After US decimates PEPFAR and USAID, the struggle to save HIV services at one nonprofit in southeastern Africa
PEPFAR and USAID once provided critical HIV prevention services for those most at risk who now face a deadly gap in access. As AVAC’s Mitchell Warren notes in the piece, “Only 20–40% of previous programs are still operative. And those losses disproportionately affect key populations who already face stigma and barriers to care.”
April 18, 2025 — Positively Aware
Trump Has Blown a Massive Hole in Global Health Funding—And No One Can Fill It
They are mostly coming up empty. “X billion disappeared in global health, and we can’t replace it,” says Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, a nonprofit focusing on HIV prevention and a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the US government over its withdrawal of health aid.
April 8, 2025 — Science
The 6-monthly Anti-HIV Jab Could End AIDS in South Africa by 2032
A modelling study released in March gives a clue at which price the six-monthly anti-HIV jab, lenacapavir, would be worth the health department’s while.
April 8, 2025 — Bhekisisa
US HIV Researchers Reel at Widespread Cancellations to Domestic Funding
The termination of federal money for the Whitman-Walker research center is a shocking blow on its own. But, in fact, it is just one of an ever-growing list of HIV-related research grants that the Trump 2.0 administration has been cancelling under the Health and Human Services (HHS) leadership of non-doctor, AIDS denialist, and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
April 7, 2025 — TheBody
Viewpoint: Testing the Boundaries of Presidential Powers in Health
The second Trump administration has been characterized by an unprecedented assertion of presidential control over federal spending—including withholding of disbursements of appropriated funds for public health, foreign aid, or, as in the case of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), both.
April 7, 2025 — JAMA
HIV Prevention was Making Great Strides. Then Trump’s Budget Axe Fell
Out: programs to identify and reach at-risk groups. Suspended: funding for clinical trial networks
April 7, 2025 — STAT
Aid Organizations Are Getting Back Pay from the Trump Administration, But Aren’t Sure What’s Next
The Trump administration is still processing payments owed to organizations for work done between January 20 and February 13, according to court documents.
April 4, 2025 — NOTUS
US Funding Cuts Set Back HIV Research by Decades
“We know from COVID-19 that science moves at the speed of trust,” says Warren. In other words, research and development work can only move forward as much as communities trust in the researchers, scientists and investigators running the projects.
April 4, 2025 — Health-e News
Deep Cuts to HIV Research Could Halt Decades of Progress, Scientists Say
The Trump administration has shut down government offices devoted to HIV and ended hundreds of millions of dollars in research aimed at preventing infections in high-risk groups.
April 4, 2025 — Washington Post
Rollout of ‘miracle’ HIV prevention drug is threatened by Trump cuts to global AIDS relief program
The Trump administration’s enormous cuts to a global AIDS relief program threaten to upend the planned rollout of a groundbreaking HIV prevention drug that was expected to save countless lives.
April 1, 2025 — STAT
Fruits of Decades of AIDS Vaccine Research Imperiled by Trump’s Withdrawal of US Funding
After decades of failed attempts, scientists were optimistic that a new generation of HIV vaccine candidates would finally succeed — changing the course of a pandemic that’s claimed more than 42 million lives since 1981. But that hope is now dimming as the US moves to pull vital funding.
March 27, 2025 — Bloomberg
South Africa Research Grants Potentially On Hold, Says Leaked Memo
A leaked memo circulating among South African researchers, that is addressed to grant management staff of the US government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH), dated March 25, instructs officers to hold “all [research] awards to entities located in South Africa”.
March 27, 2025 — Bhekisisa
The Role of PEPFAR in HIV Prevention: Protecting Black and Brown communities against foreign aid cuts
A cynical ideology that dismantles PEPFAR will squander one of the most effective global health investments ever made—one that has made all of us healthier and safer, no matter where we live.
March 26, 2025 — CBC Health Braintrust The Broadsheet
Here’s the Georgia HIV Prevention Work at Risk from Looming CDC Funding Cuts
Potential cuts to HIV work at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have local and national experts worried that recent progress in cutting HIV rates will come to a halt.
March 25, 2025 — Healthbeat Atlanta
HHS Nixes Only Program Focused On Treating, Preventing Youth HIV
HHS terminated the Adolescent Trials Network, the only network that focuses on adolescents and young people in HIV prevention, care and treatment.
March 24, 2025 — Inside Health Policy
US to Finish $671 Million in Foreign Aid Payments Nearly Two Weeks After Court Deadline
The Trump administration expects to finish paying about $US671 million owed for completed work to foreign aid organisations suing it over its sweeping shutdown of most US foreign aid work by Friday, nearly two weeks after a court-ordered deadline, according to a court filing.
March 21, 2025 — Reuters
A Jab that Could Protect Against HIV For a Year at a Time, and Other Highlights from Major Conference
A single shot of a new formulation of the antiretroviral drug lenacapavir could potentially provide protection against HIV infection for as long as a year.
March 20, 2025 — Spotlight (South Africa)
Trump Administration Considering Plan to Eliminate HIV Prevention Program
Trump administration officials are considering a plan to eliminate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention division tasked with HIV prevention and potentially moving its responsibilities to another department within the Department of Health and Human Services.
March 20, 2025 — The Well News
Trump Administration Considers Scaling Back HIV Efforts at CDC
“We’ve got to snap out of any paralysis or any disbelief or shock, and we’ve really got to look at what needs to be built in the future,” Mr. Warren said. “One of the biggest tragedies in all of this would be if we let this narrative be written entirely by people who don’t understand science or health care or research or foreign assistance.”
March 19, 2025 — The New York Times
What will happen if Trump cuts the US’ Global Fund contributions? We work it out
“At least at this point,” Mitchell Warren, the executive director of the New York-based advocacy organisation, AVAC, explains, “it appears that some aspects of Pepfar and the funding for Global Fund, will continue.But the president is certainly exercising discretion about what to fund, whether it’s legal or not. And Congress has seemingly abdicated its powers to be part of the process. So, things could still change.”
March 18, 2025 — News24 (SA)
Trump Administration Weighing Major Cuts to Funding for Domestic HIV Prevention
The Health and Human Services Department is weighing plans to drastically cut the federal government’s funding for domestic HIV prevention, according to people familiar with the matter.
March 18, 2025 — Wall Street Journal
A frightening glimpse into the future of HIV research under Trump
This year there were empty seats at the prestigious CROI, in San Francisco, where groundbreaking HIV research gets presented.
March 17, 2025 — Bhekisisa
Hundreds of Thousands Will Die
The writer, surgeon, and former USAID senior official Atul Gawande on the Trump Administration’s decimation of foreign aid and the consequences around the world.
March 15, 2025 — The New Yorker
Trump Overstepped his Constitutional Authority in Freezing Congress’ Funding for USAID, Judge Says
President Donald Trump overstepped his constitutional authority in freezing almost all spending on US humanitarian and development work abroad, a federal judge ruled, saying the administration could no longer simply sit on the tens of billions of dollars that Congress has appropriated for foreign aid.
March 11, 2025 — Associated Press
Judge Reprimands Trump Admin for Power Play on USAID
A US district judge reprimanded the Trump administration on Monday for withholding foreign aid, saying its actions likely violated the constitutional separation of powers by unlawfully impounding congressionally approved funds.
March 11, 2025 — Newsweek
USAID ‘Officially’ Gutted, but Administration Overstepped Constitutional Power, Judge Rules
A federal district judge said that the Trump administration’s halt of foreign assistance overstepped the Executive branch’s authority.
March 11, 2025 — Health Policy Watch
Judge Says Trump Must Pay Past Aid Bills But Can Cancel Future Contracts
The ruling also said the State Department and USAID would have to spend $58 million appropriated by Congress at some point.
March 11, 2025 — Washington Post
Judge Orders Trump Admin to Pay USAID Bills – Again
The court orders the Trump administration to pay aid partners billions for past work.
March 11, 2025 — Devex
Trump Avoids Worst-Case Ruling in Lawsuit Over USAID Defunding
A US District Judge has ordered the Trump administration to continue paying billions of dollars to foreign-aid nonprofits through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) while litigation over funding plays out.
March 10, 2025 — Bloomberg
Remaining USAID programs now under State Dept., 5,200 programs canceled
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said 83% of the agency’s programs have been slashed and about 1,000 remain. A federal judge ordered the administration to pay organizations that sued it, including nonprofits such as the AVAC, and for-profits such as Chemonics and DAI, for all work completed before Feb. 13 by Monday as the “first concrete step” toward the release of nearly $2 billion in suspended foreign aid.
March 10, 2025 — Devex
Judge orders USAID payments to some foreign aid groups by Monday
Judge Amir H. Ali ruled that the government must pay the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, the Global Health Council and other plaintiffs the outstanding balances they are owed, calling it a “concrete step” forward in an ongoing lawsuit over the Trump administration’s abrupt pause in foreign aid.
March 6, 2025 — Washington Post
“Lift the Freeze”: HIV/AIDS Advocates Win Supreme Court Victory in Fight over Trump Foreign Aid Cuts
Mitchell Warren and Public Citizen Litigation Group spoke with Amy Goodman in a televised interview about the latest in the foreign aid freeze case and the impact the new administration’s orders are having on global health.
March 6, 2025 — Democracy Now
Trump says ‘male circumcision in Mozambique’ is a ‘scam.’ What’s the program about?
In his joint address to Congress, the President criticized spending for VMMC. Mitchell Warren highlighted the benefits and impacts of VMMC, “Over the last 18 years, governments around eastern and southern Africa, where there are high risks amongst men having vaginal sex, began to work with PEPFAR, the Global Fund and community groups and advocates to begin to scale up access to circumcision.”
March 6, 2025 — NPR
Supreme Court hands USAID partners a win
“The past month of legal maneuvering by the administration has just added to the unconscionable chaos and confusion — in the U.S. and in countries around the world,” said AVAC’s Mitchell Warren.“Today’s SCOTUS decision is just one more example of the legal system stepping up with clarity.”
March 5, 2025 — Devex
Supreme Court upholds a lower court order to force USAID to pay contractors
“Bottom line: There is a long and rocky road ahead for both men at the nation’s highest court, a court that is itself, sharply divided.”
March 5, 2025 — NPR
US Supreme Court Clears Path for District Judge to Rule on Aid Freeze
Summarizing the latest in the AVAC vs. Department of State lawsuit, Kerry Cullinan quotes AVAC’s Mitchell Warren,“These are immensely challenging times for all of us, and it is easy to be paralysed, overwhelmed and depressed. But we’ve all come too far for that to be the new normal. Lives, economies and democracies depend on our collective ability to stand up and fight back.”.
March 5, 2025 — Health Policy Watch
The US Is Withdrawing From Global Health at a Dangerous Time
“Across the proverbial value chain—developing products, approving them, providing guidance, establishing infrastructure for delivery and maintaining surveillance systems to ensure global safety—the US may not be the only actor, but it is a driver in every one of those areas,” Mitchell Warren told Bloomberg.
March 2, 2025 — Bloomberg
USAID cuts could send global health into chaos
The Trump administration’s decision to end almost all foreign aid spending from USAID is poised to plunge global health into chaos.
March 2, 2025 — The Hill
Nearly 15,000 will have died already because of Trump and Musk’s cuts to USAID, advocacy program claims
The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has saved more than 25 million lives since it began in 2003.
March 1, 2025 — The Independent
Head of AIDS advocacy program on suit against Trump administration
ABC News’ Phil Lipof spoke with Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, about the organization’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over the funding freeze.
February 27, 2025 — ABC News
US Terminates Thousands of Life-Saving Health Grants Including For HIV and Malaria
The Trump administration has terminated the contracts of some 10,000 projects receiving US Agency for International Development (USAID) grants – including HIV, malaria, and humanitarian aid projects.
February 27, 2025 — Health Policy Watch
“A Whole New Level of Cruelty”: Health experts decry “devastating” cuts to HIV treatment programs
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation said the latest cuts will deprive 350,000 people of HIV treatment.
February 28, 2025 — Salon
Trump’s Biggest Power Grab Just Reached the Supreme Court
Trump’s lawyers just revealed their plan to place him in charge of federal spending.
February 27, 2025 — Vox
Nearly 10,000 Awards Cut from USAID, State Department
The cuts came hours before the Trump administration was ordered to pay organizations for past work, which was mandated by a federal judge — once again — on Tuesday.
February 26, 2025 — Devex
Trump Administration Says it Cannot Meet Court Deadline for Foreign Aid Payments
President Donald Trump’s administration said in a court filing late Tuesday night that it “cannot” meet a federal judge’s 11:59 p.m. Wednesday deadline for releasing frozen funds to foreign aid contractors and grant recipients, potentially setting the stage for it to openly disobey the order.
February 26, 2025 — Reuters
Judge Orders USAID to Release Millions of Dollars in Foreign Aid
The order comes two weeks after the judge first demanded a thaw of USAID’s funding freeze.
February 25, 2025 — Devex
Judge Gives Trump Administration Two Days to Release Billions of Dollars in Blocked Foreign Aid
A federal judge on Tuesday gave the Trump administration less than two days to release billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid, saying the administration had given no sign of complying with his nearly two-week-old court order to ease its funding freeze.
February 25, 2025 — Associated Press
‘Preposterous’: Marco Rubio is in ‘brazen defiance’ of federal court order over funding freeze, motion for contempt claims
A pair of nonprofit groups suing the Trump administration over their foreign aid grants being frozen urged a federal judge to hold Marco Rubio and Peter Marocco in civil contempt, accusing the Secretary of State and the Director of the Office of Foreign Assistance of intentionally defying a court order halting the funding freeze.
February 20, 2025 — Law & Crime
Top-Rated Charities are in Jeopardy Amid White House, DOGE Cuts to Foreign Aid
“Foreign assistance programs don’t operate with an on/off switch,” said Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC, which provides HIV prevention resources worldwide.
February 19, 2025 — CNBC
USAID Contracts and Grants Still Being Terminated Despite Court Order
Citing federal and USAID-specific regulations, the Trump administration is moving ahead with cancelling grants and contracts.
February 19, 2025 — Devex
Foreign Aid Groups Want Rubio Held in Contempt over Funding Freeze
The groups and the Trump administration are fighting in court while billions of dollars in foreign aid remain in limbo.
February 19, 2025 — Politico
Trump Team Finds Loophole to Defy Spirit of Court Orders Blocking Spending Freezes
Officials cite other legal authorities—not Mr. Trump’s court-blocked directives—to keep withholding foreign aid and domestic grant money.
February 19, 2025 — The New York Times
Trump Lawyers Argue Court Order Does Not Block Foreign Aid Freeze
A federal judge last week blocked the State Department’s foreign aid pause. In a court filing, Trump administration lawyers argued they can freeze the aid anyway.
February 19, 2025 — The Washington Post
How the Health Department Will Deal with PEPFAR’s Near Collapse (South Africa)
Offering state patients who qualify a six-month supply of ARVs at a time is part of the health department’s contingency plan to ease workload amid staff cuts.
February 19, 2025 — TimesLIVE
As HIV Activists Disrupt PEPFAR Hearing, an Expert Explains the Damage Trump has Already Done to US Global AIDS Fight
AVAC Executive Director Mitchell Warren warns that the domestic fight against the epidemic is in grave danger, too.
February 15, 2025 — Positively Aware
Judge Orders Trump Administration to Temporarily Lift Foreign Aid Freeze
Judge Amir Ali issued the temporary order Thursday in the US in a lawsuit brought by two organizations, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council, representing health organizations receiving US funds for work abroad.
February 14, 2025 — Time
Trump Ordered to Temporarily Lift USAID Freeze and Allow Foreign Aid Funding
Judge challenges administration’s dismantling of US foreign assistance and sets five-day deadline to prove compliance.
February 14, 2025 — The Guardian
Judge Orders Trump Administration to Temporarily Lift Foreign Aid Freeze
Judge Amir Ali issued the temporary order Thursday in the US in a lawsuit brought by two organizations, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council, representing health organizations receiving US funds for work abroad.
February 14, 2025 — Time
New Lawsuit Challenges US Foreign Aid Funding Freeze
A pair of NGOs, whose work includes supporting HIV-related clinical trials and anti-corruption efforts has been halted, is challenging the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s actions.
February 11, 2025 — Devex
Two Nonprofits Sue Over Trump’s Freeze on Foreign Aid
“We are doing this because the actions of the executive branch are an incredible overstepping of power and completely derailing lifesaving work across all of global health,” said Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC. He said the organization had dismissed 40 percent of its staff since the aid freeze was imposed three weeks ago.
February 11, 2025 — New York Times
First Lawsuit Targets Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze
An advocacy group filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Monday seeking to halt the freeze on foreign aid the administration has imposed. Public Citizen argues the freeze on funds appropriated by Congress is unlawful and is endangering lives abroad.
February 11, 2025 — Politico
Freezing of US Aid and its Impact on Global Health Programmes
AVAC Executive Director, Mitchell Warren, speaks with South African television network, eNCA, about the US administration halting foreign aid.
February 10, 2025 — eNCA
PEPFAR Projects are Exempted from Trump’s Ban on Aid for South Africa
“The flurry of actions really provides an unprecedented amount of whiplash, wondering each day what to do, what not to do,” says Warren. “The only true winner in the HIV response is actually the virus itself. The virus loves chaos. The virus loves instability. The virus loves conflict.”
February 10, 2025 — Bhekisisa
With Aid Cutoff, Trump Halts Agency’s Legacy of ‘Acting With Humanity’
A tower of blocks may take hours to build, but “you pull one of those blocks out and it collapses,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, which relied on USAID for 38 percent of its funding.”
February 8, 2025 — New York Times
‘Madness’: Trump freeze on global HIV prevention efforts sparks disbelief, anger
This is not only bad politics in terms of government-to-government relationships, it is bad medicine, it is bad science, and it is dumb,” says Mitchell Warren, who heads AVAC, an HIV prevention advocacy group whose $5 million PEPFAR grant was suspended last week..”
February 7, 2025 — Science
Trump Aid Freeze Disrupts Global HIV/AIDS Fight
“There are programs all over the continent providing treatment and prevention that are now not delivering what they normally do,” said Mitchell Warren of AVAC, an international nonprofit focused on HIV prevention. “There will be people, beginning this week, who come back into the clinic, or thought they had an appointment to come back to clinic to get more medication, and won’t be able to get it.”
February 3, 2025 — The Hill
Too Little, Too Late: What a PEPFAR waiver can’t do
The waiver is likely too little, and way too late. “Many programmes have started to shut down and have begun with massive layoffs,” says Mitchell Warren of AVAC. “The abrupt freeze has also resulted in trust being broken down. And that doesn’t get undone because of a waiver.”
February 3, 2025 — Bhekisisa
Musk and Trump begin shutting down USAID
Staff at world’s single largest aid donor ordered to stay at home as billionaire claims president’s support for closing agency.
February 3, 2025 — The Telegraph
South Africa’s HIV/AIDS NGOs Await Clarity on Partial Waiver to US AID Freeze
It is unclear who will provide direction to PEPFAR’s implementing partners.
February 3, 2025 — BusinessDay
Weaponising Aid: The cruel ways of #Trump2025
Bhekisisa’s Mia Milan speaks with AVAC’s Executive Director, Mitchell Warren, about the cruel and confusing actions of the new American administration and its potential longterm implications.
January 30, 2025 — Bhekisisa
To Our Philanthropy Heroes
PrEP4All and AVAC ask HIV funders to adapt to urgent threats.
January 26, 2025 — POZ
Is a new HIV prevention plan ambitious enough? And can it survive Trump?
PEPFAR and the Global Fund released a plan to distribute a groundbreaking new HIV prevention tool in the global south, even as some activists question whether they should be trying to reach more people.
January 23, 2025 — Devex
Have We Cured AIDS?
The simple fact is that if global funds for HIV are reduced, we will see a rise in HIV cases and deaths. The global community has accomplished so much, but the fight is not over.
January 22, 2025 — Vox
As PrEP Protections Head to the Supreme Court for Review, What is The Future of the Crucial HIV Prevention Medication Under Trump 2.0?
“PrEP has been a game-changer,” says John Meade, a senior program manager for policy at AVAC, an HIV prevention advocacy group, and a member of PrEP in Black America, a group of HIV experts and advocates devoted to increasing PrEP use among African Americans.
January 12, 2025 — Uncloseted Media
Opinion: The world has a new HIV prevention drug. Let’s use it
There is hope for a new 5 by 3 global target of getting 5 million people on long-acting PrEP to prevent HIV by 2030.
December 19, 2024 — Devex
2024 Breakthrough of the Year: The Long Shot
“You don’t see data like this every day,” says Mitchell Warren, who heads AVAC, a nonprofit that began as the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and has increasingly made PrEP its main focus.
December 12, 2024 — Science
Data Rules: How Numbers Turned Our HIV Plans
“We’re seeing treatment scale-up go quite quickly, [but] we’re not seeing the level of new infections go down as quickly — and that’s a cause for great concern,” Mitchell Warren, head of the international HIV advocacy organisation AVAC, told Bhekisisa earlier this month.
December 10, 2024 — Bhekisisa
Long-Acting HIV Medicines and the Pandemic Inequality Cycle — Rethinking Access
Coverage is a key component of impact, and it is vital that governments and donors act together to purchase these products at scale. If the volumes purchased are small, then prices will stay high, impact will remain low, and a sustainable, affordable market for multiple manufacturers will not come to fruition. Coordinated work by UNAIDS; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; PEPFAR; Unitaid; the WHO; and AVAC is building momentum, but more is needed.
December 9, 2024 — The New England Journal of Medicine
How SA’s HIV Fight Has Changed: New Infections Drop From 1 463 a Day to 370
But HIV “is still an issue” as the number of new infections isn’t coming down fast enough to end AIDS as a public health threat – and that’s “a cause for great concern”, HIV activist Mitchell Warren from AVAC says.
December 2, 2024 — News24
With Threats on The Horizon, World AIDS Day Is Still a Call to Action
World AIDS Day arrives every year on December 1 and yet it remains one of the more confusing—and I’ll add, often dreaded—markers in the AIDS community. Advocates are often forced to choose between mourning the loss of loved ones or using the globally recognized day to highlight the persisting struggles holding us back from seeing an AIDS-free generation. As we face an incoming administration that campaigned on promises to “reshape” our healthcare with guidance from one of the loudest leaders in the anti-science and denialist movement, our impulse to resist has never been more clear or urgent.
December 1, 2024 — Vogue
[PODCAST] Will Trump Cut Funds for SA’s HIV Programmes?
In this podcast, Mia Malan asks Mitchell Warren, who heads up the New York-based advocacy organisation, Avac, what lies ahead for South Africa’s US-funded HIV programmes after Trump takes over.
November 28, 2024 — Healio
Does the World Still Need an HIV Vaccine? Experts Say Yes?
Mitchell Warren, executive director of the nonprofit AVAC, which focuses on HIV prevention, compared the current situation with the aftermath of the Thai vaccine trial. “At the time, people said if we got to 50% [efficacy for a vaccine], that was the new bar,” Mitchell said at HIVR4P. “I personally think that was true then. It is no longer true.”
November 27, 2024 — Healio
Does the World Still Need an HIV Vaccine? Experts Say Yes?
Mitchell Warren, executive director of the nonprofit AVAC, which focuses on HIV prevention, compared the current situation with the aftermath of the Thai vaccine trial. “At the time, people said if we got to 50% [efficacy for a vaccine], that was the new bar,” Mitchell said at HIVR4P. “I personally think that was true then. It is no longer true.”
November 27, 2024 — Healio
Can SA Afford To Not Have Climate-Friendly ARVs?
And, says Mitchell Warren, who heads up the New York-based HIV advocacy organisation Avac, while it is “terrific” to see the work that looks at the impact of HIV drugs on the environment, “from an HIV prevention and treatment perspective, the first priority needs to be to develop products that will work to ensure long, healthy lives of people living with HIV”.
November 20, 2024 — Bhekisisa
How Gilead Is Driving Global Health Equity And Innovation
According to Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC, an international non-profit organization working to accelerate effective HIV prevention options in high-burden countries and communities, “the recent results of injectable lenacapavir for PrEP are among the most important results we’ve seen to date of any HIV prevention option. Adding this additional HIV prevention options means more people may find an option that is right for them. Beyond expanded choice, a twice-yearly injection has the potential to transform the way we deliver HIV prevention to people who need and want it most – from an easier to follow regimen for individuals to a decreased burden on healthcare systems that are stretched to the limit.”
November 20, 2024 — Forbes
Inconvenient Question: Science Is Gifting Us New HIV Prevention Tools but Is It Expanding Choices for the People?
Any new HIV prevention method is not meant to sit on the shelf but to be used by the people who need it to protect themselves from HIV. We have to ensure that new HIV prevention technologies that are coming out of the scientific research pipelines, are accessible to people everywhere – especially those who are more at risk of HIV acquisition. Jim Pickett has passionately called for translating scientific gains into public health outcomes – not with delay, but with equity and justice.
November 14, 2024 — CNS
Inconvenient Question: Science Is Gifting Us New HIV Prevention Tools but Is It Expanding Choices for the People?
Any new HIV prevention method is not meant to sit on the shelf but to be used by the people who need it to protect themselves from HIV. We have to ensure that new HIV prevention technologies that are coming out of the scientific research pipelines, are accessible to people everywhere – especially those who are more at risk of HIV acquisition. Jim Pickett has passionately called for translating scientific gains into public health outcomes – not with delay, but with equity and justice.
November 14, 2024 — CNS
Inconvenient Question: Science Is Gifting Us New HIV Prevention Tools but Is It Expanding Choices for the People?
Any new HIV prevention method is not meant to sit on the shelf but to be used by the people who need it to protect themselves from HIV. We have to ensure that new HIV prevention technologies that are coming out of the scientific research pipelines, are accessible to people everywhere – especially those who are more at risk of HIV acquisition. Jim Pickett has passionately called for translating scientific gains into public health outcomes – not with delay, but with equity and justice.
November 14, 2024 — CNS
In The Spotlight | Where are we in the search for an HIV cure?
As Jessica Salzwedel, the senior programme manager for research engagement at New York-based NGO AVAC, said, a potential HIV vaccine might be therapeutic and not necessarily preventative. A therapeutic vaccine is given to someone who is already living with HIV in the hope that the vaccine will prime their immune system to fight HIV or potentially clear it better.
November 11, 2024 — news24
Are We on the Path to End AIDS by 2030?
“We have to fill the product introduction gap – accelerate time to regulatory approvals of product introduction to impact; demand creation and programme platforms for prevention; and differentiated and integrated service delivery for people. We must also fill the product development gap – long acting and event driven; user-friendly and developed with users; dual purpose and multi-purpose methods must be our top priority,” says Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC.
October 28, 2024 — The Pioneer
Talks Have Started To Get the Twice-Yearly Anti-HIV Jab Registered in SA
Cheaper, generic versions of the jab, which contains the antiretroviral drug, lenacapavir, will be sold to 120 countries with high HIV rates, of which South Africa is one. The generic shots are likely to become available in 2027, according to Mitchell Warren, the executive director of the New York-based advocacy organisation, AVAC.
October 21, 2024 — Bhekisisa
Success of Long-Lasting HIV Drug Hinges on Pricing
“We’re calling for an aggressive effort to make lenacapavir available to at least one million people in low- and middle-income countries within the first year of its rollout.” Mitchell Warren, executive director, AVAC
October 21, 2024 — SciDevNet
Argentinian Advocate Gastón Devisich Wins 2024 Omololu Falobi Award at HIVR4P Conference in Lima
Argentinian HIV advocate Gastón Devisich has been awarded the 2024 Omololu Falobi Award for Excellence in HIV Prevention Research Community Advocacy. Devisich, who serves as Community Engagement Coordinator at Fundación Huésped, received the honor on October 9 during the HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P) Conference in Lima, Peru. This marks the first time the prestigious award has been given to a recipient from Latin America, recognizing Devisich’s significant contributions to HIV prevention efforts and his advocacy for marginalized communities in the region.
October 11, 2024 — HeapNews
Access Questions Hang Over Gilead’s HIV Shot
“For all of the wonders of product development, PrEP has not even begun to have the impact we need it to,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of international HIV prevention nonprofit AVAC.
October 8, 2024 — Axios
Gilead Agrees to Allow Generic Version of Groundbreaking HIV Shot in Poor Countries
Mitchell Warren, executive director of the HIV prevention organization AVAC, said the exclusion of Brazil, Peru, Mexico and Argentina from the generics deal was shocking since the clinical trials that proved the drug worked were conducted in those countries. Gilead said it would provide the people who participated in the trial with lenacapavir “until it is available in their countries.” “Eight thousand people in a dozen countries participated in those two trials, but they didn’t do it alone, they did it with their communities,” Mr. Warren said. “Those trial sites were chosen because that’s where epidemics were the most serious.”
October 2, 2024 — New York Times
Meta-analysis of Pregnancy Events in Biomedical HIV Prevention Trials in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for Gender Transformative Trials
Historically, pregnant and lactating populations (PLP) have been excluded or disenrolled from biomedical HIV prevention trials, despite being more likely to acquire HIV during pregnancy and the post-partum period. We conducted a meta-analysis of pregnancy events in biomedical HIV prevention trials in sub-Saharan Africa to support trialists moving toward more inclusive clinical and implementation studies.
August 17, 2024 — AIDS and Behavior
The Long Wait for Long-Acting HIV Prevention and Treatment Formulations
Large randomised studies of new long-acting medications for the prevention and treatment of HIV have shown high effectiveness and acceptability. Although modelling studies indicate these agents could be fundamental in HIV elimination, coordination of their entry into health-care markets is crucial, especially in low-income and middle-income countries with high HIV prevalence, where coordination is low despite UNAIDS flagging that global HIV targets will not be met.
August 16, 2024 — The Lancet HIV
A Love Letter to Sexually Transmitted Diseases
“Every morning, I wake up a Black woman in America, and at least once a day, I have to ask myself, “am I safe?” I ask this question as I prepare for meetings, walk my dog, and sleep because the deaths of Dr. Antoinette Candia-Bailey, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor are ever present in my mind and heart. These deaths remind me that my physical safety is not always guaranteed, which shapes how I navigate challenges and pursue opportunities in my career to contribute to the field of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).” – Alison Footman
August 16, 2024 — Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Harnessing Private Sector Strategies for Family Planning To Deliver the Dual Prevention Pill, the First Multipurpose Prevention Technology With Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, in an Expanding HIV Prevention Landscape
The Dual Prevention Pill (DPP) combines oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with oral contraception (OC) to prevent HIV and pregnancy. Noting the significant role played by the private sector in delivering family planning (FP) services in countries with high HIV burden, high level of private sector OC uptake, and the recent growth in self-care and technology-based private sector channels, we undertook qualitative research in Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe to prioritize private sector service delivery approaches for the introduction of the DPP.
August 15, 2024 — JIAS
CDC Finally Puts $7 Million Toward Pilots for Free, Easy PrEP Access
“We’re hoping that we could work with those jurisdictions to provide the technical assistance” to get the pilots up fast, John Meade, M.P.H., senior program manager for policy at AVAC, explained in a call with TheBody. Meade is also a co-founding member of PrEP in Black America. He said that he and other advocates see the CDC pilot funding as a chance to quickly stand up programs that could chart the path for a permanent, national PrEP plan. “It’s meant to be a snapshot to give four jurisdictions the extra bump needed to get a program started.”
August 15, 2024 — TheBody
Lenacapavir: What it would it take to get the 6-monthly anti-HIV jab to SA
But translating trial results into something that works in real life in countries like South Africa is often considerably harder than developing the actual medicine, says Mitchell Warren, who heads up the New York-based advocacy organisation AVAC. “It’s going to take policymakers, funders and communities getting together to decide we want to get to zero in real life.”
July 31, 2024 — Bhekisisa
There’s More Data for Trans People With HIV Than Any Other Disease — but It’s Still Flawed
In a separate study, Minalga looked at 41 milestone HIV clinical trials between 1991 and 2023. They found that out of more than 170,000 total participants, less than 1% were identified as part of the trans community, and 94% of those were trans women.
July 30, 2024 — STAT
AIDS 2024: Exciting Developments With the Jabs Promising To Revolutionise HIV Prevention
“We think that they may have data to go to the regulators by the middle of next year…and hopefully they would get approval from any number of regulators and then hopefully at the same time WHO recommendations [will come out], so that could all happen in 2025,” Warren said. “Ministries of Health, PEPFAR [President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief], and Global Fund could begin to procure this product by late next year. So, you could see its introduction late 2025, early 2026,” he speculated.
July 29, 2024 — Spotlight
SA Wants To Buy the 2-Monthly Anti-HIV Jab — 18 Days After a US Donation Deal
“Injectable HIV prevention medicine provides a terrific option that is less dependent on a user taking a pill every day, and the less often you need to go to a provider for the injection, the less burden on the health system,” says Mitchell Warren from the New York-based advocacy organisation, AVAC.
July 29, 2024 — Bhekisisa
Despite Gilead’s Promising HIV Prevention Drug, A Vaccine Is Still The ‘Holy Grail’
Forbes reports on the promise of lenacapvir for HIV prevention, quoting Mitchell Warren: “It is gobsmackingly exciting to see zero in a clinical trial,” but notes, “While there have been amazing advances with PrEP options, people need to continue taking the medication as long as they remain at-risk, which could be an entire lifetime. The obvious solution would be a much cheaper vaccine that could provide years of protection, but it’s a research puzzle that has eluded top scientists in government, academia and industry for more than two decades.”
July 23, 2024 — Forbes
We Have More Infection-Prevention Options Now but Are They Actual Choices for the People?
“We have to fill the product introduction gap – accelerate time to regulatory approvals of product introduction to impact; demand creation and programme platforms for prevention; and differentiated and integrated service delivery for people. We must also fill the product development gap – long acting and event driven; user-friendly and developed with users; dual purpose and multi-purpose methods must be our top priority,” said Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC. Mitchell was speaking at AIDS 2024 Affiliated Independent Event on TB and HIV organised recently in lead up to 25th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2024).
July 19, 2024 — CNS
Zero-Infection HIV Drug ‘Must Be Affordable’
Bridget Ndagaano Jjuuko, activist and director of ACTS101-Uganda, urged major donors like PEPFAR and the Global Fund to make large-scale purchases of lenacapavir, which would significantly drive down the drug’s market price. “We want to see affordable lenacapavir in the hands of those that need it in the shortest time possible,” said Jjuuko. “We need commitments from donors like the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund that purchases large quantities of drugs to lower the prices of lenacapavir as it hits the market,” Jjuuko added.
July 15, 2024 — SciDev.Net
Devex Newswire: The US Global AIDS Initiative is Dealt a Painful Blow
“PEPFAR continues to be the greatest driver of public health impact — not just in the AIDS response but across global health,” Mitchell Warren, executive director of the HIV prevention nonprofit AVAC, wrote to Devex.
July 4, 2024 — Devex
Gilead Urged to Prioritise Access as Injection Trial Proves 100% Successful in Preventing HIV
“This is one of the most important results we’ve seen to date in an HIV prevention study,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, a non-profit HIV prevention advocacy organisation. “Adding additional HIV prevention options means more people may find an option that is right for them. Beyond expanded choice, a twice-yearly injection has the potential to transform the way we deliver HIV prevention to people who need and want it most – from an easier-to-follow regimen for individuals to a decreased burden on healthcare systems that are stretched to the limit.”
June 24, 2024 — Health Policy Watch
Can We End Epidemics?
To deliver the choice in quality care that people deserve, expanding the pipeline of options required to diagnose, test, prevent, treat, and eventually cure HIV and end the AIDS epidemic is critical. Host Henry Bonsu is joined by AVAC’s Executive Director Mitchell Warren and Dr. Kimberly Smith, Senior VP and Head of Research and Development ViiV Healthcare to discuss advances in HIV and infectious disease science including for sexual and reproductive health more broadly, we learn more about what promises the future might offer and what are some of the pitfalls we need to overcome?
June 21, 2024 — Foreign Policy
Lenacapavir Jab 100% Effective in Preventing HIV Infection Among Ugandan, South African Women
“Beyond expanded choice, a twice-yearly injection has the potential to transform the way we deliver HIV prevention to people who need and want it most – from an easier-to-follow regimen for individuals to a decreased burden on healthcare systems that are stretched to the limit”, Mitchell Warren, AVAC’s executive director. “We are incredibly excited about this result, especially about what it can mean for women in Africa,” says Nandisile Sikwana, regional stakeholder engagement manager for AVAC, and a member of the PURPOSE 1 Global Community Advisory Group.
June 20, 2024 — The Observer
HIV Prevention Drug Uptake Is Slow. Can Offering Choices Change That?
“This is one of the most important results we’ve seen to date in an HIV prevention study,” Mitchell Warren, AVAC’s executive director, wrote in a press release.
June 20, 2024 — Devex
Yale LGBTQ Center Director joins Academy for a Cure Faculty in Kigali, Rwanda
The Yale LGBTQ Center is proud to announce that Samuel Neil Byrd, our Director and inaugural Stonewall Librarian at Yale University, recently joined the faculty of the 2024 Academy for a Cure in Kigali, Rwanda sponsored by the International AIDS Society (IAS) and AVAC. This prestigious event which took place from June 8-10, brought together experts, advocates, and researchers from around the world to explore innovative strategies and solutions related to HIV cure research.
June 17, 2024 — Yale LGBTQ Center
#InTheSpotlight | HIV Prevention Injections Exist, but Hardly Anyone Can Get Them
“PEPFAR has procured around 300 000 vials of CAB-LA from ViiV for use in select low- and middle-income countries through 2025”, Mitchell Warren, CEO of New York-based NGO AVAC, tells Spotlight. “PEPFAR will focus its rollout in select African countries, which may include South Africa.”
June 11, 2024 — Spotlight
#InTheSpotlight | HIV Prevention Injections Exist, but Hardly Anyone Can Get Them
“PEPFAR has procured around 300 000 vials of CAB-LA from ViiV for use in select low- and middle-income countries through 2025”, Mitchell Warren, CEO of New York-based NGO AVAC, tells Spotlight. “PEPFAR will focus its rollout in select African countries, which may include South Africa.”
June 11, 2024 — Spotlight
Long-Acting Drugs May Revolutionize HIV Prevention and Treatment
New regimens in development, including once-weekly pills and semiannual shots, could help control the virus in hard-to-reach populations.
April 17, 2024 — New York Times
AVAC Executive Director, Mitchell Warren Interview with Pharma Boardroom: “We now have the scientific tools to end the HIV epidemic; the challenge lies in delivery”
In an exclusive PharmaBoardroom interview, AVAC Executive Director Mitchell Warren looks back on the terrific advances that HIV science has made – transforming the disease from a death sentence to a manageable chronic illness – and why urgent, widespread, and equitable delivery of the solutions it has brought is crucial.
April 11, 2024 — Pharma Boardroom
Long-lasting, Injectable HIV Prevention Drug Set for “Aggressive” Roll-out in Africa
“Over the next 2 years, we will see more injectable PrEP use in East and Southern Africa than we’ll see in the US,” predicts Mitchell Warren, who heads AVAC, an advocacy group for HIV prevention. “That’s turning history on its head.”
March 25, 2024 — Science
30 Leaders Look to the Future of HIV
POZ marks 30 years of service and reflects on what’s next. To that end, POZ spoke to 30 leaders in the HIV community, asking each a question about an aspect of the ongoing AIDS pandemic that they know best.
March 25, 2024 — POZ
Stigma, Lack of Awareness Holding Back Use of HIV Prevention Pills, Experts Say
Over the last four years South Africa has taken large strides in making HIV prevention pills available at public sector clinics, but uptake has not been as good as some may have hoped. Thabo Molelekwa asks several experts why this might be.
March 25, 2024 — Spotlight
‘62.2% of Uganda’s Young Population is Circumcised’
The Uganda AIDS Commission said that Uganda is on the right track toward their 2025 HIV prevention targets.
March 25, 2024 – New Vision
Transformative Innovation in HIV/AIDS Research and Outreach
A cure for HIV/AIDS won’t be of much use unless the community is educated and engaged. Jessica Salzwedel, senior program manager for research engagement at the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), spoke about best practices for engagement, especially in Black communities. “Engagement needs to be meaningful and inclusive, with how we craft messages for Black Americans needing to change,” Salzwedel said. “We need to give more than just medical information out to the public and meet their multiple needs by breaking down silos and bridging gaps.”
March 15, 2024 – University of Miami: Miller School of Medicine
Huge Increase in PrEP Uptake When Services Offer Choice, Flexibility and Injectable PrEP, African Study Shows
Mitchell Warren of AVAC said that he and many other advocates and researchers had always argued for choice, but hadn’t had the evidence that it really made a difference in HIV specifically. “This is the evidence we’ve all been waiting for,” he told aidsmap. “This is the first time in a community setting that we have scientific evidence that choice matters and choice works.”
March 8, 2024 – aidsmap
Long-Lasting HIV Jab Marks ‘New Era for Prevention’ in Africa
“This is one of the first times in global health that we have seen almost simultaneous introduction in Eastern and Southern Africa, or any low and middle-income country, at the same time as weather nations,” said Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC, an international organisation working on HIV prevention.
February 22, 2024 – The Telegraph
Bending the Curve: What a decade-long roll-out of the anti-HIV pill can teach the world
The world cannot afford to squander another decade through slow, fragmented roll-out of life-saving HIV prevention. With longer-lasting options now becoming available, along with daily oral PrEP, condoms, voluntary medical male circumcision and HIV treatment, the world could finally bend the curve of HIV — but only if investment and planning for delivery are as evidence-based, person-centred and innovative as research and development in new products.
November 28, 2023 – Bhekisisa
Slash the Price by Three-Quarters — Government on Anti-HIV Jab
ViiV has already shipped PEPFAR-sponsored supplies to Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, which will arrive in late November, according to Mitchell Warren of the Coalition to Accelerate Access to Long-Acting PrEP. ViiV has confirmed the shipment to Bhekisisa, but not the donor or countries. Warren, however, says the US government has confirmed to the Coalition that the stock was bought by Pepfar. The Coalition is a group convened by Pepfar, the Global Fund, UNAIDS, Unitaid and the World Health Organisation; AVAC, the New York-based advocacy group which Warren heads up, is the secretariat.
November 16, 2023 — Bhekisisa
LISTEN: The Anti-HIV Jab Is Coming to SA. Find Out When and How
AVAC’s Executive Director sits with Bhekisisa to discuss a path forward for injectable cabotegravir for PrEP and path(s) forward that centers choice.
November 10, 2023 — Bhekisisa
Progress Against HIV and AIDS Is Fragile
Ahead of World AIDS Day, AVAC’s Executive Director Mitchell Warren sits down with Tim Murphy of POZ Magazine for a comprehensive look at where in the fight against HIV/AIDS and what advocacy and scientific breakthroughs are needed in ending the epidemic.
November 1, 2023 — POZ Magazine
How might we motivate uptake of the Dual Prevention Pill? Findings from human-centered design research with potential end users, male partners, and healthcare providers
“AVAC’s Wawira Nyagah and Kate Segal co-authored a comprehensive manuscript on a demand generation approach for the DPP (Dual Prevention Pill) including findings from research with potential users, male partners, and healthcare providers.”
November 1, 2023 — Frontiers in Reproductive Health
Over a Million SAs Have Used the HIV Prevention Pill
“For the past 18 months, donors such as the US government’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Pepfar, and the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, have been negotiating with CAB-LA’s manufacturer, ViiV Healthcare, for a non-profit price. Although an official price hasn’t yet been announced, a cost of $240 (about R4 500) for a year’s supply (six injections) has been mentioned by various organisations, a price which Mitchell Warren of the New York-based advocacy organisation, AVAC, says is likely accurate. He says as demand increases the price could very well drop to below $100, but that is still much more than the cost of the pill. AVAC hosts a coalition that looks at how to make long-acting PrEP available as fast as possible.”
October 25, 2023 — Behekisisa
How ‘Unauthorized Status’ Is Threatening US Global HIV Initiative
“It puts PEPFAR into the annual appropriations process and potentially opens it up every year to amendments on the right and on the left. There’s no natural constituency for foreign aid in the United States, like no one’s getting primaried if they don’t support foreign aid, despite the fact that PEPFAR is a very popular, very successful program. And so it politicizes it and risks the broad bipartisanship that’s protected PEPFAR for 20 years.” – Annette Gaudino
October 22, 2023 — The Hill
Anti-Abortion Arguments Spill Into Popular Bush-era Program
“This is not about HIV prevention or treatment or care. This is not about global health. This is about a political agenda that has said, ‘We want to use anything we can to reinforce an anti-abortion agenda.”- Mitchell Warren
October 11, 2023 — Medill News Service
‘The Start of the National AIDS Movement’: ACT UP’s Defining Moment in Queer Protest History
“The AIDS epidemic is not over until it’s over for everyone. We cannot see an end to the epidemic unless we have universal access to top-of-the-line, revolutionary treatments and also prevention methods.” – Jason Rosenberg
October 11, 2023 — The Guardian
The Architecture for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, & Response (PPPR): Views from Civil Society Leaders on the UN High Level Meetings (Guest Essay)
“Health continues to dominate political agendas globally, even as urgency in the response to COVID-19, seems to be ebbing away. Last week WHO indicated how few countries are sharing information on reporting deaths from the disease and on sequencing, for example.”
September 13, 2023 — Geneva Health Files
US Republicans ‘Hold Hostage’ HIV Programme Credited With Saving 25 Million Lives
Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, an international non-governmental organisation working on HIV prevention, said that the attack on the initiative is “unconscionable and reflects politics gone amok in the United States. To see it being held hostage by just a few members of Congress, who are providing disinformation and unfounded accusations to really hold a programme hostage to a political agenda, is unconscionable.”
September 12, 2023 — The Telegraph
Will the Wildly Successful PEPFAR Global AIDS Program Get Held Up in Congress Due to Abortion Politics?
“There’s no project more supported on a bipartisan basis, or with such incredible impact, and the fact that it’s being held political hostage is absolutely remarkable.” said Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC, a global HIV/AIDS prevention advocacy group.
August 11, 2023 — TheBody
Jeanne Marrazzo Chosen to Succeed Fauci as NIAID Director
“I can’t think of a better pick to be Fauci’s successor,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC). “One of Fauci’s great successes is communicating complex science to a range of audiences. I think we’ve all wondered who could fill those shoes and more importantly, who could fill the microphone explaining complex science to policymakers and to politicians and to communities and to the media. That’s Jeanne Marrazzo.”
August 2, 2023 — MedpageToday
Why Some of the Most Capable Nations Won’t Hit UNAIDS Targets
Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC for global health advocacy, access, and equity, said that many of the low- and middle-income countries that are on track to achieve targets are able to do so because of support from the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
July 31, 2023 — Medscape
Shaping and Coordinating the Implementation Science Agenda for Injectable Cabotegravir for PrEP: The Role of the Biomedical Prevention Implementation Collaborative (BioPIC)
Data from two randomized controlled trials (RCTs) showed that injectable cabotegravir (CAB) for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) was efficacious in reducing HIV acquisition. The US Food and Drug Administration approved CAB for PrEP in December 2021; Australia in August 2022; Zimbabwe in October 2022; South Africa in November 2022; Malawi in March 2023; and regulatory approvals are being sought in additional countries.
July 13, 2023 — Journal of the International AIDS Society
A New HIV Drug Is Coming to Africa – It Could Be Game-Changing
Long-lasting injections to protect people from HIV are set to be rolled out across Africa, potentially revolutionising the continent’s fight against the disease. Treatment for HIV has improved enormously over the last 30 years, with retroviral drugs able to suppress the virus in those who carry it and oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) widely available in tablet form to prevent infection.
July 5, 2023 — Telegraph
Put Family Planning, PrEP for HIV Prevention Under One Roof
Today is HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, an important day to acknowledge. Afterall, an HIV vaccine would be the most efficient, inexpensive way to control and possibly eradicate this stubborn, decades-old virus.
May 27, 2023 — New Vision
The Anti-HIV Injection Will Be Made in SA: Here Are 4 Benefits of the Deal That Made It Happen
Although a start date hasn’t been announced, the South African arm of the Indian drug company Cipla has confirmed that a generic version of the two-monthly HIV prevention injection, CAB-LA (short for long-acting cabotegravir), will be made at its plants in Benoni or Durban. Cabotegravir is an antiretroviral drug that blocks HIV from entering someone’s cells.
May 9, 2023 — Bhekisisa
US Officials Want to End the HIV Epidemic by 2030. Many Stakeholders Think They Won’t.
In 2018, Mike Ferraro was living on the street and sharing needles with other people who injected drugs when he found out he was HIV-positive. “I thought it was a death sentence, where you have sores and you deteriorate,” he said. Ferraro learned of his HIV status through a University of Miami Miller School of Medicine initiative called IDEA Exchange, which sent doctors and medical students to the corner where he panhandled. He got tested and enrolled in the program, which also provides clean syringes, overdose reversal medications, and HIV prevention and treatment drugs.
April 24, 2023 — KFF Health News
Uganda’s “Anti-Homosexuality” Bill Already Affecting Care
Activists and health-care providers are already seeing the chilling effects of Uganda’s proposals to further criminalise homosexuality.
April 21, 2023 — The Lancet
Payer Groups to Congress: We’ll Cover Preventive Care, For Now
Payer trade groups have written Democrats chairing five key US House and Senate committees stating their Affordable Care Act plans will most likely continue to offer many preventive health services at no cost to members while the U.S. Supreme Court weighs the challenge known as Braidwood vs. Becerra. Advocates aren’t sure they mean it or for how long. The plaintiffs in Braidwood, a federal case in Texas, are contesting the right of the government to require payers to cover the full cost of care meant to prevent certain illnesses or conditions.
April 21, 2023 — Health Payer Specialist
PrEP to Prevent HIV Moves Apace
The best way to treat the worldwide epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is to prevent people from being infected in the first place, and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) appears to be a successful way to accomplish prevention among people who acquire the infection through sexual activity.
April 18, 2023 — Breaking Med
PEPFAR Is A True Bipartisan Success With An Uncertain Future
The words “gridlock in Congress” are used so often that it’s hard to believe there are still issues that are truly bipartisan. However, after many decades, there is one issue that continues to receive support from both sides of the aisle. The effort to end HIV and AIDS has been not only a uniting cause in Congress, but it has also, through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), resulted in one of the best examples of US global health leadership in history.
April 14, 2023 — Health Affairs
Uganda Passes Severe Anti-LGBTQ Law—Again
The Ugandan parliament recently passed a draconian anti-LGBTQ law. The Anti-Homosexuality Act, as it is formally known, is intended “to protect the traditional family,” as its introduction states. However, it needs to be signed by the country’s president, Yoweri Museveni―who has previously campaigned against homosexuality―to become law. The bill follows a similar attempt at outlawing the LGBTQI community in 2014. That law was signed by Museveni, who has been president since 1986.
April 4, 2023 — TheBodyPro
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