Using HCD to Solve a Problem

This graphic describes, in three parts, how to use human-centered design could be used to help with the low uptake of VMMC.

No Prevention, No End – AVAC launches new report and call to action

Today AVAC released No Prevention, No End, our 2018 annual report on the state of the field. Starting from the title—which humbly borrows the cadence of the call for an end to state-sanctioned violence against Black Americans, “No Justice, No Peace”—through to the closing words, “This is the worst possible moment for slowing down,” the Report is a call to action and guide for addressing the HIV prevention crisis that threatens progress in curtailing epidemics worldwide.

Click here to download the Report and individual sections and graphics; click here for a new episode of the Px Pulse podcast which covers the Report’s key themes and features lead author Emily Bass, AVAC’s Director of Strategy and Content.

UNAIDS named the prevention crisis in its July 2018 report, Miles to Go. It acknowledged that the scale-up of antiretroviral treatment, while essential, is insufficient as a prevention strategy. AVAC has been warning of an imbalance in approaches and investments across approaches, and calling for ambitious targets matched with political will, financing, timelines and more since the UNAIDS targets were first launched in 2014. (Check out AVAC Report 2014/5: Prevention on the Line for a summary of this critique of targets.)

In this year’s Report, we call out three core problems with primary prevention and the global HIV response, identifying the risks they bring and the path to a solution. Specifically, we focus on:

  • Investing in demand creation: The private-sector gloss on this term cannot obscure its essential role in making primary prevention work. Strategies that might save lives are condemned as unwanted or unfeasible when they’re delivered in programs that lack integrated demand-side thinking, which is a science and not a set of slogans.
  • Making informed choice central to HIV prevention: Programs that offer more than one option, along with a supportive environment for a provider and client to discuss risks, benefits and personal preferences aren’t a luxury but a necessity. The family planning field has metrics to measure choice; HIV should pick these up, with prevention programs leading the way.
  • Unstinting radical action: Progress in the global AIDS response is tenuous; so is the state of democratic institutions and the future of the planet. These interconnected issues require more bold action, including from countries that are aid beneficiaries, and from the citizens of those countries who unite to hold truth to power. In the HIV prevention context, this means accountability for primary prevention at every level, including research for next-generation options.

AVAC is launching this Report as many stakeholders in HIV prevention research gather in Madrid for the HIV Research for Prevention (R4P) conference. Visit our special R4P page to find us on-site and follow along from afar, to see how the themes of this year’s Report resonate in a global and wide-ranging discussion of HIV prevention research and implementation at a critical time.

Interpreting PEPFAR Data: A look at Zimbabwe

In this centerspread taken from Px Wire, our quarterly newsletter, we take a closer look at Zimbabwe’s data, and highlights amfAR’s detailed country factsheets that draw from PEPFAR’s giant data sets. Additional tools and information on influencing the COPs process are available from COMPASS partner Health GAP’s PEPFAR Watch.

New Issue! Px Wire: The prevention question cascade

In the new issue of Px Wire, AVAC gives our take on this year’s PEPFAR process for establishing the Country Operational Plans (COPs). These plans define what work will be done with PEPFAR money at the country level and how that work will be evaluated in each of the 63 countries that receive PEPFAR money.

The process has changed considerably since last year, allowing for deeper insights into what’s working and what’s not. In this issue, AVAC takes you through the good and bad of PEPFAR’s emphasis on index testing, analyzes crucial gaps in combination prevention, and lays out a series of questions to shape a powerful agenda for advocacy.

This issue’s centerspread takes a closer look at Zimbabwe’s data, and highlights amfAR’s detailed country factsheets that draw from PEPFAR’s giant data sets. Additional tools and information on influencing the COPs process are available from COMPASS partner Health GAP’s PEPFAR Watch.

Find the full issue Px Wire and the archive of past issues at www.avac.org/pxwire.

Target Tracking for Epidemic Control

Calculating progress toward the UNAIDS Fast Track Goals is complex but ambitious targets are the best kind. AVAC has long argued they propel action even if they aren’t met. But when it comes to achieving epidemic control, progress must be properly calculated, and can never be confused with success.

Appearing in Px Wire, this is a modified version of a graphic appearing in AVAC Report 2017.

New Px Wire — 2018: Countdowns and counting what matters

The first issue of AVAC’s quarterly newsletter for 2018 is here! It’s designed to help you mark your calendars and make your advocacy plans for critical events in the next 12 months. These include:

  • The upcoming country deadlines for creating roadmaps to implement the priorities laid out by the UNAIDS’ Global Prevention Coalition. This work is supposed to jump-start primary prevention and bring down the rate of new diagnoses by 75 percent by 2020. Will it? Only if you get involved!
  • In the coming weeks, PEPFAR and many stakeholders will gather to develop targets, service delivery approaches and comprehensive plans for testing, prevention, treatment and virologic suppression in PEPFAR countries. It’s a key process for civil society to track. Find out how!
  • In 2019, the ECHO trial is expected to release its results on whether three different contraceptive methods impact women’s risk of HIV—but preparation for these trial results is starting now! Get involved!
  • Seven major efficacy trials of biomedical prevention tools are currently underway—read on to find out where, what and how to learn more.

This issue of Px Wire also includes a detailed infographic showing the status of oral PrEP rollout in the countries where trial sites are located. And don’t miss the infographic explaining the demographics of Africa’s “youth bulge” and its implications for the global response.

Find the full issue of Px Wire and the archive of past issues at www.avac.org/pxwire.

The January Episode of Px Pulse is Up!

As the new year gets into full swing, we at AVAC look forward to assessing, untangling, confronting and calling on all of us to commit to HIV prevention in all its complexity. Building on the advocacy agenda we lay out in AVAC Report 2017, and a corresponding December episode of our Px Pulse podcast, our January episode expands on what we’re looking forward to in the year ahead.

Find Px Pulse on iTunes or listen at AVAC.org to hear AVAC Executive Director Mitchell Warren explore more of what’s got our attention—it’s no small list.

  • Major new vaccine and long-acting injectable PrEP trials are launching.
  • The dapivirine ring is under regulatory review, and could be the world’s next biomedical prevention option since oral PrEP.
  • Recent findings from the Rakai Community Cohort Study in Uganda confirmed what models predicted—bringing combinations of existing interventions, such as voluntary medical male circumcision and antiretroviral treatment, to scale slashes new HIV diagnoses. How can we leverage these findings to maximize prevention at the global level?
  • What will advocates need to do this year to prepare for results—anticipated in 2019—of a key trial called ECHO that’s looking at whether contraceptive methods affect HIV risk?

Hear all this and more in the January episode of Px Pulse, AVAC’s podcast on HIV prevention research today. Tell us what you think!

2018 and HIV Prevention: AVAC’s Take

In this episode hear about recently published findings from a study out of Rakai, Uganda confirm that scaling up of a combination of existing interventions, such as voluntary medical male circumcision and antiretroviral therapy provides protection from HIV at the population-level. How do we apply these findings at the global level? How should advocates prepare for results—anticipated in 2019—of the ECHO trial that’s looking at the effect of hormonal contraceptives on HIV risk? And what needs to happen in 2018 to reach long-term global targets for ending the epidemic?

NIH-Funded HIV Trial Networks: A family tree

This graphic provides a visual history of the DAIDS Networks and a look at what’s proposed for the next funding cycle. It appears in AVAC Report 2017: Mixed messages and how to untangle them.

The Delivery Challenge

This figure shows the timeline to achieve public health targets related to a new intervention, both globally and (in dashed lines) in the US. The message: it takes time and, based on history, today’s prevention tools are on track. It appears in AVAC Report 2017: Mixed messages and how to untangle them.