Email Updates

You are here

Home

31 March 2017 VOLUME 18 ISSUE 13

Media Coverage

  • Tshwane men to get the HIV prevention pill

    Men who have sex with men will soon be able to get the HIV prevention pill in Tshwane.

    March 31, 2017
    Bhekisisa

  • Curse or Conundrum? Drawing New Donors When a Big Name is at the Table

    While the Gates Foundation encourages its grantees to diversify, it is often difficult for organizations that get Gates’ funding early on to attract other donors. This is because of a perception that they do not need further support, Peter Matlon, an expert in agricultural development, said in front of the audience at the American Enterprise Institute.

    March 31, 2017
    Devex

  • Can women who are at high risk of acquiring HIV, safely use hormonal contraception?

    Since 1991, there has been mixed evidence as to whether using hormonal contraceptive methods increases a woman’s risk of acquiring HIV....To guide providers on medical eligibility criteria (MEC) for contraceptive use, WHO uses a four-category system [that]....contains more than 2000 recommendations for 25 different contraceptive methods, addresses more than 80 medical conditions or personal characteristics.

    March 30, 2017
    Hormonal Contraceptives and HIV
    HRP News

  • New TB/HIV co-infections flare-up by 40% over last five years across Europe

    New data released today by the ECDC and WHO ahead of World TB Day show that new TB cases and deaths in the 53 countries of the WHO European Region declined each year by 4.3% and 8.5% respectively between 2011 and 2015. However, vulnerable groups for TB infection, such as people living with HIV,...do not benefit from this overall trend. In particular, new TB/HIV co-infections increased by 40% over the same time period.

    March 30, 2017
    News Medical

  • Trump wants 2018 NIH cut to come from overhead payments

    The Trump administration could slash $5.8 billion from the 2018 budget of the NIH yet still fund as least as much research by eliminating overhead payments to universities and research institutions, [HHS] Secretary Tom Price told lawmakers today....[He said}: “About 30% of the grant money that goes out is used for indirect expenses, which as you know means that money goes for something other than the research that's being done....The Trump budget is about...trying to [get] a bigger bang for our buck.”

    March 29, 2017
    Science

  • Despite demise of Trumpcare, Planned Parenthood's HIV services remain at risk

    Over 20 states have already made moves to cut off Planned Parenthood from public funding. Any cuts to Planned Parenthood's funding would force the organization to cut services or close clinics all together; in states that have defunded the group,...the loss of public health funding has led to widespread clinic closures....In some places, defunding could mean losing the only health clinic,...[with] huge consequences for HIV prevention and treatment services.

    March 29, 2017
    TheBody

  • How America fails Black girls

    So far, nonblack women have been unwilling to get involved in something that doesn’t directly affect them. The same is true with regard to transgender women of color, who face a disproportionate risk of violence. Fifty-five percent of homicide victims in LGBT and HIV-affected communities in 2014 were transgender women of color, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs.

    March 29, 2017
    NY Times

  • Donald Trump aims for $1.2B in NIH cuts this year

    After President Trump’s blueprint budget earlier this month looked to cut $5.8 billion from the NIH, his administration is now looking for an immediate $1.2 billion in cuts from the medical research network in FY2017....Bloomberg is also reporting that there will be $40 million taken from staffing funds at the FDA, achieved in part with “slower than anticipated hiring.” Congress will have the final say as to whether these cuts go through.

    March 29, 2017
    Fierce Biotech

  • ‘Seek-test-treat’ intervention mitigates HIV outbreak in Greece

    “Our findings suggest that prevention of HIV transmission among people who inject drugs in an HIV outbreak may be relatively successful, potentially with high impact on HIV incidence, when using high-coverage, fast-track combined approaches.... The experience of the ARISTOTLE program may be useful for countries that need to provide rapid and massive interventions, in particular in the light of ongoing recent HIV outbreaks among people who inject drugs in several countries.”

    March 29, 2017
    Healio

  • Do medically circumcised men take more risks in the bedroom?

    Medically circumcised men are no more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour than their uncircumcised peers, according to new research from South Africa and Zimbabwe.

    March 29, 2017
    Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision
    Bhekisisa

  • Men who have sex with men struggle to access HIV treatment

    Men who have sex with other men are a “vulnerable” group who struggle to access treatment for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections because of the stigma and discrimination against them. This is according to health professionals and NGOs from eastern and southern African countries who are in Johannesburg to discuss new evidence on HIV prevention for men who have sex with men (MSM).

    March 28, 2017
    Treatment
    Times Live

  • New method to 'fingerprint' HIV developed

    HIV...uses a shield of sugar molecules, called glycans, to hide from the immune system and block antibodies from attacking it. Now scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have developed a method to analyze the glycan shield on HIV's protective outer glycoprotein....With this method, scientists can rapidly create a "fingerprint" of the glycans on the glycoprotein to tell if they are on the right track in developing an effective vaccine.

    March 28, 2017
    Science Daily

  • Editorial: The Trump administration’s war on science

    [President Trump's] first budget blueprint is a cramped document that sacrifices American innovation to small-bore politics, shortchanging basic scientific research across the government — from NASA to the Department of Energy to the National Institutes of Health — in ways that can only stifle invention and undercut the nation’s competitiveness....Some research cuts, particularly to the N.I.H., aren’t likely to make it past Congress. But they show Mr. Trump’s lack of understanding of science’s role.

    March 27, 2017
    NY Times

  • Playing no Trump at AAAS policy forum

    The relationship between US scientists and the Trump administration hit a new low today after organizers of [the] annual [AAAS] science policy conference were unable to find anyone willing to discuss the president’s priorities....NIH Director Francis Collins...spoke optimistically of a pending appropriations bill that could give NIH as much as a $2 billion boost this year...[and] sought to reassure the biomedical research community that Trump’s proposed 18% cut in 2018 may never come to pass.

    March 27, 2017
    Science

  • Penn researcher receives $16.3 million NIAID grant to develop long-sought-after HIV vaccine

    Building on earlier work in designing chimeric human-simian immunodeficiency viruses that serve as a model of HIV infection of humans, George M. Shaw, professor of Hematology/Oncology and Microbiology...at the University of Pennsylvania, has received $16.3 million over five years from NIAID to develop a long-sought-after HIV vaccine. The research is premised on the human body's capacity, in rare individuals, to produce broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV in the course of natural infection.

    March 27, 2017
    News Medical

  • At moment of danger, NIH's Director is seen as its chief protector

    Allies are confident that Francis S. Collins can persuade lawmakers not to enact the steep cut President Trump is seeking in the NIH’s budget [and that] his status as one of the new president’s highest-ranking voluntary holdovers can not only straddle the ideological chasms before him but largely save the NIH in the process. Dr. Collins was due to testify this past week before the House Appropriations subcommittee [but] the appearance was canceled without explanation.

    March 27, 2017
    Chronicle

  • New coalition formed to fight back against Trump’s desired NIH cuts

    A new coalition has come out of the criticism to help preserve federal funding levels for the NIH....Details were thin, but ‘The Coalition to Save NIH Funding’ is said in a release to be made of: “Stakeholders in healthcare, research, pharmaceutical development, patient advocacy and other non-profit organizations.” Exactly who these are have not been made public as yet.

    March 26, 2017
    Fierce Biotech

  • Gates Foundation announces open-access publishing venture

    The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation...is set to launch its own open-access publishing venture later this year. The initiative, Gates Open Research,...will be modelled on a service begun last year by the...Wellcome Trust....Along similar lines, the European Commission is considering its own open-access publishing platform for outputs from its US $86-billion Horizon 2020 research programme.

    March 24, 2017
    Nature

  • This week in HIV research: Proposed federal budget cuts would disrupt health research; and viral load differences

    This week, a report in Nature finds that proposed federal budget cuts to the NIH could impair long-term studies and prevention research. Meanwhile, a study finds that about a third of what makes viral loads different among people living with HIV can be accounted for by the genetic makeup of both the virus and the individual. And another study finds that different subsets of HIV are transmitted to infants during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

    March 24, 2017
    BodyPro

  • Point-of-care test performed on oral fluid failed to detect HIV-1 infection

    The OraQuick Advance Rapid HIV-1/2 Test, a point-of-care test able to detect HIV-specific antibodies in blood and oral fluid, frequently failed to detect HIV-1 infection in Botswana and Thailand, suggesting that negative oral fluid results should be confirmed by testing blood samples in longitudinal trials, according to recent study results.

    March 24, 2017
    Healio

  • More teenage girls got pregnant in 2016 - new report

    Newly released data from the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2016...indicates an...increase in teenage pregnancy from 24 per cent in 2011 to 25 percent in 2016....The survey also covered questions on respondents’ knowledge of HIV prevention....Among female youth of 15 and 24 years, knowledge on HIV-prevention methods using condoms stood at 46 per cent....A recent [UNAIDS report]...indicated that at least two girls in Uganda are infected with HIV every hour.

    March 22, 2017
    Daily Monitor

  • AIDS, Ebola, now Zika: what's next for Anthony Fauci, MD

    Anthony “Tony” Fauci, MD, has been director of NIAID since 1984,...and his name will likely [to] be forever linked to HIV and the progression to the early AIDS epidemic....[He] believes emerging infectious diseases will stay re-emerging, and plans to remain at the forefront of immunodeficiency research. [A] keynote speaker at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI 2017) conference in Atlanta, Georgia, he spoke to MD Magazine.

    March 22, 2017
    MDMag

  • Three reasons why language is important in media coverage of HIV

    Based on my research, here are the top three reasons why language is important when covering HIV and AIDS in the media: 1. Incorrect medical language can be misleading; 2. Inaccurate reporting can perpetuate stigma and foster discrimination; 3. Celebrity coverage can overshadow stories about people living with HIV.

    March 21, 2017
    HRC

  • HIV in the media: Data Sheet

    This study evaluates how journalists and Spanish-speaking media in [19 different countries in] Latin America and the Caribbean refer to HIV and AIDS and what words are used...Working to draw the attention of journalists and media, by the end of the year we will have the results of the analysis of six months of publications.This involves the analysis of more than 6000 news [items] and the results will be posted through an internet site with easy access for all people.

    March 21, 2017
    Medium

  • Mylan receives tentative approval from U.S. FDA for "TLE400" under PEPFAR

    TLE400 will be available in developing countries as a first-line regimen for people being treated for HIV/AIDS.

    March 20, 2017
    Reuters

  • Study finds 18% increase in HIV treatment success rates

    Teams from the Universities of Aberdeen, Maastricht and Amsterdam, developed a new programme designed to better assist patients treated for HIV in taking their medication....Using a combination of self-management strategies, counselling and patients tracking their own medication use with electronic pill bottles, the study found an increase in treatment success rates of almost 18% compared to patients who received regular care.

    March 20, 2017
    News Medical

  • FDA fees for product review would more than double under Trump budget

    For 2018, the Trump administration has budgeted over $2 billion in fees to be collected by the US Food and Drug Administration from industry, twice as much as in 2017....Citing a constrained budget environment, the proposed budget said industries that benefit from the FDA's approval "can and should pay for their share." In return, the budget said it also offered measures that would help speed up the approval process for new drugs and other products.

    March 17, 2017
    Reuters

  • Tillerson says State Department spending 'simply not sustainable'

    US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday the State Department's current spending was "not sustainable," and willingly accepted the "challenge" President Trump had given in proposing to cut more than a quarter of his agency's budget....Tillerson defended the cuts as a necessary correction to a "historically high" budget that had grown to address conflicts abroad..., as well as disaster aid....Congress...may reject some or many of the cuts to the State and USAID budgets.

    March 16, 2017
    Reuters

Published Research

Announcements