed the Düsseldorf Patient, Franke lives in a nearby small city in Germany with his husband, Ingo, and their dog, Motte.

    June 26, 2023
    Cure
    POZ Magazine

  • Africa’s Contribution to HIV Research Low Relative to Its Burden

    Africa's contribution to global HIV research is relatively low compared to its burden of infection, according to a study published online June 22 in PLOS Global Public Health. Mukhtar A. Ijaiya, from Jhpiego in Nigeria, and colleagues described HIV research output in Africa by country from 1986 to 2020 by searching the PubMed database. A total of 83,527 articles from African countries were included for analysis.

    June 26, 2023
    General
    Medical Xpress

  • COVID-19, Herpes, and Flu Virus Easily Susceptible to Soap

    Skin-friendly cleansers (SFCs) could be a suitable alternative to soap for health care professionals looking to curb their irritant contact dermatitis following frequent hand-washing used to prevent COVID-19 and similar viruses, according to a paper published in Frontiers in Virology.

    June 24, 2023
    General
    Contagion Live

  • Human Trials Proceeding in Africa Towards Potential Anti-HIV Vaccine

    Trials to determine if a HIV PrEP vaccination is effective have started in earnest in four sites in East and Southern Africa. The trials will take place in Masaka, Uganda, in Mbeya and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and in Durban, South Africa. According to the research team, enrolment targets have been achieved in all the sites with 1,512 participants having been enrolled out of the total 2,215 potential participants that were screened for enrolment.

    June 24, 2023
    HIV Vaccine
    The East African

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