AVAC at the 2023 Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit

The Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit, now in its seventh year, will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 11-12. This annual meeting focuses on biomedical interventions for treatment and prevention of HIV and approaches to implementation of these tools to end the epidemic.

This year’s theme highlights the role of sex and pleasure and includes a plenary featuring advocacy to right the wrongs of a failed US federal PrEP response with a US National PrEP Program.

AVAC and partners are involved in a number of sessions and activities; scroll down for information on these and click here to check out the full conference agenda.

And finally, be sure to follow our Twitter feed, @HIVpxresearch, Tuesday, April 11, when our Senior Program Manager for Policy, John Meade Jr., takes it over to report on the meeting live from Las Vegas.

AVAC and Partners at the Biomedical Prevention Summit

Tuesday, April 11:

10:30 to 12:00 PM PDT: No Data No More: A research scorecard for transgender inclusion
Session 1 Workshop
If we are to end the epidemic, we need biomedical research data that are representative of transgender communities. AVAC has designed a Scorecard tool with which to hold researchers accountable for the meaningful inclusion of transgender people in all HIV clinical trials. Join this session to learn how milestone HIV studies from 1991-the present have scored on transgender inclusion—and how you can ensure “No Data No More.”

4:30 to 6:00 PM EDT: Long-Acting Injectables: Revolutionary prevention drugs require revolutionary adaptations in delivery
Session 3 Workshop
Current delivery models for longer-acting injectable (LAI) PrEP require consumers to travel to outpatient settings and be seen by providers qualified to deliver injections. Yet, many providers serving HIV-impacted populations do not have sufficient capacity to offer LAI PrEP at the volume necessary to end the epidemic. Additionally, structural barriers and serious inequities within the United States healthcare system prevent many from engaging in HIV prevention. This workshop will explore how the HIV prevention community can draw lessons from other fields to successfully develop, advocate for, and implement alternative delivery models for LAI to increase access, and realize the promise of these revolutionary interventions.

4:30 to 6:00 PM PDT: PrEP in Black America: An equity movement in HIV prevention
Session 3 Workshop
Black people in the US bear a disproportionate burden of HIV, representing approximately 13 percent of the population while comprising more than 40 percent of incident HIV diagnoses in 2019. Despite this, biomedical HIV prevention tools remain underutilized by Black people and more than 90 percent of those who can benefit from PrEP have not been prescribed PrEP. The PrEP in Black America Summit (PIBA) was convened by a cadre of Black HIV activists, advocates, leaders, and public health professionals to address these frustrating factors on the 10th anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the first medication for biomedical HIV prevention. Summit leaders gathered more than 150 individuals, in person and virtual, in the spirit of confronting the historical injustices and race-based discrimination that continue to drive HIV and other sexual health inequities experienced by Black communities to develop a Black-focused agenda or “roadmap” for HIV prevention.

Wednesday, April 12:

10:30 to 12:00 PM PDT: CAB 4 PrEP: Opportunity for advancing equity and improving access
Session 4 Workshop
Injectable PrEP uptake in the US has the potential to reduce HIV infections, but only if its introduction can address the impediments to its implementation. Participants will engage with panelists that have experience with injectable cabotegravir in this workshop.

Avac Event

U=U Advocacy Webinar

Because we believe in it, we will advocate for it!

Speakers:

  • Cindra Feuer — Senior Program Manager at AVAC
  • Alice Kayongo — Public health worker in Uganda
  • Winifred Ikilai — National Forum of PLHA Networks Uganda

Time and Login Details
February 11, 2022 from 4-5:30PM CAT/SAST

Join us on Zoom. Meeting ID: 847 9660 1011; passcode: 262309

webinar flyer

Avac Event

HIV Drug Therapy Glasgow 2018

HIV Glasgow 2018 LogoThe program is of interest to clinical investigators from across the globe to review current research and to discuss its implications for HIV management strategies. In addition to looking at these treatment issues, the Congress is moving into areas, such as prevention, with time in the program focused on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and issues across Europe and beyond.

The important role of people living with HIV in treatment decisions and self-management continues to feature, and we look forward to a number of perspective from the community.

For more information, visit hivglasgow.org, or download a flyer.

Avac Event

New WHO Guidelines for HIV Testing Services Webinar

A critical first step in achieving the 90-90-90 targets proposed by UNAIDS is ensuring that 90 percent of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status by 2020. This is an ambitious goal, as currently only half of people living with HIV know their status. The recently released WHO HIV testing guidelines address and respond to this reality. The WHO’s Dr. Rachel Baggaley, unpacked the HIV testing guidelines and highlighted the need-to-know specifics of the new guidelines.

Listen to the recording here.

View the slides here.

Avac Event

WHO Guidelines on when to start antiretroviral therapy and on pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV

WHO recently issued an “Early Release Guideline” on when to start antiretroviral therapy and on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV. This document recommends 1) initiation of ART in adults living with HIV, regardless of CD4 cell count, and 2) offer of PrEP as a prevention option to all people at substantial risk of acquiring HIV. (The release is “early” relative to a comprehensive update of its consolidated ARV guidelines, slated to come out at the end of the year.) If implemented, these sweeping recommendations have the potential to change the world by simplifying ART for people living with HIV and revolutionizing prevention for people at risk.

In this webinar, Meg Doherty and Bob Grant from the Department of HIV/AIDS at WHO, spoke about the guideline and took questions. Links to the full presentation, slides and audio are below.

And for more background, Meg Doherty gave a presentation at IAS 2015 in Vancouver. Download the slides or view the presentation.

Avac Event

EATG 2015 webinar 2: Treatment for all: prevention and community implications

Following the recent announcement of new guidelines by WHO, this webinar looked at the implications of treatment for all for HIV prevention programmes.

Speakers included Professor Jens Lundgren, one of the principal investigators of the START study; Dr Meg Doherty, Coordinator of Treatment and Care in the Department of HIV/AIDS at WHO, and Giulio Maria Corbelli, Chair of the European Community Advisory Board (ECAB).

The webinar was chaired by Gus Cairns of EATG.

Avac Event

EATG Webinar 1: Treatment as Prevention

This series of three webinars, hosted jointly by EATG and AVAC, is designed to prepare and update EATG members for a special meeting on new developments in prevention on 23-25th January 2015 in Brussels. 

The first webinar addressed the latest updates on treatment as prevention. Speakers included Dr. Reuben Granich, Senior Advisor for Care and Treatment at UNAIDS, Dr. Sarah Fidler of Imperial College London, and Silvia Petretti, Deputy CEO of Positively UK.

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

UNAIDS, Targets and Civil Society

In Melbourne, UNAIDS launched a new initiative known as “90-90-90”, which lays out new targets for testing, treatment and virologic suppression. Where did these targets come from, what do they mean—and where does prevention fit in? Chris Collins, Chief of the Community Mobilization Division at UNAIDS addressed these questions and more.

Avac Event

Treatment as Prevention: Evidence from Europe and beyond

This was the third webinar in our series addressing a range of topics in HIV prevention research, hosted jointly by NAM and AVAC. We were joined by an expert panel discussing treatment as prevention, who took questions following their presentations. To view the full Flash animation of the webinar, click here.