Avac Event

Webinar: We’re On Our Way: Moving forward on the rectal road – new drugs, formulations and modes of delivery

This IRMA/AVAC teleconference featured Dr. Jose Bauermeister (University of Pennsylvania), Dr. Craig Hendrix (Johns Hopkins) and Dr. Kenneth Palmer (University of Louisville) who presented their promising new rectal microbicide research that is underway — we have new molecules, new formulations, new platforms for delivery and new acceptability explorations. Very exciting stuff!

On August 7, we glanced back at where we have been on this long and winding rectal road. On August 21, we looked to where we are going – where we need to go. It is this momentum we want to sustain. And it is the promise of a safe, effective, acceptable/desirable and accessible rectal microbicide for which we must fight — the future is not promised.

Recording: YouTube / Audio / Slides

Avac Event

Women Now 2016

Women Now! 2016 will provide an opportunity to assess the content and execution of the International AIDS Conference 2016. The Pan African Women’s Summit will provide an opportunity to assess the content and execution of the IAC for its meaningful inclusion of women’s and girls’ sexual & reproductive health and justice, especially women and girls of African descent, who bear the brunt of the HIV pandemic among women worldwide.

The summit will address critical areas of concern for women’s human rights, through an intersectional lens, including key issues of race, economic status, gender equality, women’s empowerment, gender-based trauma and violence, and sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice.

Avac Event

HIV Vaccine Research Update: What’s new and why it matters

Professor Linda-Gail Bekker is the Deputy Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, Chief Operating Officer at the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation and Professor of Medicine at the University of Cape Town. She is also President-elect of the International AIDS Society.

Amongst many HIV prevention research activities that she leads, she is the principal investigator of the HVTN 100 vaccine trial, and in this webinar she discussed the latest in HIV vaccine research and the most recent updates on the plan to start a new vaccine efficacy trial later this year.

Listen / View Slides / Watch on YouTube / Watch Flash animation

Avac Event

In Sisterhood: A Celebration of the Achievements of Networks of Women Living with HIV

The International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW) in partnership with AVAC and Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network held a reception to celebrate the strength and vitality of networks of women living with HIV. Together during the HIV High Level Meeting we invited our friends to join us to come and jointly renew our commitments to ensuring that women and girls are kept on the agenda.

Avac Event

Innovating for Women’s HIV Prevention

Join the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM), AVAC and the Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development (ICAD) at the UN High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS for a side event: Innovating for Women’s HIV Prevention.

The event aims highlight the importance of multiple HIV prevention strategies to meet the comprehensive needs of women and girls throughout the different phases of their lives and will bring together experts to discuss and provide updates on the innovative research, products, programs and financial instruments needed to fast track HIV prevention for adolescent girls and women.

Avac Event

Webinar: HIV – The Basics What You Need To Know, And Want to Know About HIV Cure Research

This webinar covered the basics of cure research. The webinar was led by Nicolas Chomont, a leading researcher at the University of Montreal.

Topics covered during the webinar included:

  • What are researchers talking about when they say “cure”?
  • What kind of progress is being made toward a cure for HIV?
  • How can we talk about HIV cure to our communities?
  • What do we need to know before AIDS 2016?

SLIDES / AUDIO

For information on other CUREiculum webinars, visit here.

Avac Event

Webinar: The Dapivirine Ring – What’s the story?

A joint STRIVE and AVAC webinar.

For the first time, two large-scale studies have confirmed modest efficacy for a microbicide to prevent HIV. The vaginal ring is made of a flexible silicone material infused with dapivirine, a potent ARV that works by preventing the virus from making copies of itself. The ring enables the drug to be released slowly over time, directly to the site of potential infection, with low absorption elsewhere and is designed to be worn for up to three months at a time.

In this webinar, we discussed:

  • Why were the ring results greeted with disappointment by some and joy by others?
  • What plans are there to introduce the ring into prevention programs and how will it sit within the roll-out of PrEP?
  • What role can/should such biomedical tools play within the overall response to HIV?

Presenter:

Rebekah Webb is an HIV prevention research advocate based in the UK. She has been a campaigner for new prevention options for women since 2002 and was the European Coordinator for the Global Campaign for Microbicides until she began freelancing. Rebekah now works regularly with AVAC, the European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) and STOPAIDS to advance political commitment to HIV prevention efforts in Europe.

Recommended Background Reading:

Avac Event

CUREiculum Webinar: Stakeholder Engagement

Based on the AVAC/UNAIDS Good Participatory Practice Guidelines (GPP), this module applies the principles found in the guidelines to early phase HIV cure research. The content is designed to help research teams, community members and other stakeholders understand and implement GPP in early phase research.

Slides and audio from this webinar are available for download below. And for information on the entire CUREiculum webinar series, click here.

Avac Event

CUREiculum Webinar: Early ART

Early ART does not cure HIV. However, researchers globally are looking to understand why some HIV-positive individuals can achieve a temporary remission while others rebound quickly after stopping treatment. This module gave an overview of the current research landscape and place early ART research in the larger framework of the HIV cure research agenda. The webinar was led by Dr. Jintanat Ananworanich, MD, PhD.

Avac Event

2017 Fellows Informational Call

Listen here for a recording of the Fellows Program informational call.