Community Perspectives from CROI 2016 was the second in the 2016 WATCH webinar series that offers women living with HIV capacity building and training on HIV disease and treatment advocacy. During this webinar, participants received an overview of HIV science by several speakers, including:

• Treatment Advocacy, Kate Borloglou, Community Advisory Board, The Well Project, Community Scientific Subcommittee, AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG)
• Pre-Exposure Prophylactics Research Updates from CROI 2016, Lisa Diane White, Deputy Director, SisterLove, Inc.
• Ring, Injectables & Cure Research Updates from CROI 2016, Jessica Salzdewel, Program Coordinator, AVAC

This webinar series was moderated by Krista Martel, Executive Director, The Well Project.

In this webinar, presenters spoke about PrEP’s use and provision in countries that haven’t yet approved it or who are in the early days post approval. Among others, these presenters from Thailand, South Africa, England, Peru, Mexico and the United States took on the following questions and more:

• Where is informal PrEP (“in the wild”) happening, among which populations?
• What are the perspectives of patients and providers?
• Are people following the full PrEP program (i.e. regular HIV and STI testing, medical monitoring, adherence support, sexual health counseling, other care)?
• What do advocacy efforts look like in different countries?
• What are the public’s perceptions of PrEP in different countries?
• How can the “PrEP in the Wild” global survey help your work?

Watch a Flash animation version of the webinar.

Uncertainty remains around hormonal contraception and its link to HIV acquisition. Given WHO’s recommendation that women should receive correct and full information to enable an informed choice regarding their method of contraception, the Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3) developed the Strategic Communication Framework for Hormonal Contraceptive Methods and Potential HIV-Related Risks.

This strategic framework was designed to assist governments in developing a communication strategy and to guide the development of social and behavior change communication (SBCC) materials and activities focused on hormonal contraception and HIV. To date, Malawi’s and Swaziland’s Ministries of Health have adapted the framework to their country contexts and have subsequently developed SBCC materials on this topic.

This webinar presented the framework, speakers discussed the adaptation process in Malawi and Swaziland and provided the perspective of women living with HIV related to this issue.

Moderated by Nithya Mani, Division Chief, Implementation Support, Office of HIV/AIDS, USAID

Presenters:

• WHO representative
• Beth Mallalieu, HC3 HIV Program Officer
• Triza Hara, Deputy Chief of Party, SSDI Malawi
• Lindiwe Malaza, Family Planning Officer, Sexual and Reproductive
• Health Programme, Ministry of Health, Swaziland
• Woman Living with HIV/Advocate

Sheraton Grand Chicago

HIVR4P is the only global conference that supports cross-fertilization among research on HIV vaccines, microbicides, PrEP, treatment as prevention and other biomedical prevention approaches, while also providing a venue to discuss the research findings, questions and priorities specific to each. The full program is available online here.

Following Along—From Near and Afar

Each day AVAC offered up a selective, whirlwind tour of the day’s session via our Advocates’ Network mailing list. If you’re not already signed up, visit here.

Daily Dispatches

• Who do you love? Finding treasure at the last day of R4P
• Debate This: What do HIV prevention and elections have in common?
• Spreading Heat at R4P
• Baseball, Guts and Glory: R4P kicks off in Chicago

Blog Reaction to R4P

• Achievements and Disappointments: From Cape Town to Chicago by Teresia Otieno
• What If Young Women were Offered PrEP or PEP? by Maureen Luba
• Where Are the African Americans? by Rob Newells

Watch this space. More blogs coming soon.

Social Media, News and Webcasts

We posted to Twitter and Facebook.

And aidsmap was the official online news partner for R4P. Find their updates here.

The conference organizers archived recordings of all sessions. Visit here to see the webcasts.

Advocates and researchers discussed data presented at IAS 2015, its implications and what’s next on the road to Durban 2016!

HIV activists helmed sessions ranging from movement-building and activism history, creating awareness on HIV criminalization, and strategizing collectively for justice for all Black lives.

This is an archived version of our USCA 2015 page.

The US Conference on AIDS (USCA) is well underway in Washington, DC, as providers, frontline workers, activists and others working on HIV/AIDS in the United States gather for this annual event.

The conference started off with over 200 people gathered for the Black PrEP Summit, organized by the Black AIDS Institute in partnership with a dozen community partners, including AVAC and members of our PxROAR program. The goal of the summit is to increase knowledge and uptake of PrEP among Black people in the United States through interactive conversations with clinicians, community members and public health practitioners. You can follow the conversation on social media at #BlackAIDS.

Advocates are also taking to the halls of Congress as part of HIV Action Day, and meeting with elected officials to discuss HIV/AIDS funding, syringe exchange and protecting/preserving the Affordable Care Act.

Prevention advocacy will be in full effect at USCA 2015 with a range of sessions (see the USCA website for the full schedule). We highlight below a handful of sessions that AVAC and our PxROAR partners are leading at the conference. And follow the prevention conversation and more throughout the conference on social media at #USCA2015 and @hivpxresearch and on AVAC’s P-Values blog.

Thursday, September 10

• Accelerating the Uptake of Daily Oral PrEP with Truvada While Integrating Treatment and Preparing for Additional PrEP Strategies

  10:30am – 12:00pm; Shaw, Meeting Level 3
  
  Evidence shows that daily oral PrEP can reduce risk of HIV by more than 90 percent and, that when effectively targeted to those at risk, can be cost-saving given the reduced levels of new infections. This workshop addressed the importance of overcoming barriers to PrEP uptake. In addition, it unpacked recent research results and looked to new data that are expected in the coming years. Session attendees were able to cite the evidence and engage in cogent dialogue in support of uptake in their respective communities nationwide.

• Decoding HIV Cure Science: A CUREiculum Seminar

  2:30pm – 5:30pm; Howard University, Meeting Level 1
  
  Participants learned about the science behind the headlines of “cure” and discussed the current strategies being pursued in the field. In addition, participants explored key ethical considerations, like treatment interruption, as well as barriers and motivators of participation in current and future trials, and worked with other advocates to develop skills to discuss and disseminate information about HIV cure research in their community.

Saturday, September 12

• HIV Prevention and Women: Delivering What Works and Preparing for What’s Next in the Pipeline

  8:30 – 11:30am; Chinatown, Meeting Level 3
  
  HIV prevention options for women—pills, rings and more! Participants heard the latest on what’s available now and what may be available soon.

• Prevention, Treatment and Cure: Talking About Research in Your Community

  1:30 – 3:00pm; Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Room 151, 801 Mt Vernon Place NW
  
  In this Affinity session, participants learned more about HIV prevention, treatment and cure research, ongoing studies, trial ethics and more!

• Transgender Women and PrEP Affinity Group Launch

  6 – 8:30pm; Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Room 151, 801 Mt Vernon Place NW
  
  This Affinity Session summarized the issues raised in the webinar on Transgender Women and PrEP held in July. Most of the session acted as a kickoff to an affinity group (a sub-set of the full US Women & PrEP Working Group) that focused on naming and creating an advocacy agenda for transgender women and PrEP. The Transgender Women’s Affinity Group is open to transwomen, people on the trans feminine spectrum and their allies. The WG strongly believes that the voices of transwomen should be centered in the leadership of the affinity group, and would like for the decisions and the direction of the group to be led by transwomen.

Sunday, September 13

• Sex Worker Visibility and the US National HIV/AIDS Strategy

  8:30 – 11:30am; Gallaudet University, Meeting Level 1
  
  Currently, sex workers are not identified as a “key population” in a number of national funding and policy agendas, including the NHAS. This can be seen as a protective factor for individuals who may be vulnerable to criminalization and/or those who may not identify with the term sex worker of feel comfortable disclosing their work or experiences to medical providers. What is lost, however, is significant. This workshop explored the ways that sex workers are systematically excluded from domestic and international policy—from surveillance data to funding priorities—in the context of stigma and criminalization.