Welcome to the New Year! Wondering where to put your attention and advocacy energy for the next 12 months? We don’t presume to have all the answers, but our new issue of Px Wire includes a highly selective list of ten issues, events and developments to hold attention and spark actions in 2015 — and beyond.
Want to see the bigger picture? Check out our updated timeline of biomedical HIV prevention research in the centerspread!
UNAIDS recently released Fast Track: Ending the AIDS Epidemic by 2030, its report for World AIDS Day (December 1, 2014). Coming nearly two weeks early, the launch was, itself, fast-tracked—and there’s plenty of “we can’t wait” urgency within the pages of the report, starting with the first page (that does more, typographically, with red ribbons than you might believe is possible). It reads:
“We have bent the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic. Now we have five years to break the epidemic or we risk the epidemic springing back even stronger.”
This is on target and a message to convey urgently and with clarity. UNAIDS has its work cut out as an agency that can provide leadership, mobilize resources and push for the shift to community-based service delivery that emerges as one of the core recommendations in the report.
In broad strokes, it’s the right message, with the right vision, at the right time.
But an effective response depends on strategy, details, milestones, resources and specifics—and these are still lacking. This is to be expected, as the UNAIDS Prevention and Non-Discrimination Targets are still in draft form.
The Fast Track World AIDS Day report is clear on what needs to happen to achieve the “90-90-90” goal that calls for 90 percent of people living with HIV to know their status, 90 percent of those to be on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and 90 percent of those to be virologically suppressed by 2020.
It also suggests the components of prevention programming that should also come on line—listing, in various places, male and female condoms, voluntary medical male circumcision, oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for sex workers, men who have sex with men, serodiscordant couples and adolescents, as well as cash transfers for young girls, harm reduction, structural interventions, mass media and behavior change. These prevention elements appear in different subsets throughout the document, leaving some confusion about what, exactly, is essential.
Everything that the UNAIDS report lists is important. But the details of what goes where—which packages, in which places—and what specific terms mean are missing. Cash transfers, for example, can be delivered in a range of ways, with different objectives and different outcomes.
There are also some elements that receive considerably less emphasis. Research and development of more potent ARVs for treatment and prevention, new prevention options for women and other key populations, vaccine and cure strategies, are fundamental to long-term success in “breaking the epidemic”. Within the five-year timeframe set by UNAIDS, there are short-term milestones to set and achieve in each of these areas, even though the ultimate goals may not be reached for many years.
The good news is that this is a solvable problem. We as advocates and activists must use our impatience and collective wisdom to fast-track a process to ensure that clear targets, resources and messages are developed with the same strategy, rigor and urgency as 90-90-90.
AVAC is working with many of our partners to inform this process. This new report adds urgency to this task and clarity to the questions we need to address. As the report stresses, we must all “hold one another accountable for results and make sure no one is left behind.”
In the coming days, AVAC will release “Prevention on the Line”—a briefing paper with core recommendations for effective target-setting across the research-to-rollout continuum. This will summarize core messages and analysis that will be expanded in AVAC Report 2014/15. To receive the Report and other updates in your inbox, please join our Advocates’ Network. Stay tuned—and stay in touch.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosted “Ending Epidemics Through Technology: Developing an HIV Vaccine,” featuring a keynote presentation by Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which was followed by a discussion with Margie McGlynn, President and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC.
A recording of the 90-minute event is available here. The keynote and discussion featured lessons from industry, how Ebola relates to AIDS, the need for an AIDS vaccine, advances presented at the recent HIV R4P conference and the current AIDS vaccine pipeline.
For more on recent advances and AIDS vaccine resources for advocates, visit AVAC’s vaccine page.
Px Wire is AVAC’s quarterly update covering the latest in the field of biomedical HIV prevention research, implementation and advocacy. This issue comes out on the eve of the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia—and we begin with “AVAC’s Take” on key messages and commitments to look for at and after the meeting. We also call for more PrEP demonstration projects and provide an update of the proposed ECHO trial.
Px Wire is AVAC’s quarterly update covering the latest in the field of biomedical HIV prevention research, implementation and advocacy. In this issue, we offer a selective “state of the union” update on various areas of the prevention field—highlighting key developments, messages and areas of work that warrant particular joint attention at the first HIV Research for Prevention (HIV R4P) conference and beyond.
The new issue of Px Wire, AVAC’s quarterly newsletter on HIV prevention research and implementation, is now available.
This issue goes to press as global stakeholders in the HIV prevention field are preparing for the HIV Research for Prevention (R4P) conference in Cape Town. HIV R4P is the first-ever meeting to bring together researchers, implementers, policy makers and advocates from across biomedical prevention, including vaccines, microbicides, PrEP, voluntary medical male circumcision, cure and ART in HIV-positive people.
In this issue of Px Wire, we offer a selective “state of the union” update on various areas of the prevention field—highlighting key developments, messages and areas of work that warrant particular joint attention in Cape Town and beyond.
Our centerspread looks at the targets UNAIDS announced at AIDS 2014 in Melbourne—“90- 90-90” targets calling for 90 percent of people with HIV to know their status, get initiated on ART and achieve virologic suppression. Goals such as 90-90-90 help focus the field, and treatment is crucial in ending the epidemic—but this view is incomplete. The field must have the same attention and clear objectives in preventing HIV.
The full issue of Px Wire, as well as our archive of old issues and information on ordering print copies, can be found at www.avac.org/pxwire.
This report by the MSMGF explores the circumstances around the enactment of new anti-homosexual legislation in Nigeria and Uganda, examining five categories of insecurity faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the context of these laws.
AIDS 2014 featured analyses of data on the potential relationship between hormonal contraceptives and risk of HIV infection. Researchers Charles Morrison (FHI 360) and Kristin Wall (Emory University), and Mary Lyn Gaffield from the WHO discussed the newest findings and guidance.
In this update to the 2012 Action Agenda to End AIDS, amfAR and AVAC argue that critical and expensive decisions made with incomplete data can undermine the response to the AIDS epidemic—even as the systems for collecting these data continue to improve. The report describes the issues and identifies critical areas where better, more complete data are needed to guide the key decisions for the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It also provides an update on prevention and treatment targets set in the Action Agenda.