March 17, 2021
In the first quarter of 2021, fast-moving developments in the global response to HIV and COVID-19 are raising the stakes on questions of equitable access to COVID vaccines, HIV treatment and prevention, and other crucial aspects of public health. Meanwhile, scientific innovation is steaming ahead with new trials, new findings and emerging advocacy priorities for all of it.
We’ve got you covered with tools and resources to make sense of it all.
Catch Up on Deep Dives with Advocates and Researchers at CROI
A series of daily talks for advocates at CROI covered vaccine nationalism, cure research, advances in antibody research, and updates on long-acting prevention research, like CAB-LA and a yearly implant, presented at CROI:
- Vaccine Nationalism is Killing Us: How Inequities in Research and Access to SARS-CoV-2 Will Perpetuate the Pandemic
- HIV Cure Update – Community Workshop Readout
- HIV-1 bNAbs: Looking Ahead
- Long-Acting Agents for Prevention: Islatravir Year-Long Implant and HPTN 083 Infections Data for CAB
Look for additional CROI coverage from AVAC later this week!
The HIV Prevention Pipeline 2021 and beyond
- HIV Px Research, Development and Implementation, AVAC’s regularly updated snapshot of HIV approaches under study and approved, from multi-month vaginal rings and injectables to daily pills and more.
- The Years Ahead in Biomedical HIV Px Research, a timeline showing the status of large-scale trials through 2022.
Calls for PEPFAR Leadership
It’s already mid-March, and US President Biden has yet to name a new US global AIDS coordinator and leader of PEPFAR. AVAC joined with a number of partners to call for urgent action in announcing a nominee; ensuring that PEPFAR remains housed within the US State Department; and maintaining robust civil society engagement.
WHO Recommends the Dapivirine Ring
Updated Recommendations on HIV Prevention, Infant Diagnosis, Antiretroviral Initiation And Monitoring – This update to the WHO recommendations was announced at R4P and the full recommendations are now published and available. The updates now include guidelines for adding the Dapivirine Vaginal Ring to HIV prevention programs.
COVID-19 in Focus
- Following the Martin Delaney presentation at CROI from Gregg Gonsalves and Fatima Hassan, over 850 global leaders came together to call for vaccine equity that was just published in the BMJ.
- NEW: The COVID-19 Vaccine Cheat Sheet: Access Edition looks at how authorized vaccines to date compare on the 3Cs: cost, cold chain and manufacturing capacity.
- NEW: The COVID Vax Tracker provides weekly updates on COVID-19 vaccine trials worldwide.
- Updated: The COVID-19 Vaccine Cheat Sheet provides an overview of the COVID-19 vaccine landscape from late-stage clinical trials to authorized vaccines.
- The Advocate’s Guide To COVID-19 Vaccine Access provides plain-language explanations of the necessary components for equitable access to help inform and support advocates.
Building Global Resilience
A new report, Meeting the moment, fueling the future, by GHTC, lays out policy recommendations and an agency-by-agency blueprint for US policymakers to supercharge global health research and development. AVAC has been a long-time contributor to the GHTC, and this document reflects on global health priorities one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, with calls for decolonizing the field and more.
Check out the latest from Protecting Global Gains:
- Seizing opportunities in Madagascar to expand access to contraceptives – learn how providers used salt-filled condoms in their training on self-injection techniques for injectable contraceptives.
- Latin American activists keep contraceptive supplies flowing – take a look at how nimble regional partnerships re-envisioned the supply chain for contraceptives.