Avac Event

The Future of PrEP Shots and Potent Treatment: An Advocate’s Guide to Long-Acting ARV Injectables

This was the third webinar in AVAC’s Research & Reality series, a year-long dialogue about prevention research and advocacy. The call provided a forum to learn about and discuss recent data and ongoing research on long-acting ARV injectables.

The term long-acting ARV injectables refers to an antiretroviral drug that is delivered via an injection and persists in the body for an extended period of time. These drugs are being developed to provide therapeutic levels of ARVs (to effectively control HIV as part of combination therapy) for HIV-positive people and protective levels (to reduce the risk of HIV infection) in HIV-negative people for weeks or months at a time.

View the full webinar here.

Avac Event

Women and HIV Prevention Research: Designing, testing and marketing products to improve adherence

The fourth webinar in AVAC’s Research & Reality series, a year-long dialogue about prevention research and advocacy, this call provided a forum to learn about and discuss key issues around women and the HIV prevention agenda, including challenges around marketing of and adherence to new prevention options.

View the full webinar here.

Avac Event

Breakthroughs and Big Questions: Webinar on AIDS vaccine research in 2014

This webinar, which coincided with observances of HIV Vaccine Awareness Day (May 18th) provided an update on follow-on trials that build on the positive findings from the RV144 Thai trial; what looks hopeful in early clinical and pre-clinical science; and why the field has increasing optimism about finding effective HIV-specific antibodies, the “holy grail” of anti-HIV immune responses. As always, your comments and questions help guide the discussion.

View the full webinar here.

Avac Event

Unpacking the New CDC Guidelines on PrEP for HIV Prevention

On May 14, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the US Public Health Service released new clinical guidelines on using daily oral TDF/FTC (also known as Truvada) as PrEP for HIV prevention. This type of guideline is used by the US government to set national norms for health providers. It is the first such national guideline issued anywhere for PrEP use. Representatives from the CDC provided an overview of the guidelines and answer questions about their content and implications. This was followed by a moderated discussion.

Watch the full webinar here.

Avac Event

Pleasure, Protection, Love, Lust, And Listening to Communities: The Future of HIV Prevention is Here

A webinar in memory of HIV prevention pioneer and revolutionary Jeff McConnell. A respected and passionate sociologist, Jeff (who passed away at the age of 49 this past February) was also a gay man living with HIV, and his identity was an important component of the science he conducted. His brilliant, human-touch research on gay men’s sex, sexuality, and various prevention methodologies involving treatment and PrEP was groundbreaking, visionary, and way ahead of most of us.

Influential on a global scale, Jeff’s work has given us powerful insight into social and sexual networks – and love and pleasure – as important, necessary components of HIV prevention efforts. Panelists paid tribute and memorialized Jeff by reminding us of his pivotal contributions to science and sharing anecdotes.

They also discussed where we are today and the future of HIV prevention.

Watch the full flash webinar here.

Avac Event

Are Rectal Douches Ripe for Further Rectal Microbicide Exploration?

Rectal douching is a relatively common behavior across the world. So, should we be thinking seriously about developing a rectal microbicide as a douche? What do we know about rectal douching behavior globally? What are some of the most popular products used and by whom? What are the implications for rectal microbicide research and development? What are the gaps in rectal douche science?

Presenters Marjan Javanbakht and Jerome Galea engaged our participants on each of these questions and discussed recent research.

Avac Event

Shaping the Health of Adolescents in Zimbabwe (SHAZ!): Key findings and recommendations

A webinar discussing the ongoing Shaping the Health of Adolescents in Zimbabwe (SHAZ!) study. 2014 AVAC Fellow Definate Nhamo reviewed key findings from SHAZ! and previewed how she will use them to shape some of her advocacy in her 2014 Fellowship year.

Avac Event

What are the HIV prevention needs of people who use drugs in Eastern Europe?

Hosted jointly by NAM and AVAC, the second webinar in the 2014 series covered harm reduction, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and Hepatitis C prevention in people who use drugs, with news from relevant studies and new initiatives in Europe.

Avac Event

The Latest on Lab Tests, Lubed Monkeys, and Lube-Using Humans

Why should you care if sexual lubricants are safe or not? What do we know, and what do we need to know? What’s happening to move the issue of lube safety forward? What’s not happening? Join IRMA and AVAC and our expert guests who will provide an exciting update on the latest in lubricant safety and help us answer these important questions.

Dr. Ellen Kersh of the CDC will begin the webinar with a discussion of a rectal challenge study done in monkeys using a hyperosmolar lube as a model for HIV risk and rectal lubricant use. Following, Dr. Kevin Rebe of Anova Health Institute will share findings from lube safety experiments he led using common lubes in South Africa, and Dr. Pamina Gorbach of UCLA will present brand new behavioral data a multi-site study at US STD clinics. IRMA’s own Marc-Andre LeBlanc, our resident lube expert, will then provide a current snapshot of lubricant advocacy activities, including ways you can get involved to make progress on the lube safety agenda.

View the full flash webinar here.

Avac Event

PrEP @ 2 years—and still counting women in…

The US Women & PrEP Working Group, SisterLove and AVAC hosted a webinar marking the two-year anniversary of the FDA licensing of Truvada as PrEP in the US. 

This webinar provided an opportunity to share updates and resources in the field and discussed how far we’ve moved in getting women involved in the rollout of PrEP. The webinar reviewed what we know and don’t know about women’s motivations and barriers to consider daily oral PrEP as an intervention. Speakers included Karen Hoover from the US CDC, Judy Auerbach from the University of California at San Francisco, Alan McCord from Project Inform, and moderator, Dazon Dixon Diallo of SisterLove and the US Women & PrEP Working Group.

View the full webinar here.