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Positively Positive - Living with HIV/AIDS:
HIV/AIDS News Archive - April 2021
Study aims to improve tobacco treatment delivery for people with HIV
April 30, 2021 - MUSC Hollings Cancer Center researchers to evaluate impact of proactive opt-out approach to smoking cessation interventions
Researchers at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center have received more than $2 million from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to evaluate the impact of a proactive opt-out approach to smoking cessation on the health outcomes of people living with HIV.
Is an Antiviral Pill to Ease COVID Severity on the Way?
April 30, 2021 - While COVID-19 research efforts must now shift toward the development of a pill that can prevent serious illness in the recently infected, experts say.
"We need a pill that can keep people out of the hospital, and the time to develop that is right now," Dr. Rajesh Gandhi said during a Thursday media briefing by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He is director of HIV Clinical Services and Education at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
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‘Shameful’ Tory government slashes funding to fight AIDS and HIV by more than £10 millioned
APRIL 30, 2021 - MAGGIE BASKA - The UK government has cut funding to the UN agency fighting HIV and AIDS by more than 80 per cent in a “shameful” and “maddeningly short-sighted” move.
UNAIDS said the UK government had informed the organisation that it will receive £2.5 million in funding for 2021. It received £15 million from the UK in 2020. So this represents a major cut of £12.5 million – more than 80 per cent – in funding to an organisation that helps fight HIV and AIDS worldwide.
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Researchers warn that poor mental health may increase vulnerability to HIV
30 April 2021 - South African study finds one in five young women have poor mental health as researchers urge HIV prevention programmes to provide mental health support.
Researchers are warning that high levels of mental health issues seen among adolescent girls and young women in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa may be increasing their vulnerability to HIV.
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700% Spike in HIV Cases in One Ohio County
April 30, 2021 - By Trenton Straube - “While this represents just eight new cases…we need to understand [this] so we can implement prevention tactics.”
Butler County, Ohio, experienced a 700% jump in HIV cases since January 1, compared with the same time period last year, reports WCPO 9 News. The new HIV diagnoses are linked to injection drug use.
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Viral Load, Stroke Risk May Go Hand in Hand
April 30, 2021 - By Heather Boerner - Stroke is the number one killer of Americans—and nearly twice as common in Black Americans—but the effect of HIV viral load hasn’t been clear.
People with an HIV viral load above 10,000 already face a number of HIV-related health issues. But now, a paper published in the journal Epidemiology suggests that it can add stroke to their risks, too.
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United Nations Secretary-General calls for a greater focus on ending inequalities to end AIDS
NEW YORK, 30 April 2021 - Forty years since the first AIDS cases were reported and just weeks before the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AIDS, the United Nations Secretary-General has released a new report with recommendations and targets to get the world on track to end AIDS
The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has warned that despite intensive action and progress made against HIV in some places and population groups, HIV epidemics continue to expand in others and issued a set of 10 key recommendations.* If followed by all countries, this will end the AIDS pandemic as a public health threat by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. In a new report, Addressing inequalities and getting back on track to end AIDS by 2030, the United Nations Secretary-General urges the world to address the inequalities that are slowing progress.
How will HIV services be provided when the pandemic is over?
30 April 2021 - Roger Pebody - The large shift from face-to-face to telephone appointments in HIV services over the last year has identified some advantages, possibilities and challenges, explored in numerous presentations at the joint British HIV Association and British Association of Sexual Health and HIV conference last week.
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UNAIDS welcomes Lord Fowler as an ambassador
GENEVA,30 April 2021 - Norman Fowler, the pioneering United Kingdom Secretary of State for Health, human rights campaigner and respected Lords Speaker, will champion law reform, health for all and girls’ education worldwide to help end HIV as an ambassador for UNAIDS.
Lord Fowler, who steps down as Lord Speaker at the end of April, will take up his new role as an advocate on AIDS in May 2021.
Clark County author pens novel about AIDS epidemic
APRIL 29, 2021 - By Scott Hewitt - His fourth book, set in Portland, focuses on pioneers of epidemic
When a mysterious epidemic started ravaging the globe, many vulnerable people didn’t want to get tested for the virus. They didn’t want their families and friends to know the truth. They didn’t want their partners to know. Sometimes, they didn’t want to know.
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UNAIDS statement on UK’s proposed reduction in financial support
GENEVA, 29 April 2021 - The government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) has informed UNAIDS that funding for UNAIDS for 2021 is confirmed at GBP 2.5 million, compared to the GBP 15 million received by UNAIDS from the UK for 2020.
Texas Health Action expands access to virtual HIV prevention, HIV care and gender affirming care in rural areas
AUSTIN, Texas, April 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas residents will have access to free virtual services through TeleKind with optional at-home testing and prescription delivery
Texas Health Action (THA) is the first non-profit organization in the country to launch a statewide telehealth service that provides access to HIV prevention & care and gender affirming care at little to no cost to the patient. TeleKind, the organization's new program, allows any Texas resident 18 years and older to access comprehensive sexual health services regardless of gender identity, gender expression, race, creed, sexual orientation, immigration status, or ability to pay.
Few Young Adult Men Have Gotten the HPV Vaccine
April 27, 2021 - But they should: A cancer found in the throat is now the leading cancer caused by HPV — and 80% of those diagnosed are men.
The COVID-19 vaccine isn’t having any trouble attracting suitors.
But there’s another, older model that’s been mostly ignored by the young men of America: the HPV vaccine.
The art of queer health sciences: U-M students translate research through art in new exhibition
April 28, 2021 - The exhibition, “The Art of Queer Health Sciences,” will be on view on the windows of several downtown Ann Arbor businesses until May 5. Locations include Cahoots, Abracadabra, Vault of Midnight, Vinology, Thrive Juicery, Avalon Cafe, Bløm Meadworks and Zingerman’s Greyline.
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How Many Relationships Has HIV Stigma Destroyed?
APRIL 27, 2021 - By Neal Broverman - Ten years ago, a serodiscordant relationship withered. Now, the concept of undetectable equals untransmittable may overcome HIV paranoia.
Over a decade ago, I had a boyfriend — let’s call him Dennis — I was head over heels for. He was handsome, funny, soulful. Sadly, we had a lot going against us — his professional life was in flux, he was in addiction recovery, I was overly eager to have a boyfriend. Another thing drove a wedge between us: his HIV-positive status.
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Some Nigerians With HIV Are Being Conned Into Thinking There’s a Cure
April 27,2021 - UGONNA-Ora Qwoh - When Michael tested positive with HIV in August 2017, he was confused. He didn’t think he could get the virus, since he always used protection. He found out after falling ill and going to the hospital, where he underwent a series of tests.
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Son writes movingly of his gay dads, lost to AIDS within a week of each other
April 27, 2021 - By David Hudson - A new posting to the AIDS Memorial’s social media has gone viral and prompted lots of comments and shares on Instagram and Facebook.
The photo was submitted by Noel Arce (@elevatormusiiic), who is gay and lives in New York. It shows him and his two brothers in the early 1990s, along with the two men who parented them for around six years of their childhood.
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Youth HIV AIDS awareness posters. "What If It Were You?" One Tough Pirate Productions #HIV #AIDS
Collection by Bob Bowers
All HIV/AIDS awareness posters were created by high school students and are property of One Tough Pirate Productions Inc., Eugene, Oregon.
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An atlas of HIV's favorite targets in the blood of infected individuals
April 27, 2021 - BY FRANÇOISE CHANUT - Gladstone researchers have identified the blood cells most likely to be targeted by HIV during a real-life infection
In the 40-some years since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, scientists have learned a lot about the virus, the disease, and ways to treat it. But one thing they still don’t completely understand is which exact cells are most susceptible to HIV infection.
Dr. Julie Overbaugh elected to National Academy of Sciences
APRIL 27, 2021 - BY SABRINA RICHARDS - HIV research revealed factors influencing transmission
Virologist Dr. Julie Overbaugh, who studies factors that shape HIV transmission, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
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John C. Martin, 69, Dies; Led Drugmaker in Breakthroughs
April 27, 2021 - By Sam Roberts - A chemist by training, he turned Gilead Sciences into a leading, and lucrative, innovator with single-pill treatments for H.I.V. and hepatitis C.
John C. Martin, who became a billionaire by developing and marketing a daily single-dose pill that transformed H.I.V. into a manageable disease and who popularized another drug that cures hepatitis C, died on March 30 in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 69.
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Remembering Patient Zero and the Wreckage of Antigay HIV Fear
APRIL 26 2021 - BY MATTHEW HAYS - A new documentary on HIV's supposed Patient Zero features commentary from writer Richard Vaughan, who recently died by suicide.
It was a beautiful, sunny spring morning in 2019. I awoke to a message from my friend, Richard Vaughan, who was in Toronto and had caught the opening of a new film at the Hot Docs Film Festival the previous night.
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Elton John’s Pre-Oscar Party Raises $3M to End HIV/AIDS
April 26, 2021 - By Trenton Straube - If you hurry, you can still watch Dua Lipa, the cast of “It’s a Sin” and other celebs at Elton John’s virtual HIV fundraiser.
Hours before Glenn Close danced “Da Butt” and Rita Moreno announced Nomadland as the best picture of the year, the Elton John AIDS Foundation had already raised $3 million during its annual Oscars pre-party.
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New Clues to the Conundrum of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission
APRIL 26, 2021- Each year over 150,000 infants worldwide are infected with HIV in the womb, at birth, or through breastfeeding. Why transmission occurs in some cases but not others has long been a mystery, but now a team led by Weill Cornell Medicine and Duke University scientists has uncovered an important clue, with implications for how to eliminate infant HIV infections.
More than half of Generation Z gay, bisexual teenage boys report being out to parents
April 26 2021 - WASHINGTON - Despite progress, group still faces barriers
A majority of gay and bisexual Generation Z teenage boys report being out to their parents, part of an uptick in coming out among young people that researchers have noted in recent decades, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. However, stigma and religious beliefs still prevent some young people from disclosing their sexual identity.
This study offers a glimpse into the coming out practices of Generation Z, those born between 1998 and 2010, a group that researchers are only beginning to study.
Stigma Remains a Barrier in HIV Prevention and Treatment
26-Apr-2021 - by Rutgers School of Public Health - Stigma is a major obstacle to engaging both HIV-negative and HIV-positive gay and bisexual men in prevention, treatment, and care
Stigma and discrimination, such as homophobia and racism, impede engagement in HIV prevention and use of biomedical tools for treatment in both HIV-negative and HIV-positive gay and bisexual men, according to a Rutgers study.
The paper, published in AIDS and Behavior, examined the impact of stigma on HIV-related outcomes among gay and bisexual men in the U.S.
IAS President Adeeba Kamarulzaman appointed to WHO Science Council
Monday, 26 April 2021 (Geneva, Switzerland): IAS – the International AIDS Society – welcomes the appointment of its President, AdeebaKamarulzaman, to the newly formed World Health Organization (WHO) Science Council.
The Science Council will advise WHO on high-priority scientific issues that could have a direct impact on global health.
In fight against HIV/AIDS, SUA gives a lesson to students
April 24, 2021 - On Saturday, April 24, 2021, Sokoine University of Agriculture through the Department of Hospital Services organized a one-day peer education training for student representatives from all study programs in order to increase the awareness, understanding, and how they can protect themselves and avoid the spread of HIV / AIDS and other non-communicable diseases
During the training, the students were taught various topics on how to protect themselves from various diseases and infections by specialist doctors of all diseases and also listened to testimonies from people living with HIV in Morogoro region.
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HIV Drugs Run Short in Kenya as People say Lives at Risk
April 24, 2021 - NAIROBI - Kenyans living with HIV say their lives are in danger due to a shortage of anti-retroviral drugs donated by the United States amid a dispute between the U.S. aid agency and the Kenyan government.
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The doctor who unearthed Ratodero’s HIV epidemic
April 24, 2021 - Sameer Mandhro - Two years on, Dr Arbani continues to serve his patients, despite no assistance from govt
It was on April 24, 2019 that the world was familiarised with a scare that had been plaguing Ratodero, a remote, sleepy town located 30 kilometres north of Larkana, for days, or may be weeks, or even months. For the rest of the world, it was the beginning of a terrifying tale that it would witness from afar. For the unsuspecting residents of Rato Dero, it was the dawn of the realisation that they were in the middle of an emergency with seemingly no end in sight.
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People With HIV Diagnosed with Dementia 13 Years Earlier
April 23, 2021 - By Heather Boerner - In the context of universal health care, this may be a result of more frequent access to care.
People living with HIV in Canada had eight times the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other non-AIDS-related dementia as their HIV-negative counterparts, and they were diagnosed 12.5 years earlier, according to an analysis published in BMJ Open. They also had higher rates of several other age-related chronic conditions.
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The King of AIDS Treatments Is Turning to COVID-19
APRIL 23, 2021 - MICHAEL WATERS - There are few drugs proven to help people infected with the coronavirus, and it’s giving John James déjà vu.
At the LGBTQ senior community where John James lives in Philadelphia, residents keep busy with trips to the garden or—before the pandemic—screenings of Strangers on a Train in the rec room. James does not care for any of that right now. Each morning, he combs through medical-research databases and downloads every paper he can find on COVID-19 treatments, scribbling notes about the parts that stand out. Most days, he reads papers at his desk until 1 a.m. Besides research, “there’s not much else I do in the day,” he told me. “I’m 79. I’m retired. I want to do things that are serious.”
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What to know about rapid, at-home HIV tests
It is advisable for anyone who thinks that they may have HIV to visit a healthcare professional. However, at-home tests can provide a rapid result, potentially alleviating a person’s concerns while they are waiting for an appointment.
As HIV does not alwaysTrusted Source cause symptoms in the early stages, anyone who suspects that they have had exposure to the virus should see a doctor even if they do not have any symptoms. Having unprotected sex and sharing needles to inject drugs are examples of activities that can expose a person to HIV.
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Free HIV tests could help fill gaps, but advocates say better access needed
APRIL 23, 2021 - Haley Ryan - National research group offering at-home kits as part of annual survey
Nova Scotia sexual health advocates say the free rapid HIV testing being offered this year as part of a national study helps fill a gap, but more needs to be done to help people get tested.
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World-renowned anthropologist Paul Rabinow dies at 76
APRIL 23, 2021 - By Yasmin Anwar -Paul Rabinow, a world-renowned anthropologist, theorist and interlocutor of French philosopher Michel Foucault, his former comrade, died from cancer at his home in Berkeley on April 6. He was 76.
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Canada’s Bruce House on Pandemic-Mandated Service Changes for Its Clients Living With HIV
April 21, 2021 - Bruce House in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, has been serving individuals living with HIV and AIDS for 33 years. This video excerpt, in which we speak with Patrick Morley, office and communications coordinator, is part of our second entry in a series on individuals and international organizations working to bring local and global awareness to the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic, which is marking its 40th anniversary this year.
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Smoking Cigarettes, but Not Pot, Linked to Increased Heart Disease
April 21, 2021 - By Heather Boerner - The more someone smoked, the more likely they were to be diagnosed with heart problems.
It may be that all smoking isn’t bad for you in the same way. According to an analysis published in EClinical Medicine, smoking cigarettes is far more likely to lead to heart disease than smoking marijuana.
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Can HIV Treatment Be Taken Just 4 Days a Week?
April 20, 2021 - Liz Highleyman - Taking meds for four days followed by three days off maintained viral suppression for two years.
Taking antiretroviral treatment for four consecutive days each week followed by a three-day break maintains viral suppression as well as a daily regimen, according to a study presented at the recent virtual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic infection (CROI).
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Health officials struggle to contain Boston HIV outbreak
April 20, 2021 - By Felice J. Freyer - Public health officials are struggling to contain an outbreak of HIV among homeless drug users in Boston that has persisted since early 2019 and likely worsened as the pandemic limited access to services such as testing.
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Risk of dying from COVID-19 doubled for people with HIV in England
20 April 2021 - Keith Alcorn - People with HIV in England had double the risk of dying compared to the rest of the population during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic up to 16 June 2020, Dr Sara Croxford of Public Health England reported at the joint British HIV Association and British Association of Sexual Health and HIV conference today.
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Bisexual men feel more HIV stigma, are lonelier and more socially isolated than gay men
20 April 2021 - Krishen Samuel - Bisexual men living with HIV in Australia reported greater levels of self-stigma, worse self-image and poorer emotional wellbeing compared to gay men. They also reported less social support and fewer connections to the LGBTQ community and to other people living with HIV. These men expressed feelings of social isolation and highlighted fears of rejection associated with their HIV diagnoses.
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Study finds dramatic gains in life expectancy for people with HIV in Latin America
20-APR-2021 - In 2003 in Haiti, a 20-year-old in treatment for HIV could have expected to live to 34. But as of 2017, life expectancy for a 20-year-old in treatment for HIV in Haiti is now 61, compared to 70 for Haiti's general population.
A research team from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and institutions across Latin America today reports what looks to be far the largest study to date of life expectancy for people living with HIV infection in low-income or middle-income countries.
Study looks at how HIV self-tests can help queer people overcome health-care hurdles
April 20, 2021 - Adina Bresge - Researchers are sending out thousands of free HIV self-test kits as part of a study to help gay men and queer people overcome barriers to getting screened.
The Community-Based Research Centre says longstanding issues such as stigma and lack of access to testing have become even more pronounced during the COVID-19 crisis, which has shuttered many sexual health clinics across the country.
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Noncalcified coronary plaque burden higher in people with HIV
20-APR-2021 - OAK BROOK, Ill. - People living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and without known cardiovascular disease have two to three times the noncalcified coronary plaque burden of non-HIV healthy volunteers, according to a study from Canada published in Radiology. Researchers said the results underscore the importance of a heart-healthy lifestyle in people living with HIV.
A Global Health Crisis To Shape a New Globalisation
April 19, 2021 - By Enrique Restoy, PhD - Ironically, the biggest global health threat since AIDS might have certified the demise of globalisation as we know it.
We have witnessed a fragmented, disorganised and unequal response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Lessons from HIV Pandemic Can Inform COVID-19 Pandemic Public Health Initiatives, Say Pitt Researchers
April 19, 2021 - By Sarah Katz - Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh published a perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine drawing parallels between the HIV epidemic in Africa and the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe. The researchers hope that lessons from the past will inform future scientific and governmental decisions.
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Location, location, location: therapeutic T cells traffic to HIV reservoirs
April 19, 2021 - BY LEAH SCHMIDT - From the Kiem Lab, Clinical Research Division
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals are typically treated with daily doses of antiretroviral therapy (ART), which dramatically limits viral burden and prevents virus-associated morbidity but does not cure the disease. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has yielded rare cures for HIV, including the well-publicized Berlin and London patients.
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World AIDS Day Awareness Streaming and DVD Resources
Background
World AIDS Day has a special place in the history of the AIDS pandemic. Since 1988, December 1st has been a day bringing messages of compassion, hope, solidarity and understanding about AIDS to every country in the world, North and South, East and West.
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Injectable HIV therapy would have to cost less than $131 a year to be cost-effective in Africa
16 April 2021 - Gus Cairns - A cost-effectiveness analysis has found that injectable, long-lasting antiretroviral therapy (ART) would need to cost no more than $131 a year in order to be cost-effective if used for patients who are not fully virally suppressed in lower-income settings in regions like sub-Saharan Africa.
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Why an HIV prevention drug isn't getting into the hands of those who need it most
Apr 15, 2021 - PrEP was added to provincial formulary in 2018, but there are limitations
HIV-1, which causes AIDS, navigates a labyrinth of immune sensors and anti-viral attackers in order to reach a target-cell nucleus, where it permanently integrates into human DNA and spreads infection. How the virus traffics through this hostile environment has been a relative “black box” of mystery compared to other parts of the life cycle.
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Pancreatic and colorectal cancer risk raised in people with hepatitis C and HIV
15 April 2021 - Keith Alcorn - Pancreatic cancer occurred more often in people with hepatitis C or HIV in Canada’s British Columbia Hepatitis Testers Cohort, and colorectal cancer was more likely to occur in people diagnosed with hepatitis B or C, or HIV, cohort investigators report in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology.
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UNC Researchers Receive $3.74 Million to Create Injectable Technology for Contraception, HIV Prevention
15-Apr-2021- Newswise - CHAPEL HILL, NC - Rahima Benhabbour, MSc, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC/NCSU Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), is leading a collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop the first ultra-long-acting injectable multi-purpose prevention technology (MPT) for prevention of HIV and unplanned pregnancy.
The lab of Rahima Benhabbour, PhD, has received a $3.74 million grant over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant will fund the creation of an injectable that will provide long-acting protection for women against sexually transmitted pathogens and prevent pregnancy, but is also removable.
Researchers Find Protein That Helps HIV-1 Navigate Through Cell
April 15, 2021 - Chris Casey - Proteins could become targets for long-acting therapies for patients suffering from AIDS-related illnesses
HIV-1, which causes AIDS, navigates a labyrinth of immune sensors and anti-viral attackers in order to reach a target-cell nucleus, where it permanently integrates into human DNA and spreads infection. How the virus traffics through this hostile environment has been a relative “black box” of mystery compared to other parts of the life cycle.
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Ending the HIV Epidemic, a panel discussion April 21
Join UC Libraries online Wednesday, April 21, 1:00 p.m. for “Ending the HIV Epidemic,” a panel discussion. Learn from various Cincinnati area HIV/AIDS service providers about how long-standing HIV prevention efforts combined with education on treatment, viral load suppression and concerted efforts by multiple agencies are being utilized to make HIV infection a thing of the past and how the public can assist. Registration required.
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Calls For A U.K. National AIDS Memorial Grow
Apr 14, 2021 - Jamie Wareham - Celebrities including It’s A Sin actors Neil Ashton and Jill Nalder have joined Paul Weller in calling for a National AIDS Memorial in the U.K, say the organisers of Project Lighthouse.
One group are aiming to raise £150,000 to create a National AIDS Memorial at the former site of the famous London Lighthouse hospice.
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Study highlights severe lack of evidence on strategies to keep heterosexual men in HIV care
14 April 2021 - Evidence review finds very few studies have investigated ways to keep heterosexual men in HIV care in Africa, despite men being more likely than women to die from AIDS-related illness.
A systematic evidence review that set out to identify and appraise strategies to keep heterosexual men in sub-Saharan Africa in HIV care has found very little evidence to assess.
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HIV disclosure improves parent-child relationships
14 April 2021 - Bakita Kasadha - HIV-positive mothers who share their status with their HIV-negative children report greater communication and improved relationships, report Dr Nada Goodrum of Medical University of South Carolina and colleagues in Child Development. The US study shows that mothers who had disclosed saw greater decreases in parenting stress compared with those who did not. The study suggests that HIV disclosure enhances open communication and closer bonds within parent-child relationships.
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The impact of COVID-19 on HIV, TB and malaria services and systems for health
A snapshot from 502 health facilities across Africa and Asia
13 April 2021 - A new report by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria provides a snapshot detailing the impact of COVID-19 on health service delivery for HIV, TB and malaria in 32 countries across Africa and Asia, and highlights the adaptive measures that health facilities adopted to counter the disruption to their services caused by the pandemic.
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What to know about ARS symptoms
Acute retroviral syndrome (ARS) is the initial, acute stage of an HIV infection. ARS symptoms, which resemble influenza symptoms, appear within several weeks of exposure to the virus and usually last from a few days to a few weeks.
April 13, 2021 - Written by Zia Sherrell, MPH - HIV is a virus that affects the immune system and progresses through three stages.
After exposure to HIV, a person may develop various symptoms that resemble those of influenza, or the flu. These symptoms indicate the first stage of HIV infection, which is called ARS.
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Contemporary Pediatrics® Announces Strategic Alliance Partnership (SAP) with Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
CRANBURY, N.J., April 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Contemporary Pediatrics®, a trusted multimedia platform featuring clinical articles, case studies, and practice management tips for pediatricians and other pediatric health care providers, has announced the addition of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) to its Strategic Alliance Partnership (SAP) program.
HIV Prevention at CROI 2021. NATAP Report by Renee Heffron, PhD and Connie Celum, MD, University of Washington
April 13, 2021 - By Anna Funk - CROI 2021 was held virtually and was highly successful in terms of the quality of the plenaries, oral abstract sessions, and the use of Science Spotlights to make the poster sessions interactive in a virtual context.
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How Close Are We to a Cure for HIV?
April 13, 2021 - By Anna Funk - Promising new research may soon help treat, and one day cure, the chronic disease.
Just over a decade ago, researchers announced a first: They had cured a patient of HIV. Known as the Berlin patient, Timothy Ray Brown had needed a bone marrow transplant to treat his acute myeloid leukemia. Doctors used the opportunity to replace his bone marrow using stem cells from a donor with gene-based HIV immunity. It worked: Brown’s leukemia was cured, as was his HIV. More recently, in 2019, a second patient, this time being treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, was similarly cured in London.
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BEHIND THE MASK: PUBLIC HEALTH INNOVATOR DR. STEPHAUN E. WALLACE
April 13, 2021 - by Shann Thomas - Dr. Stephaun E. Wallace already had a lengthy list of job titles: the director of external relations for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s (Fred Hutch) HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), faculty appointments at Fred Hutch and the University of Washington (UW), as a staff scientist and clinical assistant professor respectively, in addition to launching the inaugural Office of Community Engagement for the UW/Fred Hutch Center for AIDS Research.
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Original Dreamgirls Reunite for RWQuarantunes Concert, Raising Over $1.3 Million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
APRIL 13, 2021 - BY ANDREW GANS - The virtual event also featured performances by Tony winners Heather Headley, Bernadette Peters, Kristin Chenoweth, and James Monroe Iglehart.
The evening was streamed live from the bare stage of Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre, home to Disney’s Aladdin, and raised $1,309,970 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The concert was the third evening benefiting the fundraising organization: A June 27, 2020 RWQuarantunes concert raised $867,767 for Broadway Cares, while the October 18, 2020, evening raised $1,238,273.
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Benefits of continuing to provide life-saving HIV services outweigh the risk of COVID-19 transmission by 100 to 1
GENEVA,13 April 2021 - Disruption to HIV services as high as 75% has been reported in some countries—to prevent increased AIDS-related deaths, HIV services must continue during the COVID-19 pandemic
UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) have supported mathematical modelling to establish the benefits of continuing HIV services compared to the potential harm of additional COVID-19 transmission. The analysis shows that maintaining HIV services would avert between 19 and 146 AIDS-related deaths per 10 000 people over a 50-year time horizon, while the additional COVID-19-related deaths from exposures related to HIV services would be 0.002 to 0.15 per 10 000 people. The analysis demonstrates that the benefits of continuing to provide HIV services during the COVID-19 pandemic far outweigh the risk of additional COVID-19-related deaths.
McMaster and SFU to lead national network for modelling infectious disease epidemics
APRIL 12, 2021 - BY MICHELLE DONOVAN - A team of researchers at McMaster, Simon Fraser University and several other universities across the country, has received $2.5-million in funding from the federal government to establish a national network to track the spread of infectious disease.
Fungal disease diagnosis is life saver for patients with HIV and AIDS
12 April 2021 - A fungal disease diagnostic and educational programme has had a transformational impact on the mortality of HIV patients in Guatemala, according to new research.
And the programme, say scientists at the Asociacio´n de Salud Integral (ASI) in Guatemala City and The University of Manchester, will save lives in countries across the developing world if implemented.
New test better detects reservoir of virus in HIV patients
April 12, 2021 - Study may improve clinical trials of therapeutics aimed at curing human immunodeficiency virus, UW Medicine researcher says.
A new test that measures the quantity and quality of inactive HIV viruses in the genes of people living with HIV may eventually give researchers a better idea of what drugs work best at curing the disease.
Currently no cure exists for HIV and AIDS. But antiretroviral therapy drugs, or ARTs, effectively suppress the virus to undetectable levels, but when ART is stopped, HIV reactivates to rekindle active infection.
Permanent memorial to those lost to the AIDS crisis to finally be unveiled
APRIL 12, 2021 - MAGGIE BASKA - A permanent memorial for those who lost their lives to the HIV and AIDS crisis will have its home in London’s Tottenham Court Road.
The sculpture will sit in Tottenham Court Road near the former Middlesex Hospital, which was where the UK’s first AIDS unit was opened by Princess Diana in 1987.
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Hero volunteers of the AIDS crisis tell their stories at last
12 April 2021 - Sarah Maguire - Forty years since HIV/AIDS began taking lives, stories of the Australian volunteers who cared for the dying during the crisis years have been told in a moving new book co-authored by Macquarie University historian Robert Reynolds.
Jim Battiscombe discovered he was HIV positive in 1990, and spent the first two years of his diagnosis caring for his partner Peter, who had been diagnosed at the same time but quickly developed full-blown AIDS.
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Lipid nanoparticle encapsulated nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccines elicit polyfunctional HIV-1 antibodies comparable to proteins in nonhuman primates
April 9, 2021 - ABSTACT
The development of an effective AIDS vaccine remains a challenge. Nucleoside-modified mRNAs formulated in lipid nanoparticles (mRNA-LNP) have proved to be a potent mode of immunization against infectious diseases in preclinical studies, and are being tested for SARS-CoV-2 in humans.
National AIDS Memorial Celebrates Recent Pedro Zamora Scholars for their Community Engagement on National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day
San Francisco, April 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Applications for 2021 Award Now Being Accepted for social justice program funded through the support of ViiV Healthcare
The National AIDS Memorial is marking National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day by celebrating its most recent Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship recipients, highlighting their work on campus and in their communities. The memorial has created a special section on its scholarship website highlighting their work, impact and commitment to social change, particularly around HIV/AIDS, which continues to disproportionately impact young people and communities of color.
National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day 2021
April 9, 2021 - By Trenton Straube - #NYHAAD is Saturday, April 10, and youth HIV advocates want your help to repeal HIV discrimination. Here’s their plan.
Saturday, April 10, marks National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day (NYHAAD) 2021. Traditionally, it’s a “day to educate the public about the impact of HIV and AIDS on young people,” according to the nonprofit Advocates for Youth, which spearheads NYHAAD. The group adds, “The day also highlights the HIV prevention, treatment and care campaigns of young people in the U.S.”
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For a Life Beyond HIV
April 9, 2021 - For a Life Beyond HIV is a non-promotional and educational virtual congress funded and organized by Gilead Sciences.
This 7-week event will bring world-leading HIV specialists, nurses and other healthcare professionals together with members of the community from across the globe to share and learn in the same environment.
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Biden seeks to ramp up funds to beat HIV/AIDS in budget request
April 9, 2021 - by Chris Johnson - President Biden, unveiling on Friday his initial budget request to Congress in the first year of his administration, called for ramping up funds to beat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, signaling he’d continue the PrEP-centric initiative that began in the previous administration.
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Reinfection after hepatitis C cure in people with HIV predicted by sexually transmitted infections
9 April 2021 - Keith Alcorn - Screening for sexually transmitted infections in people coinfected with HIV and hepatitis C during or shortly after completing direct-acting antiviral treatment to cure hepatitis C may predict which patients are at higher risk of hepatitis C reinfection, a study carried out in San Diego reports.
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This day in history, April 8: Ryan White, the teenage AIDS patient whose battle for acceptance gained national attention, dies in Indianapolis at age 18
April 8,2021 - By ASSOCIATED PRESS - On April 8, 1990, Ryan White, the teenage AIDS patient whose battle for acceptance had gained national attention, died in Indianapolis at age 18.
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HIV Is On the Loose in West Virginia, and So Is a Moral Panic About Needle Exchanges
APR 08, 2021 - The state is like the “Titanic sailing right for the iceberg, and you can’t do anything to stop it.”
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An HIV vaccine could arrive sooner than we thought—using Moderna’s mRNA tech
April 8,2021 - BY HANNAH SEO - A new vaccine trial in humans shows promising results.
More than 60 years after the first known case of human HIV infection, and 40 years after the beginning of the deadly HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, a vaccine could be on the horizon.
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How One Canadian Province Hit Its Lowest Rate of HIV Transmission Ever
APRIL 8,2021 -
Ray Mwareya - Even at a time of other competing pandemic-status viruses, it is possible for a state or country to move from being an HIV hotspot to achieving the slowest transmission rates. British Columbia (BC), a province in Canada, is one such illustrious example.
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What are the early symptoms of HIV?
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a contagious disease that currently has no cure. Without treatment, it can severely weaken a person’s immune system and can be fatal.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source, people with HIV do not always have symptoms in the early stages.
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A worldwide epidemic decades before the pandemic: 40 years of AIDS artifacts and stories aim to teach recent history and honor millions lost
April 8,2021 - By Alexandra Pecharich - Social work professor Shed Boren’s labor of love offers lessons and memories through an ambitious new exhibition at the Coral Gables Museum
Huston Ochoa MSW ’20 weeps silently as his former professor and another man unfurl the 12-foot-square, stitched-together fabric. He sees there at the bottom, for the first time in nearly three decades, the colorful rectangle that his 3-year-old self and extended family decorated in honor of his deceased parents.
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Researchers gain wisdom, key recommendations, from First Nations People living with HIV/AIDS
8 APRIL 2021 - By Megan Mueller - Through storytelling meetings with First Nations people living with HIV/AIDS, a health researcher gains key policy and funding recommendations — nothing short of a call for action that will help to decolonise the HIV cascade of care for Indigenous Peoples.
Health Professor Sean Hillier, a Mi’kmaw scholar from the Qalipu First Nation, Chair of the Indigenous Council at York University and special advisor to the dean of Health on Indigenous Resurgence, is a driving force for positive change. He is an expert on the impact of policy on health care delivery in First Nations communities and in particular for those living with HIV/AIDS.
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NIH experts call for accelerated research to address concurrent HIV and COVID-19 pandemics
April 08, 2021 - The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting people with or at risk for HIV both indirectly, by interfering with HIV treatment and prevention services, and directly, by threatening individual health. An effective response to these dual pandemics requires unprecedented collaboration to accelerate basic and clinical research, as well as implementation science to expeditiously introduce evidence-based strategies into real-world settings. This message comes from a review article co-authored by Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and colleagues published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Laverne Cox, Sterling K. Brown to star in 'The Normal Heart' virtual benefit reading
Apr 8, 2021 - Phillip Zonkel - Laverne Cox, Guillermo Díaz, and Ryan O’Connell are among an all-star cast who will perform a virtual benefit reading of Larry Kramer’s Tony Award winning play “The Normal Heart” that will be directed by Paris Barclay.
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HRSA Observes National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
April 08, 2021 - This Saturday, April 10, is National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) observes this day every year to raise awareness of the impact of HIV/AIDS on youth and to highlight the work we are doing to help provide care and treatment for youth and young adults with HIV.
MHRP Phase 2 Clinical Trial Launches to Evaluate IL-15 Agonist as Therapy to Reduce Establishment of HIV Reservoir
SILVER SPRING, Md.- April 8, 2021 - The U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research last week launched a Phase 2 clinical trial in Thailand to evaluate an interleukin-15 (IL-15) superagonist, ImmunityBio’s Anktiva® (also called N-803), administered during acute HIV infection as an experimental therapy to target establishment of the HIV reservoir at a very early stage.
AIDSWatch 2021: Molecular HIV Surveillance
April 7, 2021 - AIDS United
Statement by Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS, on the occasion of World Health Day
7 April 2021 - Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
Ten thousand people die every day because they cannot access health care and the cost of health services mean that every year 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty paying for them. That equates to three people every second.
To tell or not to tell: why and how women disclose their HIV status with partners
7 April 2021 - Krishen Samuel - Women living with HIV in South Africa cited varied reasons for why they shared or did not share their status with partners. These ranged from disclosing as a way to increase intimacy, using disclosure as a form of confrontation after learning that they had acquired HIV from a partner, to deciding not to disclose as an act of self-preservation. These findings were published by Dr Lario Viljoen from Stellenbosch University and colleagues in Women’s Health.
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HIV Activist Andrew Spieldenner on His New Job and the Year Ahead
APRIL 07, 2021 - By Neal Broverman - The new executive director of MPact Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights has as many ideas as he does challenges.
For someone as accomplished as Andrew Spieldenner, Ph.D., it’s refreshing how candid and down-to-earth he remains. The current communications professor at California State University, San Marcos, and the new executive director of MPact Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights — the 15-year-old, Oakland, Calif.-based organization that focuses on the needs of gay and bisexual men living with HIV — spoke to Plus on his first day on the job back in March.
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'They don’t want to stop people from dying': No new provincial funding for Saskatoon's safe injection site
SASKATOON - April 6, 2021- Laura Woodward -The Saskatchewan budget released Tuesday denied funding to the Prairie Harm Reduction safe consumption site in Saskatoon.
The facility is a safe, clean place for people to consume drugs, under the supervision of staff who can offer social supports.
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HIV is:
Just a part of me — Stigma & U=U
April 6, 2021 - NAPWHA - In April 2021 NAPWHA will release the final videos from the inspiring 'HIV is: Just a part of me' campaign developed through our creative partnership with Gilead Sciences.
In Memoriam: Alvin H. Baum, Jr. (1930–2021)
April 6, 2021 - Sandy James Planner - Alvin H. Baum, Jr., passed away on March 28, 2021. He was 90 years old, and died of natural causes in his sleep.
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People with HIV at high risk for intimate partner violence
Ann Arbor, April 6, 2021 - Intimate partner violence found to be associated with riskier behaviors associated with elevated transmission of HIV, increased depression and anxiety, and poor adherence to HIV treatment, scientists report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine
New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that one in four adults with HIV in the United States has experienced intimate partner violence (IPV), which disproportionately affects women and LGBT populations. Further, people with HIV who experienced IPV in the past 12 months were more likely to engage in behaviors associated with elevated HIV transmission risk, were less likely to be engaged in routine HIV care and more likely to seek emergency care services and have poor HIV clinical outcomes. The findings are reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier.
A Moment, An Image: Vancouver in 1987
April 6, 2021 - Sandy James Planner - This image is a who’s who in Vancouver from 1987. It is the result of a “casting call” to politicians, news media, sports figures, rock stars and well known Vancouverites to come together for a photo that was used in AIDS awareness campaigns.
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As CROI 2021 Attests, the PrEP Revolution Is Coming
April 5, 2021 - David Alain Wohl, M.D.- The following is a video and transcript excerpt from an interview conducted with David Alain Wohl, M.D., discussing highlights and clinical takeaway messages from the 2021 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2021), which took place in March. In this video, Wohl talks through new findings on HIV prevention, especially those that aim to expand and transform the options available to people for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
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Certain high blood pressure medications may alter heart risk in people with HIV
DALLAS, April 5, 2021 - When people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) develop high blood pressure, the type of medication chosen for their initial treatment may influence their risk of heart disease, stroke and heart failure, according to new research published today in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal.
John C. Martin, pioneer of single-pill HIV treatment, dies unexpectedly
Apr 5, 2021 - by Lloyd Lee - 'He was a visionary that really understood medical science'
John C. Martin, former CEO of Gilead Sciences who helped develop the first once-a-day pill to treat HIV while at the helm of the company, died unexpectedly on March 30 after suffering head injuries from a fall the previous day. He was 69.
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Boris Johnson fiercely condemned for confusing HIV with ‘AIDS or whatever’
APRIL 5, 2021 - MAGGIE BASKA - Prime minister Boris Johnson has been condemned for confusing HIV with “AIDS or whatever” during a live broadcast of the UK government’s COVID briefing.
The prime minister was asked about whether he imagined the UK would still be in a pandemic, considering his personal experience being hospitalised with COVID last year. Johnson was hospitalised in April 2020 after reportedly suffering 10 days of symptoms, and he remained in hospital until 12 April.
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HIV and Insomnia More Likely To Go Together, Regardless of Age
April 5, 2021 - By Heather Boerner - But people with HIV are less likely to be diagnosed and treated for insomnia than their HIV-negative peers.
People living with HIV were five times more likely to have insomnia, but were less likely to be diagnosed and treated for it, than their HIV-negative peers, according to a study by Ken Kunisaki, MD, of the University of Minnesota, and colleagues published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
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The 'elite controllers' who can naturally suppress HIV
4 Apr 2021 - Research into how some HIV-positive people keep the virus at bay promises to yield new treatment possibilities, from vaccines to gene therapies
The year was 1998 when Joel Blankson encountered a patient he would never forget. Blankson was working in the HIV clinic at John Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, when an HIV-positive woman in her mid-40s arrived for some routine tests.
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All the Young Men, the story of HIV/AIDS activist Ruth Coker Burks, is a reminder of the good in humanity
APRIL 3 2021 - In 1987, Princess Diana rose above the problems of family - her own and her husband's - by being seen to meet and shake hands with patients suffering from HIV/AIDS. There was courage in the act, because at that time there was a widespread view that the infection could be spread by casual contact, and medical workers were required to wear layers of protective clothing.
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Canada’s Bruce House Continues Its Fight for Persons Living With HIV
April 2, 2021 - Originally known as The AIDS Housing Group of Ottawa, and where those living with AIDS retreated for end-of-life care, Bruce House in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, has endured for 33 years by adapting its services to fit what is needed at the time, shifting from primarily hospice care to transitional care, and continuously offering support services—even surviving the closure of its original transition house several years ago due to lack of funding.
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Researchers devise more efficient, enduring CAR gene therapy to combat HIV
April 1, 2021 - Enrique Rivero - A UCLA research team has shown that using a truncated form of the CD4 molecule as part of a gene therapy to combat HIV yielded superior and longer-lasting results in mouse models than previous similar therapies using the CD4 molecule.
This new approach to CAR T gene therapy — a type of immunotherapy that involves genetically engineering the body’s own blood-forming stem cells to create HIV-fighting T cells — has the potential to not only destroy HIV-infected cells but to create “memory cells” that could provide lifelong protection from infection with the virus that causes AIDS.
Nanozymes that can block HIV reactivation
Apr 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/- Dining Out For Life® Hosted by Subaru is More Meaningful Than Ever
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed artificial enzymes that can successfully block reactivation and replication of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in the host’s immune cells.
Made from vanadium pentoxide nanosheets, these “nanozymes” work by mimicking a natural enzyme called glutathione peroxidase that helps reduce oxidative stress levels in the host’s cells, which is required to keep the virus in check.
More choice in community-based HIV testing leads to higher uptake in South Africa
01 April 2021 - Providing a variety of ways to test for HIV resulted in high rates of young people – particularly young women – coming forward and reduced the gap between men and women.
A South African programme that enabled people to take HIV tests in a variety of community settings, such as homes and workplaces, has resulted in high rates of young people getting tested, particularly young women, and reached more men.
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