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Positively Positive - Living with HIV/AIDS:
HIV/AIDS News Archive - August 2020
23 years since her death, this is how Princess Diana transformed global attitudes to HIV and AIDS
August 31, 2020 - 23 years ago today, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed.
A photograph of a dented car shuddered throughout the news wires on August 31, 1997, leaving billions reeling and in a death that drew out a complicated mix of anger and grief.
In the sense of loss that followed, a single moment of Diana would come to be left for the AIDS patients at London Middlesex Hospital.
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UM School of Medicine’s Institute of Human Virology Recruits Top HIV/AIDS Epidemiologist Shenghan Lai Along with Team of Researchers
Newswise - Baltimore, MD, August 31, 2018 - Dr. Shenghan Lai is joined by his wife, Dr. Hong Lai, an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health
Robert C. Gallo, MD, the Homer & Martha Gudelsky Distinguished Professor in Medicine, Co-founder and Director of the Institute of Human Virology (IHV); at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), and Man E. Charurat, PhD, MHS, Professor of Medicine, Director of the Division of Epidemiology & Prevention and CIHEB Global Director at the IHV, announced today that Shenghan Lai, MD, MPH and Hong Lai, PhD, MPH, in addition to three staff members, and two more to add, have joined the Institute of Human Virology. The faculty began their positions on April 1 with Professor and Associate Professor academic appointments in the UMSOM’s Department of Epidemiology & Public Health.
Novel dual CAR T cell immunotherapy holds promise for targeting the HIV reservoir
Press Release- AUG 31, 2020 - BOSTON - A recent study published in the journal Nature Medicine, led by researchers Todd Allen, PhD, a professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and group leader at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, and Jim Riley, PhD, a professor of Microbiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, describes a new Dual CAR T cell immunotherapy that can help fight HIV infection. The paper's first authors are Colby Maldini, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania and Daniel Claiborne, PhD, a research fellow at the Ragon Institute.
First Woman May Be Cured of HIV Without a Bone Marrow Transplant
August 28, 2020 - Loreen Willenberg is part of a group of elite controllers whose HIV appears to be locked away where it can’t produce new virus.
A California woman may be the first person to be cured of HIV without a bone marrow transplant, according to a recent report in Nature. More than 60 other so-called elite controllers, who have unusually potent immune responses to HIV, were found to have their virus sequestered in parts of their genome where it is unable to replicate.
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COVID-19 Resources for the HIV Community
August 28, 2020 - As we move into September and the start of a new season, we continue to update COVID-19 and People with HIV, our HIV.gov page of resources from agencies across the federal government.
Giant nanomachine aids the immune system
28 August 2020- Germany - A small but important step towards a successful immune reaction is performed by an impressive nanomachine. Researchers use simulations to understand how it works.
In order to kill diseased cells, our immune system must first identify them. The so-called peptide-loading complex plays a key role in this process. In collaboration with colleagues from Jülich, a research team at Ruhr-Universität Bochum has analysed this nanomachine in atomic detail. They report their results in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS for short, from 11. August 2020.
The end of the HIV crisis is within our grasp. We must apply the pandemic spirit to achieve it
AUGUST 27, 2020 - Sean Rourke is a scientist at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital of Unity Health Toronto, and strategic science advisor for the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR). Bill Flanagan is the president and vice-chancellor of the University of Alberta, and a board member of CANFAR.
Imagine having easy access to a home self-test for COVID-19. With instant results, you’d be able to make informed decisions about your health and decide whether you should stay in or go to work. Research teams around the world are devoting resources to making this a reality, in the hopes of helping to stop the months-old pandemic in its tracks. In the meantime, many Canadian jurisdictions are offering medically administered swab tests with quick turnaround times in accessible ways.
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Lovey: Joe Average as Wearable Art
AUG 27, 2020 - Lovey: The Latest Project of Joe Average Turns Television into Wearable Art
Remember the 1960s’ TV series Gilligan’s Island? It’s been revived several times over the decades in syndication, and who can forget the seven characters marooned on an island somewhere in the Pacific during its original three seasons: Gilligan (Bob Denver), The Skipper (Alan Hale, Jr.), Mary Ann Summers (Dawn Wells), Ginger Grant (Tina Louise), The Professor (Russell Johnson), Thurston Howell III (Jim Backus), and Eunice “Lovey” Wentworth-Howell (Natalie Shafer). Visitors come and go on the island, but through ninety-eight episodes of the series the seven basic cast members for some reason are never able to leave.
Canadian artist Joe Average is reviving memories of the show in his own way these days, which is to say, through his art.
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Lessons learned from the HIV response – UNAIDS warns of dangers of failing to respect human rights in the response of COVID-19
GENEVA, 27 August 2020 - Report reveals interruptions of HIV services, violence, harassment, abuse, arrests, deaths and a failure to respect human rights in their early responses to the pandemic—UNAIDS urges governments to protect the most vulnerable, particularly key populations at higher risk of HIV
During the early response to COVID-19 UNAIDS received numerous reports of interruptions to HIV services and disturbing human violations against vulnerable and marginalized populations. The experience of the response to HIV has proved that violations of human rights during a pandemic undermine trust, harm individuals, and set back public health responses.
Columbus Citizens Foundation Launches Dr. Anthony S. Fauci Scholarship - Created For Graduate Students In Medical And Public Health Fields
August 26, 2020, New York, NY: Columbus Citizens Foundation to award a $25,000 Annual Scholarship to Italian American Students Who Exemplify the Values and Determination of Dr. Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Columbus Citizens Foundation (CCF) is proud to announce a new scholarship to support Italian Americans with great academic prowess seeking financial aid at the graduate level in medical and public health fields of study. The scholarship will be awarded annually, recipients will be chosen by a qualified standing committee and the scholarship is to be awarded in the name of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci.
The patients left behind by HIV research
NEWS RELEASE 26-AUG-2020 - People with HIV from BAME communities, women and heterosexual men are underrepresented in HIV studies - according to new research from the University of East Anglia and Western Sydney University.
Medication to manage HIV is now very effective at keeping people well. But over half of people living with HIV do not take their medication as prescribed.
Unique HIV reservoirs in elite controllers
Press Release - August 26, 2020 - BOSTON - Xu Yu, MD, Ragon Institute group leader, recently published a study entitled “Distinct viral reservoirs in individuals with spontaneous control of HIV-1,” in Nature. Yu’s lab, in collaboration with Ragon group geaders Mathias Lichterfeld, MD, PhD and Mary Carrington, PhD, and Ragon Director, Bruce Walker, MD, found rare sequences of HIV DNA by analyzing billions of cells from 64 elite controllers (people living with HIV who suppress the virus naturally without the need for medication), and 41 individuals on antiretroviral drugs (ART). Unlike ART-treated individuals, elite controllers’ viral reservoirs appear to be incapable of being reactivated. This likely helps the elite controllers maintain spontaneous, drug-free control of HIV and may represent a distinguishing feature for a functional cure of HIV infection.
UNAIDS calls for urgent action to strengthen social protection programmes in the face of
COVID-19
GENEVA, 26 August 2020 - UNAIDS is calling on countries to adopt urgent measures to reinforce social protection programmes to shield the most vulnerable people from the health impact and socio-economic fall-out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
People living with HIV and tuberculosis (TB) are being significantly impacted by COVID-19. Modelling has estimated the potential catastrophic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic with increases of up to 10%, 20% and 36% projected deaths for HIV, TB and malaria patients, respectively, over the next five years.
Infectious Diseases in Children Symposium Announces Shift from In-person to Virtual Format
Thorofare, NJ - August 24, 2020 - Virtual meeting to be held over original weekend dates: November 21-22, 2020
Healio LIVE, the organizer of The Infectious Diseases in Children Symposium, announces the decision to shift from an in-person to a virtual format for the fall meeting. The virtual meeting dates will remain the same weekend as originally planned – Saturday, November 21 and Sunday, November 22, 2020. The virtual program will offer CME/CNE credits, faculty discussions, live Q&A and a virtual exhibit hall. Registration is open online at IDCnewyork.com where physicians can register for $325 and nurses and residents at a discounted rate of $125.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease Linked to an Immune Cell Run Amok
August 24, 2020 | By Scott LaFee - New findings may provide new therapeutic target and help explain why IBD and other autoimmune diseases are often chronic and life-long
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of intestinal disorders affecting an estimated six to eight million people worldwide. Although there are many treatments for IBD, a number of patients fail to respond long-term, leaving those afflicted with a host of chronic issues, from abdominal pain and cramping to frequent, bloody stools.
In a new study, published August 21, 2020 in Science Immunology, an international team of researchers, led by scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, report that the lasting nature of IBD may be due to a type of long-lived immune cell that can provoke persistent, damaging inflammation in the intestinal tract.
GeoVax Announces Clinical Trial Initiation of Novel Combination Therapy Utilizing MVA62B to Induce Remission in HIV-Positive Patients
ATLANTA, GA, August 24, 2020 - GeoVax Labs, Inc . (OTCQB: GOVX), a biotechnology company developing human immunotherapies and vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer, announced today initiation of a Phase 1 clinical study of a combination therapy in HIV-positive patients utilizing GeoVax’s novel boost component MVA62B. The study is a collaboration of researchers led by Dr. Steven Deeks, Professor of Medicine in Residence at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and a faculty member in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. The study is designed to induce remission in HIV-positive individuals, also known as a “functional cure.”
Governor Cuomo Announces Dedication of East River State Park for LGBTQ Civil Rights Activist Marsha P. Johnson
AUGUST 24, 2020 Albany, NY - On Her 75th Birthday, Marsha P. Johnson State Park Becomes First State Park in New York to Honor LGBTQ Person and Transgender Woman of Color
State Will Improve Park Facilities and Install Public Art Celebrating Marsha P. Johnson and the LGBTQ Movement - Largest Investment in Park Since Opening
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the dedication of East River State Park in Brooklyn for the late LGBTQ civil rights activist Marsha P. Johnson. On her 75th birthday, Marsha P. Johnson State Park will become the first state park in New York to honor a LGBTQ person and transgender woman of color. The State will improve park facilities and install public art celebrating Johnson's life and her role in the advancement of LGBTQ rights. The improvements represent the largest investment in the park since its opening.
GMHC Founder Larry Mass on the ‘Unwritten Chapter’ of AIDS History
August 24, 2020 -
There are few nights more consequential in the history of gay men than the evening a group of gay men gathered at the home of Larry Kramer more than 35 years ago and began the business of creating the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (now known simply as GMHC).
One of the men in the room where it happened, Dr. Larry Mass, is as soft-spoken and measured as Larry Kramer, whom we lost last month, was mercurial and incendiary. But don’t let that fool you. In our candid conversation for My Fabulous Disease, Dr. Mass has a few bones to pick about what went down in the earliest years of the AIDS crisis, and he isn’t beyond naming names.
CBS News Baltimore WJZ:
"FDA Clears Maryland Company’s Potential HIV Cure For Human Trials"
Aug 24, 2020 -
Is HIV Curable? AGT's Chief Scientist Is Working On Making It Using Gene Therapy.
Aug 22, 2020 - I am Dave Pauza. I am the Chief Science Officer at American Gene Technologies in Rockville, Maryland. After my time receiving my PhD in Berkeley in 1981, I went to England for five years and I began my work on t-cell biology, thinking that would be a chance to study t-cell cancers; but at the same time back home, in the Bay Area, the scourge of HIV was on the rise and I was hearing these reports from friends and family about how terrible it has become and how rapidly this disease was spreading.
LONG-ACTING, INJECTABLE DRUG COULD STRENGTHEN EFFORTS TO PREVENT, TREAT HIV
Aug 21, 2020 - Press Release -
Scientists have developed an injectable drug that blocks HIV from entering cells. They say the new drug potentially offers long-lasting protection from the infection with fewer side effects. The drug, which was tested in non-human primates, could eventually replace or supplement components of combination drug “cocktail” therapies currently used to prevent or treat the virus.
HIV Progress in D.C. Accelerated by Federal Payments Norton Secures and Her Removal of the Needle Exchange Rider
Aug 21, 2020 - Press Release - WASHINGTON, D.C. -
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that the significant progress reported in the District of Columbia’s 2019, HIV, STD, Hepatitis and TB Surveillance Report released yesterday, encourages her to continue her efforts in Congress that have been vital to D.C.’s success in combatting HIV/AIDS. No progress – only increases in HIV cases – was made until Norton got a deadly rider removed in 2007 that prohibited D.C. from spending its local funds on needle exchange programs, and she has kept the rider from being reimposed ever since, even though Democrats have been in the minority during some of those years. Equally important, Norton has secured millions of dollars annually, over and above other federal funding, in special federal payments for AIDS prevention and treatment in D.C., including $4 million in fiscal year 2020.
Risk of Superinfection Minimal in Organ Transplants Between HIV+ Donors and Recipients
AUG 21, 2020 - Organ transplantation from HIV-positive donors to HIV-positive recipients appears to be safe, with little risk of donors becoming infected with new strains of the disease when the virus is well controlled, a new study found.
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AID FOR AIDS Issues Urgent Call for Recycled HIV Medicine
August 17, 2020 - AID FOR AIDS Issues Urgent Call for Recycled HIV Medicine
In conjunction with the Latino Commission on AIDS, AID FOR AIDS (AFA), the HIV medication recycling organization, has issued an “urgent” call for donations of unused, unexpired antiretroviral HIV medicines to be redistributed to people living in the developing world who lack access to treatment.
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What Is Successful Aging With HIV/AIDS?
August 17, 2020 - Researchers study older people living with the virus.
HIV-positive people heading into their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond are the first HIV-positive people to do so. While the general population can look at their elders for an understanding of what’s to come from old age, there exists no baseline, no framework and no reference points for what the HIV-positive community can expect, and what’s possible, in growing older.
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Large NIH Clinical Trial Illuminates Long-Term Health Effects of HIV
August 14, 2020 - Initial data from a large NIH-supported clinical trial offer a detailed look at the health status of people aging with HIV around the world. With 7,770 participants enrolled in 12 countries across five continents, the Randomized Trial to Prevent Vascular Events in HIV REPRIEVE is evaluating the ability of a statin medication, pitavastatin, to reduce the risk of heart disease among people with HIV. By leveraging data collected from this diverse group of study participants, researchers also are learning more about the long-term health effects of HIV. They report their initial findings in an August supplement for The Journal of Infectious Diseases.
OPH, uOttawa project delivers free HIV self-tests – a first for Canada
Aug 13, 2020 - Ottawa Public Health and a slate of partner organizations have launched a pilot program believed to be the first in the country to deliver free HIV self-tests for at-home use.
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National Faith HIV & AIDS Awareness Day August 2020 and Inclusion on HIV.gov Calendar
August 13, 2020 - Washington, D.C. - National Faith HIV & AIDS Awareness Day was created with a goal to unite US communities representative of the Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu and Baha’i faiths to take a stand against stigma in their congregations and raise awareness on HIV/AIDS.
National Faith HIV & AIDS Awareness Day will be held this year on Sunday, August 30th 2020 with events, webinars, performances, and much needed discussion taking place Thursday, August 27th until Monday August 31st.
The Elton John AIDS Foundation: Our Focus
Aug 13, 2020 - Elton John AIDS Foundation is committed to overcoming the stigma and neglect that keeps us from ending AIDS through advocacy, research and breaking down myths. With the influence of our founder Elton John and our generous supporters and partnerships, we harness local expertise to end the AIDS epidemic for people and communities who are most vulnerable.
MS Drug May be Used to Inhibit HIV Infection and Reduce Latent Reservoir
WASHINGTON (Aug. 13, 2020) - Fingolimod, used to treat multiple sclerosis flare-ups, may inhibit HIV replication and consequently reduce the latent reservoir, according to research published in PLOS Pathogens by GW researchers
Fingolimod, an FDA-approved immunosuppressive drug used to treat multiple sclerosis flare-ups, may be used to block HIV infection and reduce the latent reservoir. Researchers at the George Washington University (GW) published their novel findings in PLOS Pathogens.
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