Science: 2011 Breakthrough of the Year
The journal Science has named an AIDS study as its 2011 Breakthrough of the Year. The clinical trial found that antiretroviral drugs can be used to dramatically lower the risk of transmitting HIV. The clinical trial is known as HPTN 052. It proved that giving the drugs to HIV infected people sooner made them 96 percent less likely to transmit the virus to their uninfected partners.
December 28, 2011 — Voice of America
Three big developments make AIDS outlook more hopeful
In the nearly 30 years the AIDS epidemic has raged, there has never been a more hopeful day than this. Three striking developments took place Tuesday: U.N. officials said new HIV cases are dropping dramatically worldwide. A study showed that a daily pill already on pharmacy shelves could help prevent new infections in gay men. And the pope opened the way for the use of condoms to prevent AIDS.
December 26, 2011 — Brattleboro Reformer
Gilead seeks to sell HIV drug as a way to prevent infection
US regulators are to consider a groundbreaking – but potentially controversial – new application to use an HIV medicine as a way to prevent healthy people from becoming infected with the lethal virus.
December 16, 2011 — Financial Times
The POZ 100: 100 People, Things and Ideas We Love
Treatment activists from ACT UP New York founded AVAC in 1995 to speed up the development of HIV vaccines. Today, AVAC also has its sights set on biomedical HIV prevention (like microbicides , PrEP and treatment as prevention), treatment for genital herpes (HSV-2) and the protective powers of male circumcision and cervical barriers. CEO Mitchell Warren is an outspoken advocate who writes regularly in the Huffington Post about the power of prevention. He was one of the first out of the gate this year to publicy tout the “we can end AIDS” beat.
December 1, 2011 — POZ
Hope for Future, Fear of Failure on World AIDS Day
A curious emotional amalgam marked this year’s World AIDS Day. On one hand, there is increasing confidence that many of the tools needed to halt the devastating pandemic are either available or will soon be ready. On the other, there is growing fear that the political and financial will to use those tools is failing.
December 1, 2011 — MedPage Today
‘Double whammy’ for users of hormonal contraceptives
There are growing calls to integrate HIV prevention and treatment programmes with family planning and other health services, yet a recent study has sparked concern that the two may interact in dangerous ways.
November 30, 2011 — Financial Times
Strategy to End AIDS Epidemic
A leading AIDS advocacy group says while the end of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is within reach, success is far from assured. AVAC has released a science-based agenda to end the more than 30-year-old epidemic. The report has been released on the eve of World AIDS Day.
November 29, 2011 — Voice of America
The goal of an AIDS-free generation: The time to invest in science is now
Now is the best possible moment to invest in research, when the possibilities for long-term success are greater than ever before. This is when we should double down on some of the amazing successes we’ve seen in the past few years. As Secretary Clinton said in her speech, it is possible to create an AIDS-free generation. Research has made this goal possible, and we must stay focused on the future.
November 15, 2011 — The Hill
Advocacy Group Praises Clinton AIDS Remarks
Advocacy groups are praising Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s comments that an AIDS-free generation is within reach. Mrs. Clinton spoke Tuesday at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Mitchell Warren called the Secretary of State’s remarks “the first step in an ambitious vision for ending the global AIDS epidemic.”
November 8, 2011 — Voice of America
Whatever Happened to the AIDS Vaccine?
Recent news about HIV/AIDS has focused on the good — promising trial results that prove the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs used to treat HIV can also prevent HIV infections — and the bad — retreats in donor commitment that imperil the substantial gains that have been made in treating global AIDS, at the precise moment that treatment has been recognized as a powerful prevention strategy. In discussions about whether AIDS treatment can be used to end the AIDS epidemic, scant attention is paid to the search for an AIDS vaccine.
September 29, 2011 — Huffington Post
Tenofovir PrEP arm dropped in women’s HIV prevention trial
A major HIV prevention trial comparing a tenofovir microbicide with two forms of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis as HIV prevention methods for women is to halt investigation of oral tenofovir pre-exposure prophylaxis, the Microbicide Trials Network announced on Wednesday.
September 29, 2011
Viread Dropped From Women’s HIV PrEP Study; Truvada Evaluation Continues
A study involving women at risk of HIV infection has discontinued a comparison of daily Viread (tenofovir) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to placebo, in light of expert projections that the clinical trial will not be able to demonstrate effectiveness, according to a September 28 Microbicide Trials Network (MTN) announcement. The Vaginal and Oral Interventions to Control the Epidemic (VOICE) study will, however, continue evaluating the safety and efficacy of another oral tablet, Truvada (tenofovir plus emtricitabine), along with a vaginal microbicide containing tenofovir.
September 29, 2011 — POZ & AIDSMED
A Dizzying Second Twist in Trial of Anti-HIV Drugs as Preventives
The Microbicide Trials Network (MTN), which is funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, today announced that it decided to stop one arm of a study involving more than 5000 women in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. The decision followed an interim review of the ongoing trial by an independent monitoring board, which found that the drug tenofovir when used as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) had less effect in protecting women than anticipated.
September 28, 2011 — ScienceInsider
Long hard road to finding HIV vaccine
The search for an HIV vaccine has been long and hard, and we’ve had many setbacks along the way. But two years ago we saw the first glimmer of hope when an HIV vaccine in Thailand was found to be partially effective.
September 26, 2011 — The Star
China sets more funds for HIV research
Internationally, HIV vaccine research and development (R&D) funding stood at $859 million last year, $9 million less than 2009, while China increased its spending by nearly US$4 million over the same period, said the global report issued jointly by international organizations including AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) and Intentional AIDS Vaccine Initiative.
September 15, 2011 — China.org
AIDS Vaccine Conference Ends with Eye to Future
The AIDS Vaccine 2011 conference ended Thursday in Bangkok, Thailand. While a vaccine to help end the pandemic remains elusive, scientific advances are being made. About 850 scientists, researchers and others met for four days to discuss progress on finding a vaccine to prevent HIV infection. It’s the only conference to focus exclusively on that.
September 14, 2011 — Voice of America
Scientists Gather for AIDS Vaccine 2011
The largest conference on AIDS vaccine development is being held in Bangkok, Thailand FROM September 12th to the 15th. Researchers will discuss how to build on recent advances in a time of tight budgets. Organizers of the conference, known as AV-2011, say a “safe and effective AIDS vaccine would be one of the greatest public health advances ever.” But they also admit it’s one of the “greatest scientific challenges.”
September 8, 2011 — Voice of America
Prevention orgs issue call to action
Leading HIV prevention organizations have issued a call to action for the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a comprehensive plan of PrEP demonstration projects that identify how and where the intervention might best be used.
August 25, 2011 — Bay Area Reporter
US Scientists Expand Scope of HIV Vaccine Study
The world’s largest ongoing HIV vaccine study has been expanded to consider multiple ways a vaccine might boost immune response to the AIDS virus. The U.S. Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is testing the safety and efficacy of a dual vaccine candidate.
August 10, 2011 — Voice of America
AIDS: The Next 30 Years
This week the world has been looking back at 30 years of AIDS. Three decades have taken us from five young gay men in Los Angeles to 34 million men, women and children around the world living with HIV. But what about the next thirty years? Could we see an end to AIDS?
June 9, 2011 — Huffington Post
AIDS researchers eye flurry of promising vaccine developments
In Kenya, clinical trials began on two promising new designs for preventive HIV vaccines. In South Africa, researchers launchedclinical trials on a therapeutic vaccineintended to strengthen the immune systems of people living with HIV/AIDS.
May 26, 2011 — Colorlines
Equal Access to HIV treatment could finally slow the Black epidemic
Last week the AIDS world received the stunninglyencouraging resultsof an advanced-stage clinical trial known as “HPTN 052.”
May 19, 2011 — Colorlines
Glaxo, Gilead AIDS Drugs Cut Transmission to Partners by 96%, Study Shows
Millions of HIV infections could be averted by treating patients earlier than current guidelines recommend, after a study showed giving pills to patients as soon as they’re diagnosed can prevent them infecting others.
May 13, 2011 — Bloomberg
AIDS Study Called 2011 ‘Breakthrough’
The journal Science chose an AIDS study as the twenty-eleven “Breakthrough of the Year.” The study found that antiretroviral drugs can greatly lower the risk of spreading HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. It showed that infected people with early treatment were ninety-six percent less likely to infect their partners.
January 10, 2011 — Voice of America
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