5 APRIL 2019 VOLUME 20 ISSUE 13

Media Coverage

• The Wrong Way to Eradicate HIV

  Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report detailing the state of the HIV epidemic in the United States. One finding stood out: Nearly 40 percent of new HIV transmissions come from a relatively small group of people who don’t know they have the virus.

  April 5, 2019

  General

  Politico

• New HIV Infections Can Be Prevented‚ Million-people Trial Shows

  Researchers have presented results from the HPTN 071 (PopART) study at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Seattle.

  April 5, 2019

  PrEP

  Sowetan Live

• Raltegravir plus Lamivudine Is Likely to Work as PrEP

  A combination of the drugs raltegravir and lamivudine produced acceptable drug levels in both women and men, in rectal and vaginal tissues, suggesting that the two drugs could provide an effective alternative to tenofovir-based pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the 25th Annual Conference of the British HIV Association (BHIVA) heard in Bournemouth yesterday.

  April 5, 2019

  PrEP

  aidsmap

• First Year of PrEP in Scotland: More Users than Expected, Few Dropouts, Few HIV Infections

  The recent report on the first year of the implementation of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) through the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland concludes: “Year one has been a resounding success in terms of establishing a new nationwide service – the first of its type in the UK and one of the first worldwide.”

  April 5, 2019

  PrEP

  aidsmap

• First-of-its-kind HIV Therapy Draws out the Virus, Then Kills It

  Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have developed an HIV immunotherapy that not only kicks the virus out of hiding, but also kills it permanently — the first step, they say, to an HIV vaccine.

  April 5, 2019

  Cure

  Futurism

• Systematic Analysis Suggests That Circumcision Helps Protect MSM from Infection with HIV

  Circumcisions reduced the odds of HIV infection by 23 percent for men who have sex with men, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies published in the Lancet Global Health. The protective effect was primarily seen in studies conducted in low- and middle-income regions where MSM are highly stigmatized and lacking in targeted HIV prevention resources.

  April 4, 2019

  Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision

  aidsmap

• Self-Testing: Experts Counsel Youth To Know HIV Status

  To achieve the 90-90-90 target of reducing HIV infection, a public health expert, Dr Oliver Ezechi, has urged Nigerian youths to know their HIV status through self-testing, noting that this will help in eliminating the disease.

  April 3, 2019

  General

  Independent Nigeria

• Media Challenged to Raise Awareness on HIV/AIDS

  Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) has appealed to the media fraternity to intensify efforts to raise public awareness about HIV/AIDS.

  April 3, 2019

  General

  New Times

• Adults at High Risk for HIV Show ‘Alarmingly’ Low HPV Vaccination Rate

  Adults at high risk for HIV infection based on injectable drug use or high-risk sexual behavior showed low rates of HPV vaccination, according to study results presented at American Association of Cancer Research Annual Meeting.

  April 2, 2019

  HPV Vaccines

  Healio

• Benefits of Landmark HIV Drug Outweigh Risks of Birth Defects, Study Shows

  The benefits of a landmark treatment for HIV outweigh the risks, despite the fact it has been linked to birth defects in babies born to mothers taking the drug, researchers have said.

  April 2, 2019

  Treatment

  The Telegraph

• Thailand: Retaining People in Care Key to PrEP Adherence

  Country-wide implementation of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for key affected populations in Thailand is well under way and providing important data about the sub-populations that are struggling to adhere to this important HIV prevention initiative.

  April 2, 2019

  PrEP

  Avert

• Trump’s HIV/AIDS Council Includes an Exec from the Company Accused of Price-Gouging HIV Drug — but It’s Lacking Voices from Vulnerable Communities

  The makeup of President Trump’s HIV/AIDS council is a bitter pill to swallow for many HIV activists. The Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) — which met in mid-March after dissolving in late 2017 — is missing significant voices dealing directly with the stigmas surrounding HIV such as poverty, racism, homophobia and transphobia, critics say.

  April 1, 2019

  PrEP

  New York Daily News

• Like London Buses, Two Putative Cure Cases Arrive at Once

  The unreliability of transport in London is summed up by the saying that you wait ages for your bus then two come along at once—and so it goes, apparently, with HIV cure stories.

  April 1, 2019

  Cure, General

  Lancet HIV

• Could Nigeria's HIV Rate Be Just Half What Was Thought?

  The preliminary results of one of the largest HIV surveys ever undertaken suggest the disease could be just half as prevalent in Nigeria as previously thought.

  April 1, 2019

  General

  Devex

Published Research

• PANGEA-HIV 2: Phylogenetics and Networks for Generalised Epidemics in Africa

  Combining phylogenetics, phylodynamics and epidemiology will allow PANGEA to highlight where prevention efforts should be focussed to reduce the HIV epidemic most effectively. To maximise the public health benefit of the data, PANGEA offers accreditation to external researchers, allowing them to access the data and join the consortium. We also welcome submissions of other HIV sequences from sub-Saharan Africa to the database.

  May 1, 2019

  General

  Current Opinion in HIV and AIDS

• HIV-1 Phylogenetics and Vaccines

  Compared with how widely HIV-1 diversity is recognized as a critical issue for vaccine research, relatively few genetically informed vaccine solutions have been compared, in part because the lack of correlates of protection against HIV-1 limits the ability to develop and test multiple vaccine candidates in a fully rational manner. Yet, recent findings have provided a better understanding of the viral features associated with the development of broad and potent neutralizing antibodies, offering new avenues for engineering vaccine candidates.

  May 1, 2019

  HIV Vaccine

  Current Opinion in HIV and AIDS

• Brief Report: PrEP Eligibility Among At-Risk Women in the Southern United States Associated Factors, Awareness, and Acceptability

  Extremely low PrEP awareness and use despite a high proportion of eligibility and acceptability signify a critical need to enhance PrEP education and delivery for women in this region. Supplementing CDC eligibility criteria with questions about history of sexual violence and HIV risk self-assessment may enhance PrEP screening and uptake among US women.

  April 15, 2019

  PrEP

  JAIDS

• Factors Associated With Sex-Related Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Adherence Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in New York City in HPTN 067

  This analysis identified populations of MSM who might benefit from additional support to optimize PrEP adherence, including those who are younger, unemployed, or opiate users. MSM with lower PrEP behavioral skills may benefit from targeted interventions. Further study is needed to assess racial and ethnic disparities in PrEP adherence, which may reflect broader social and economic inequalities not captured in this study.

  April 15, 2019

  PrEP

  JAIDS

• Defining Characteristics of Genital Health in South African Adolescent Girls and Young Women at High Risk for HIV Infection

  Since genital inflammation and the presence of activated CD4+ T cells in the genital tract have been implicated in increased HIV risk in South African women, the observed high levels of genital cellular activation and cytokines from AGYW may point towards biological factors increasing HIV risk in this region.

  April 4, 2019

  General

  PLoS One

• Integrated HIV Testing, Prevention, and Treatment Intervention for Key Populations in India: A Cluster-Randomised Trial

  Although integrated care centres increased HIV testing among visitors, our low exposure findings suggest that the scale-up of a single integrated care centre in most cities was insufficient to serve the large PWID and MSM populations. Future work should address the use of population size estimates to guide the dose of combination HIV interventions targeting key populations.

  April 2, 2019

  General

  Lancet HIV

• Risks and Benefits of Dolutegravir- and Efavirenz-Based Strategies for South African Women With HIV of Child-Bearing Potential: A Modeling Study

  Although NTD risks may be higher with dolutegravir than efavirenz, dolutegravir will lead to many fewer deaths among women, as well as fewer overall HIV transmissions. These results argue against a uniform policy of avoiding dolutegravir in women of child-bearing potential.

  April 2, 2019

  Treatment

  Annals of Internal Medicine

• Type 1-programmed Dendritic Cells Drive Antigen-specific Latency Reversal and Immune Elimination of Persistent HIV-1

  Inclusion of virus-associated MHC class II ‘helper’ antigens in MDC1-based HIV-1 immunotherapies could serve both as a targeted means to safely unmask antigen-specific CD4+ T cells harboring HIV-1, and to support CTL responses that can effectively target the MDC1-exposed HIV-1 cellular reservoir as a functional cure strategy.

  April 2, 2019

  Cure

  EBioMedicine

• Targeting Broadly Neutralizing Antibody Precursors: A Naïve Approach to Vaccine Design

  Germline-targeting immunogens hold promise as a first step in eliciting a bNAb response through vaccination. A better understating of how efficiently germline-targeting immunogens can specifically target rare bNAb precursors is emerging. In addition, a more comprehensive structure-based understanding of critical barriers to bNAb elicitation, as well as commonalities between bNAb classes can further inform vaccine design.

  April 1, 2019

  Antibody Related Research, HIV Vaccine

  Current Opinion in HIV and AIDS

• Effectiveness of a Couple-based HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention Intervention for Men in Community Supervision Programs and Their Female Sexual Partners A Randomized Clinical Trial

  The PACT intervention appeared to reduce risky sexual behaviors, such as condomless intercourse; this finding suggests that a couple-based HIV and STI prevention intervention program may curb the burgeoning HIV epidemic in CSPs.

  March 29, 2019

  General

  JAMA

• Feasibility of Conducting HIV Combination Prevention Interventions in Fishing Communities in Uganda: A Pilot Cluster Randomised Trial

  Recruitment and retention of participants in longitudinal trials in highly mobile HIV fishing communities is challenging. Future research should investigate modes for locating and retaining participants, and delivery of HIV-combination prevention.

  March 27, 2019

  Combination Prevention

  PLoS One

• Correlates of Nonadherence to Key Population-led HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Services among Thai Men Who Have Sex with Men and Transgender Women

  Urgent, innovative interventions for early PrEP adherence support among vulnerable sub-populations such as younger users, TGW, and new clients are needed to maximize prevention strategy in Thailand.

  March 21, 2019

  PrEP

  BMC Public Health

Announcements