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This is an archived version of our USCA 2015 page.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.

This page includes information on the 18th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA 2015). Featured below are details on select events related to biomedical HIV prevention research and implementation.

News from ICASA

• Government Clamps Down on Gays – NewsDay Zimbabwe
• Accelerate Expansion of Antiretroviral Therapy to All People Living with HIV – WHO
• A Communique by African Key Populations
• Activists Call on UNAIDS’ Sidibé to Walk the Talk for Key Populations

ICASA on Social Media

Follow the conference on social media by following us on Twitter and Facebook — and using the official conference hashtag #ICASA2015, as seen on the right.

Conference Events

• ICASA 2015 HIV Prevention Research Roadmap: We pulled together a roadmap of select sessions for those tracking biomedical prevention research and rollout. Download as a PDF or XLS file. Full program available here.

• WNZ@ICASA:Check out the WNZ programme for opportunities that were present to engage and dialogue with women’s organizations across Africa. AVAC collaborated on a number of events at the WNZ, including updates on the dapivirine ring trials, PrEP for women, hormonal contraception and HIV, women’s role in VMMC rollout, barriers in access to treatment and HIV prevention research and delivery.

• Satellite Session: Adapting the WHO guidelines on oral PrEP: What will it take?, hosted by USAID, PEPFAR, WHO and the OPTIONS Consortium, comprised of FHI360, Wits RHI and AVAC. The panel covered an overview of the WHO Interim Guidelines and key oral PrEP research findings and demonstration projects, with a discussion on what it will take to introduce and scale up PrEP and other ARV-based prevention options within combination prevention programmes.

Presentations

• Local Investments with Global Implications: The contributions of African countries who host HIV prevention research and development, check out the presentation here.

Every year World AIDS Day events take place across the country to raise awareness and show support for people living with HIV.

CHANGE and AVAC convened in Washington, DC for the launch of a new report, Prevention Now: An Integration Agenda for Women, by Women. Click here to read the report.

A critical first step in achieving the 90-90-90 targets proposed by UNAIDS is ensuring that 90 percent of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status by 2020. This is an ambitious goal, as currently only half of people living with HIV know their status. The recently released WHO HIV testing guidelines address and respond to this reality.

Listen to the webinar here.

View webinar slides here.