Avac Event

Pleasure, Protection, Love, Lust, And Listening to Communities: The Future of HIV Prevention is Here

A webinar in memory of HIV prevention pioneer and revolutionary Jeff McConnell. A respected and passionate sociologist, Jeff (who passed away at the age of 49 this past February) was also a gay man living with HIV, and his identity was an important component of the science he conducted. His brilliant, human-touch research on gay men’s sex, sexuality, and various prevention methodologies involving treatment and PrEP was groundbreaking, visionary, and way ahead of most of us.

Influential on a global scale, Jeff’s work has given us powerful insight into social and sexual networks – and love and pleasure – as important, necessary components of HIV prevention efforts. Panelists paid tribute and memorialized Jeff by reminding us of his pivotal contributions to science and sharing anecdotes.

They also discussed where we are today and the future of HIV prevention.

Watch the full flash webinar here.

Avac Event

What are the HIV prevention needs of people who use drugs in Eastern Europe?

Hosted jointly by NAM and AVAC, the second webinar in the 2014 series covered harm reduction, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and Hepatitis C prevention in people who use drugs, with news from relevant studies and new initiatives in Europe.

Avac Event

PrEP @ 2 years—and still counting women in…

The US Women & PrEP Working Group, SisterLove and AVAC hosted a webinar marking the two-year anniversary of the FDA licensing of Truvada as PrEP in the US. 

This webinar provided an opportunity to share updates and resources in the field and discussed how far we’ve moved in getting women involved in the rollout of PrEP. The webinar reviewed what we know and don’t know about women’s motivations and barriers to consider daily oral PrEP as an intervention. Speakers included Karen Hoover from the US CDC, Judy Auerbach from the University of California at San Francisco, Alan McCord from Project Inform, and moderator, Dazon Dixon Diallo of SisterLove and the US Women & PrEP Working Group.

View the full webinar here.

Avac Event

Results of the iPrEx open-label extension (iPrEx OLE): PrEP uptake, sexual practices and HIV incidence

Get details on the iPrEx OLE study from principal investigator Robert Grant, who presented the data at AIDS 2014. The first open-label PrEP study to publish results, these data from iPrEx OLE begin to answer a number of questions on PrEP use in the “real world”.

Avac Event

PrEP me, please: Understand PrEP’s role in women’s health & safer conception

Presenters:

  • Shannon Weber, MSW, Director, Perinatal HIV Hotline, Bay Area Perinatal AIDS Center
  • Erika Arron, MSN, CRNP Assistant Professor, Drexel University College of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and HIV Medicine
  • Caroline Watson, volunteer outreach for BAPAC and PRO Men
  • Dazon Dixon Diallo, MPH, Founder and President, SisterLove, Inc. (Moderator)

Avac Event

PrEP Rally 4: What does PrEP mean for women?

A New-York based panel discussion featured doctors, PrEP users, activists, focusing on what PrEP means for women.

Guest Panelists:
Lynette Ford, MSW, GMHC
Jasmine, Woman currently using PrEP
Julie Lynn, Woman currently using PrEP
Poppy, Woman who was on PrEP when trying to get pregnant
Kimberleigh J. Smith, Harlem United Community AIDS Center
Shobha Swaminathan, MD, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine Rutgers, The State University Of New
Jersey New Jersey Medical School

Guest Moderator:
Terri L. Wilder, MSW, Mt. Sinai Institute for Advanced Medicine & ACT UP/NY Women’s Caucus

The discussion is free and all are welcome. Light refreshments will be provided. For more information, email krishnas@gmhc.org or call (212) 367-1016. And spread the word! Flyer available for download below.

Avac Event

PrEP: News from studies in Europe and elsewhere

The fourth webinar in our series addressed a range of topics in HIV prevention research, hosted jointly by NAM and AVAC, and looked at the current situation regarding pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in Europe and the US. Presenters discussed the ongoing IPERGAY study in France and the PROUD study in England, and reviewed progress in the NEXT-PrEP and demonstration studies in the US.

It also discussed the implications of the negative results of the recent VOICE trial. The presentations were followed by a question and answer session with our expert speakers.

Avac Event

VOICE Trial Results and Implications for Future Research

Results from the three-arm HIV prevention trial VOICE – Vaginal and Oral Interventions to Control the Epidemic – were recently presented at the 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. The data showed that none of three interventions tested—daily oral tenofovir, daily oral TDF/FTC (Truvada), and daily 1% vaginal tenofovir gel—provided additional protection against HIV in this study, likely because few of the women in the trial used the products as directed.

This global advocates’ webinar included a presentation of the data from VOICE co-principal investigator Jeanne Marrazzo followed by a moderated discussion, which included clarifying questions around the trial itself as well as discussion of the implications these results have for ongoing and planned HIV prevention research and implementation.

Avac Event

Beyond Daily Oral TDF/FTC as PrEP: Exploring new drugs and regimens for PrEP

PrEP researchers discussed ongoing trials of new oral PrEP interventions, including non-daily regimens (also described as “intermittent PrEP”) and new drugs such as maraviroc.

Principal investigators Bob Grant (ADAPT), Ken Mayer (NEXT-PrEP), Sheena McCormack (PROUD) and Jean-Michel Molina (ANRS Ipergay) joined the call. Their trials all seek to answer questions about strategies other than daily oral TDF/FTC and will provide important information on potential “second generation” oral PrEP.

Avac Event

United States Conference on AIDS

The United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) is set for September 30 – October 3, 2012 at Caesars Palace Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. For nearly two decades, USCA has sought “to increase the strength and diversity of the community-based response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic through education, training, new partnerships, collaboration and networking. This year, USCA will work to highlight the changes in our movement that have brought us closer than ever to ending the epidemic, and ways that we can move forward as a community to make this dream a reality.

To accomplish this, NMAC and its program partners are adjusting the format of this year’s conference to ensure that attendees get the most out of their experience. Day-long institutes, historically held on the first day of the conference, will be replaced by the first ever Summit to End the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in America. And in order to make the agenda more flexible, seminars will be held each day of the conference and the length of workshop and roundtable sessions will be shortened so that attendees can maximize their learning experience.

USCA Presentation: PrEP can protect women and men against HIV! What do we need to know and do so we can translate results into public health impact?