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4 DECEMBER 2020 VOLUME 22 ISSUE 47

Media Coverage

  • Vaginal Bacteria May Eat HIV Prevention Drugs and Leave Women at Risk

    Women with a certain mix of bacteria in their vaginas may be at a much greater risk of contracting HIV because the bacteria consume drugs that prevent infection with the virus.

    December 3, 2020
    PrEP
    New Scientist

  • HIV Viral Suppression Drops After Pivot to Telemedicine

    People with HIV receiving care at a safety-net hospital clinic in San Francisco were 31 percent more likely to have an unsuppressed viral load after the city imposed its shelter-in-place order due to COVID-19 and the clinic shifted to telemedicine, researchers recently reported.

    December 2, 2020
    Treatment
    POZ

  • Scientists Just Used CRISPR to Cure the Simian Equivalent of HIV. Here’s Why This Is a Big Deal

    With multiple coronavirus vaccines being produced as we speak, the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have an end in sight, though the HIV pandemic continues after more than 40 years. That might seem like a head-scratcher: why is HIV, a virus we've known about for decades, so much harder to cure than a virus discovered just last year? Part of the reason is that HIV, as a retrovirus, is a more complex virus to vaccinate against than SARS-CoV-2—hence why a vaccine or other cure has eluded scientists for decades.

    December 2, 2020
    Cure
    Salon

  • Most COVID-19 Vaccines Won’t Affect HIV Risk: Here’s What the Science Tells Us

    We can now see a light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel, thanks to a growing amount of positive news on vaccines in development. There are many COVID-19 vaccines in the pipeline, and most—including the three that are currently the farthest along in development (one by Moderna, one by PFizer/BioNTech, and one by AstraZeneca/Oxford)—do not present any concern when it comes to potential HIV risk.

    December 2, 2020
    General
    The Body

  • The Other Pandemic That We Must Cure

    As the world rightly focuses on COVID-19, on Tuesday's World AIDS Day we should remember that another pandemic resulted from the spread of a virus from animals to humans. HIV has infected more than 77 million people worldwide and, despite significant progress in treatments, has killed over 35 million people—including 690,000 last year alone. Two-thirds of all new infections and deaths occur in Africa. Now, UNAIDS estimates that the COVID-19 pandemic may set back progress on HIV by a decade.

    December 1, 2020
    Cure, PrEP, Treatment
    CNN

  • Affordable Treatment Available Soon for Children Living With HIV in Poor Countries

    Affordable treatment will soon be available for children living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries thanks to an agreement between the global health agency UNITAID and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, or CHAI.

    December 1, 2020
    Treatment
    Voice of America

  • World 'Way Off' Targets of Getting Control of HIV Transmission

    Four years ago, governments around the world committed to achieving targets in testing and treating the vast majority of people with HIV to the point where the AIDS pandemic would end.

    December 1, 2020
    Treatment
    Voice of America

  • With Emotional Instagram Memorial, AIDS Victims’ Stories Reach New Generation

    Nearly two decades after Bruce Bozzi Jr. lost his first love to AIDS, he revisited their love story in a social media post shared with tens of thousands of strangers.

    December 1, 2020
    General
    NBC News

  • WHO Backing Boosts New Vaginal Ring That Protects Against HIV

    Access to a long-acting vaginal ring, which was tested in SA, is a step closer after the World Health Organisation gave it the seal of approval. The ring's developers, the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM), said its addition to the WHO list of pre-qualified medicines will guide national and global procurement decisions, pending each country's regulatory approvals.

    December 1, 2020
    Microbicides
    Times Live

  • HIV Prevention Drugs Illustrate Just How Bad Pharmaceutical Patents Are for Our Health

    The United States is the only major economy on the planet where health care is a for-profit industry instead of a free public service; it's also the only place where the government allows health care not just to be run as an industry, but allows that industry to be run as a cartel. What this means in practice is that pharmacology—the study and development of pharmaceuticals—has become more a branch of industry than of science, and it is therefore controlled by lobbying interests rather than either science or the public good.

    December 1, 2020
    PrEP
    NBC News

  • This World AIDS Day the Global Response to HIV Stands on a Precipice

    In a pandemic, when policy falls short, people die. Amid the growing COVID-19 pandemic and the continuing HIV pandemic, this is clearer today than ever before. From rules on access to testing to the distribution of new medical technologies or the use of criminal law in public health, policymaking is fraught. This World AIDS Day, the global AIDS response stands on a precipice.

    December 1, 2020
    General
    The Guardian

  • Tortoise and the Hare: Why a COVID Vaccine Is Outrunning Its HIV Counterpart

    Four COVID jabs’ efficacy results have been released within less than a year after the trials had started. But this is far from the norm. Researchers have been working on HIV vaccines for over three decades — and we still don’t have one. Here’s why.

    December 1, 2020
    HIV Vaccine
    Bhekisisa

  • Where Are We in the Race for a HIV Vaccine?

    While progress in the race for effective COVID-19 vaccines has been rapid and impressive – with three vaccines so far appearing to be effective based on preliminary data, an effective HIV vaccine remains elusive. This is at least partly because the HI-virus is a much tougher nut to crack.

    November 30, 2020
    HIV Vaccine
    Spotlight

  • ‘Your Life Is Altered, but It’s Not the End’: Life With HIV, Stigma and Discrimination

    The dark days of the HIV pandemic are over, but patients still face social stigma and emotional distress that can push them to stop treatment or even into a deep depression. Hear it first-hand from people who’ve experienced it.

    November 30, 2020
    General
    Bhekisisa

  • Q&A: Putting AIDS Back on the Priority List in Asia

    HIV/AIDS may have fallen off the priority list for many countries and international bodies with the arrival of COVID-19, but advocacy for adequately funded responses must continue, according to Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman, president of the International AIDS Society.

    November 30, 2020
    General
    Devex

  • Battles Won – and Lost – Against AIDS Hold Valuable Lessons for Managing COVID-19

    World AIDS Day this year finds us still deep amid another pandemic – COVID-19. The highly infectious novel coronavirus has swept across the world, devastating health systems and laying waste to economies as governments introduced drastic measures to contain the spread. Not since the HIV/AIDS pandemic of the 1990s have countries faced such a common health threat.

    November 29, 2020
    General
    The Conversation

  • Nurses Are Playing a Bigger Role Than Ever in the Fight Against HIV – They Deserve More Support

    The first cases of HIV were reported in 1981. Since then, nurses all over the world have been at the forefront of the fight against the epidemic. They have stepped up to provide skilled care for those infected and affected by the virus.

    November 29, 2020
    Treatment
    The Conversation

  • COVID-19 Controls Used to Arrest, Torture HIV Sufferers

    Juna*, a 37-year-old transgender woman living with HIV, has been trapped for eight months in her tiny room in Chitwan, a city south-west of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. “Since this pandemic started I’m not able to go out and earn money. Police do not let us go out,” says Juna, sitting in the home that she shares with transgender friends. “Recently, I was just walking on the street near my home at around 7pm. They came and beat me so badly and took me into custody.

    November 25, 2020
    PrEP, Treatment
    SciDevNet

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