Pre Exposure Prophylaxis News and Research

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First Edition: August 12, 2014

Today's headlines include stories about how the federal government's experience with healthcare.gov has led to the creation of the U.S. Digital Service.

12 Aug 2014

Lancet report: Support sex workers to prevent HIV

Across the world, in high- and low-income countries, women, men, and transgender people who sell sex are subjected to repressive and discriminatory law, policy, and practice, which in turn fuel human rights violations against them, including violence and discrimination. All of these factors are preventing sex workers from accessing the services which they need in order to effectively prevent and treat HIV infection, according to a major new Series on HIV and sex workers, published in The Lancet.

23 Jul 2014

New guidelines integrate biomedical advances and behavioral interventions for HIV people

In an innovative approach to HIV prevention, an interdisciplinary group of experts has come together for the first time to lay out a framework of best practices to optimize the role of the clinician in achieving an AIDS-free generation.

21 Jul 2014

Failure to provide adequate HIV services threatens global progress on HIV response, warns WHO

Failure to provide adequate HIV services for key groups - men who have sex with men, people in prison, people who inject drugs, sex workers and transgender people - threatens global progress on the HIV response, warns WHO.

11 Jul 2014

Viewpoints: Working for benefits; fears for a pill to prevent HIV; possible Medicaid strategy for Virginia

[Economist Robert] Moffitt noted in an email that "the work incentives in the government safety net have greatly increased over the last 20 years: less welfare payments if you don't work, and much greater government payments if you do."

19 Jun 2014

Viewpoints: Political stand-off on insurance industry safeguards; VA's problems may lie in how government works

The Obama administration calls it an adjustment, Republicans call it a bailout and insurance companies call it the one thing that might keep them from raising rates and angering policyholders.

28 May 2014

HealthHIV: Nearly 50% of primary care providers lack knowledge about HIV treatment

Primary care providers who provide clinical HIV care (HIV PCPs) are experiencing rising HIV caseloads from newly insured patients under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), according to a national survey released today by HealthHIV.

2 May 2014

Study to understand why YMSM place themselves at risk for HIV transmission

The number of new HIV infections in the United States had remained steady in recent years, but rates among urban millennial gay, bisexual, and other young men who have sex with men (YMSM) have steadily increased in the past decade.

29 Apr 2014

FDA grants Orphan Drug Designation to Emergent BioSolutions' BioThrax for PEP of anthrax disease

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Orphan Drug Designation to BioThrax (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) for post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) of anthrax disease resulting from suspected or confirmed exposure to Bacillus anthracis.

21 Apr 2014

Community efforts boost people for HIV testing and reduce new infections

Communities in Africa and Thailand that worked together on HIV-prevention efforts saw not only a rise in HIV screening but a drop in new infections, according to a new study in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet Global Health.

16 Apr 2014

UNC receives $40M for clinical trials unit devoted to HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention and research

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a seven-year, more than $40 million award from the National Institutes of Health for a clinical trials unit that will implement the scientific agendas of five NIH networks devoted to HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and cure research.

27 Feb 2014

Janssen signs license agreement with PATH for early development HIV-1 medicine rilpivirine

Janssen R&D Ireland announced today it has signed a license agreement with PATH for the early development of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 medicine rilpivirine in a long-acting injection (depot formulation) as potential pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV infection.

25 Sep 2013

Experts address ethical issues raised by FDA's approval of Truvada for HIV prevention

The Food and Drug Administration's approval last year of the drug Truvada for prevention of HIV infection was a milestone in the fight against HIV/AIDS, but experts are cautioning that it is only the beginning of new ethical concerns for health care professionals, policy makers, researchers and those taking Truvada to prevent HIV infection.

1 Aug 2013

Viewpoints: A 'clever' fix for contraception coverage; Sanjay Gupta warns doctors to pay attention to health overhaul

Many nonprofit religious organizations have balked at having to insure their employees' birth control -- because they don't believe in artificial contraception -- under the Affordable Care Act. On Friday, the Obama administration announced a solution to this problem. The new health care law guarantees access to preventive services, and contraception falls, appropriately, into that category (Carla Hill, 6/28).

2 Jul 2013

New report shows steady progress in research and development for HIV vaccines

Recent breakthroughs in HIV prevention research have confirmed the promise of new options to help end the AIDS epidemic and highlight the urgent need for ongoing research to develop additional prevention options and support rapid rollout of proven ones.

1 Jul 2013

Study shows mathematical models can help assess effectiveness of HIV intervention combinations

South Africa is home to the largest HIV epidemic in the world with a total of 5.6 million people living with HIV. Large-scale clinical trials evaluating combination methods of prevention and treatment are often prohibitively expensive and take years to complete.

16 Apr 2013

Research shows immune system can destroy HIV through deactivation of vif gene

Human cells have an intrinsic capacity to destroy HIV. However, the virus has evolved to contain a gene that blocks this ability. When this gene is removed from the virus, the innate human immune system destroys HIV by mutating it to the point where it can no longer survive.

29 Mar 2013

Listen to women's needs when designing HIV prevention strategies

According to "results from a large HIV prevention trial among African women" known as VOICE and released last week, "none of the prevention methods tested in the study made a difference in HIV infection rates, because few women actually used them as directed," AVAC Executive Director Mitchell Warren writes in an opinion piece published in the Huffington Post's "Global Motherhood" blog.

12 Mar 2013

HIV prevention: don’t just target serodiscordant couples

A large proportion of heterosexual HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa occurs among stable couples who have sexual partners outside of their relationship, shows research published in The Lancet.

8 Feb 2013

AVAC report calls for greater access to combination prevention strategies, protection of research funding

AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention on Tuesday "released its annual report that calls for an ambitious pace of funding, implementation, and research," VOA News reports, noting the report, titled "Achieving the End: One Year and Counting," "calls for a three-part agenda for ending AIDS: Deliver, Demonstrate, and Develop."

29 Nov 2012