Thursday, April 6, 15.00hours to 16.30hours (EAT)/8:00-9:30am (EST)

Welcome to this year’s first meeting of the Domestic Resource Mobilization learning collaborative. The Learning Collaborative is a virtual space that brings together global health advocates, civil society organizations and other key stakeholders from Africa to engage in peer-to-peer learning and partner in advocacy for a sustainably funded health R&D and infrastructure in Africa.

The upcoming learning collaborative meeting take place on Thursday April 6th, from 15.00hours to 16.30hours (EAT)/8:00-9:30am (EST). The focus will be on the need to invest in local vaccine manufacturing in Africa. We will discuss the landscape including challenges and opportunities, and identify priority advocacy towards expanding local manufacture of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics.

The 6th annual Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit will take place in person on April 20-21 in Chicago, Illinois at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk.

The Summit will highlight the role that biomedical prevention tools such as PrEP, PEP, Treatment as Prevention (TasP) and U=U have in ending the epidemic while working in the current COVID environment.

NMAC, the conference organizers, will apply COVID-19 safety protocols to ensure a safe conference experience. All conference attendees should be fully vaccinated with a booster and the latest CDC guidance for in person meetings will be followed.

Visit the conference website and watch this space for more as the conference approaches.

This year’s annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) took place virtually from February 12-24. This forum offered the latest from research on HIV, tuberculosis (TB), hepatitis (HEP) and now also featured findings from COVID-19 studies.

Follow Along

Conference coverage came from aidsmap, AVAC on Twitter: @hivpxresearch, and via the conference hashtag: #CROI2022. AVAC also produced two roundups (week 1, week 2).

Previewing CROI

CROI’s Community Liaison Subcommittee (CLS), AVAC & EATG hosted a preview of CROI for global advocates to explore some of the key research on the program, get tips for how to get the most out of the conference, and learn where and how to stay connected. Here is a link to the recording.

Daily Research Updates at the Margarita Breakfast Club

February 14-24
The Margarita Breakfast Clubs (MBCs) were one-hour Zooms that provide an intimate setting for dialogue between researchers and community advocates on the hottest #CROI2022 science being presented this year. These sessions were open to anyone and are made possible through a collaboration including the CROI Community Liaison Subcommittee, AVAC, EATG and other groups.

• Topic: From Long to Longer – How New ARVs are Rewriting the Script for HIV Prevention and Treatment
  Date: Monday, February 14
  
  Speaker: Dr. Chloe Orkin
  Moderators: Ntando Yola and Jim Pickett
  Watch the recording / Session recap

• Topic: River Deep, Mountain High: Pathways Toward a Cure for HIV
  Date: Wednesday, February 16
  
  Speakers: Dr. Katharine Bar and Moses Supercharger
  Moderators: Danielle Campbell and Michael Louella
  Watch the recording / Session recap

• Topic: Aging with HIV – Frailty, Comorbidities and a Call to Action
  Date: Tuesday, February 22
  
  Speakers: Dr. Kristine Erlandson and Jules Levin
  Moderator: Jeff Taylor
  Watch the recording / Session recap

• Topic: Rings and Injectable Things: Moving from options to choices for HIV prevention in cisgender women
  Date: Wednesday, February 23
  
  Speakers: Drs. Sinead Delany-Moretlwe and Kenneth Ngure
  Moderator: Danielle Campbell and Breanne Lesnar
  Watch the recording / Session recap

• Topic: Long COVID – What We Know, What We Need to Know, and What We Need to Do
  Date: Thursday February 24
  
  Speakers: Dr. Steve Deeks and JD Davids
  Moderator: Michael Louella
  Watch the recording / Session recap

CROI 2022 Conference Materials

• Conference Agenda
• FAQs

On April 6, 2022, the COVID Advocates Advisory Board (CAAB) and AVAC’s Coalition to Accelerate and Support Prevention Research (CASPR) hosted a special webinar on the Ubuntu trial. Led by the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN), Ubuntu is a landmark COVID-19 vaccine trial in sub-Saharan Africa investigating the efficacy of mRNA vaccines in people living with HIV against the omicron variant.

Watch the recording and view the slides.

On Wednesday, April 27, the CROI Community Liaison Subcommittee, AVAC, and European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) held a webinar to debrief this year’s Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. Following a brief overview of some of the most notable science presented at CROI 2022, a panel of community discussants from around the world unpacked findings from the conference, shared perspectives, and offered advocacy suggestions. Topics will spanned science presented on HIV prevention and treatment, HIV and aging, HIV cure, and COVID-19 — among others.

Recorded CROI 2022 sessions are available to all on demand. Recordings from the series of research updates held during CROI — Margarita Breakfast Clubs — are available here.

The webinar discussants were:

• Harry Tembo, Zambia Community Advisory Platform, Zambia
• Katie Willingham, The Well Project, United States
• Richard Jefferys, Treatment Action Group, United States
• Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service, India
• Simon Collins, i-Base and EATG, United Kingdom

Watch the recording and view the slides.