Avac Event

How to Communicate about Sexual Health and STIs: Sex positivity vs. risk-based language

Thursday, April 20 at 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM ET

Join The Choice Agenda for a conversation focused on sex positivity and risk-based language when discussing sexual health and STIs.

Speakers include Dr. Keosha T. Bond, CUNY School of Medicine, Dr. Joseph Cherabie, Washington University St. Louis, Mark Kaigwa, Nendo, and moderated Alison Footman, AVAC

Webinar co-sponsored by the American Sexual Health Association.

Click here to convert the time to your location.

Register here.

This webinar is a part of The Choice Agenda.

Avac Event

Global PPPR Equity: Why do we need agreements on IP and tech transfers?

April 6, 2023, 9:00AM Washington/2:00PM London/4:00PM Nairobi

Over the past two decades, HIV advocates have engaged in hard battles for equitable access to HIV/AIDS drugs and prevention options and have had some big wins. The process of these negotiations has led to strong relationships that have enshrined certain equity provisions as standard in clinical trials and manufacturing of HIV drugs. Through these battles, we’ve learned clear lessons on the necessity for such agreements and what’s required to secure them.

Throughout global PPPR agreements in 2023, governments and advocates in the Global South are asking for provisions on equity in the form of temporary IP waivers, mandatory tech transfer, and mandatory licensing for pandemic tools.

This panel will discuss lessons from the HIV epidemic and explore why governments of the Global South and advocates think we still need to address ‘the IP question’.

Featured Speakers: Fifa Rahman, Brook Baker, Fitsum Lakew, and moderated by Samantha Rick, AVAC

Register here.

Avac Event

PrEP That Booty: The latest on rectal microbicide research for the back door

Thursday, June 29 at 9:00 AM–10:30AM ET

Most of what we hear about regarding the HIV prevention pipeline is about long-acting, longer-acting, and even longer-acting products that deliver drug throughout the body and require a trained clinician to deliver. However, these attributes are not desirable to many folks, and communities want a range of choices. Researchers and advocates for years have been working on HIV prevention products specifically for the back door (rectum) to provide protection during anal intercourse. These products are user-controlled, non-systemic (the drug stays in the booty and only the booty), and are short-acting, so you don’t have to commit to having a prevention drug in your body for a year or longer. Join us for a dynamic discussion regarding the latest research on Booty PrEP – aka rectal microbicides – with our multi-talented panel.

Speakers include: Jonathan Baker, PA, Laser Surgery Care, Dr. Craig Hendrix, Johns Hopkins, Juan Michael Porter II, The Body, and Dr. Sharon Riddler, University of Pittsburgh

Register here.

Avac Event

PrEP (In)equity: Documenting, measuring, and flipping the script towards justice

Tuesday, May 9 at 9:00 AM–10:30AM ET

Disparities in PrEP awareness, access, and uptake are stark in the United States, and play out along lines of race, gender, age, and geography. While we see increases in PrEP uptake overall, these metrics tend to mask the fact that the people who most need PrEP are not to be found in those numbers. As we see new modes of PrEP delivery become available, we are concerned these “shiny new things” will be yet another way to measure disparities and not actually help those who most need it. We must focus on these inequities with laser-like intensity, allocate resources using an equity model, and strive harder for PrEP justice.

Speakers include: Leisha-McKinley Beach, National HIV/AIDS Consultant, Michael Chancley, PrEP4All, and Dr. Patrick Sullivan, Emory

Register here.

Avac Event

SA AIDS Conference

The 11th SAAIDS Conference 2023, under the Theme: Act, Connect and End the Epidemic will be at the Durban ICC on the 20th -23rd June, 2023. Now, more than ever before, we need to ACT to end an epidemic that has been a part of our lives for decades. We hope to do this by bringing the HIV community together under the same roof, post the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, to deliberate on next steps towards an AIDS free generation in 2030. In this conference, we wish for people living with HIV, global and local policy makers, public and private sector officials, research scientists, donors, academics, clinicians, and civil society to continue the conversations, to jointly share new evidence and innovations that will help us end the HIV epidemic once and for all.

More information including registration here.

Avac Event

PrEP In Black America: New Orleans

PrEP is a tool to effectively prevent HIV, but despite FDA approval in 2012, only 9 percent of Black people who could benefit from PrEP have received it. To address dismal PrEP utilization rates in the Black community, Black HIV prevention advocates convened in Atlanta, GA for the first PrEP In Black America Summit. With community input from the summit, we published “For Us, By Us: PrEP In Black America: A Master Plan For HIV Prevention In Black America” which outlined key recommendations for stakeholders to implement to increase racial equity in PrEP uptake.

Join Black HIV prevention advocates from across the U.S. for the second interactive PrEP In Black America Summit in New Orleans, LA on May 19, as we develop and build on existing strategies to increase PrEP access and awareness in the Black community.

Thanks to sponsorship from Red Hot Organization, registration for the summit is FREE, including a lunch. Due to a limit of 200 attendees, please register once you have confirmed that you will be able to attend in person on May 19, 2023. We will also have a live, interactive virtual option to attend. For more information, visit prep4all.org/prepinblackamerica.

More information including registration here.

Avac Event

HIV Prevention Plus Plus: Developing Options that Meet the Full Range of our Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs

Tuesday, April 25 at 9:00 AM–10:30AM ET

Despite a dynamic research and development (R&D) pipeline for prevention products, male and female condoms remain the only multi-purpose prevention technologies (MPTs) currently available. Yet MPTs are an integral part of the HIV prevention advocacy agenda. For decades, advocates have pushed for products to be developed that simultaneously prevent HIV, other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and/or pregnancy.

With a growing number of PrEP options already, what will it take to bring a new MPT to market? A Dual Prevention Pill (DPP – https://www.prepwatch.org/products/dual-prevention-pill/) that prevents both HIV and pregnancy could be just two years away. Looking further upstream, there are over 25 other MPTs in the pipeline (https://www.prepwatch.org/research-pipeline/), including vaginal rings, which would follow in the footsteps of the dapivirine vaginal ring recommended by WHO and recently approved in several countries.

Within this fast-evolving HIV prevention landscape, work is already underway to build a platform to introduce the DPP, which could speed up the rollout of other MPTs. Join us to hear what we’ve learned so far on R&D, marketing, counseling and delivery for MPTs – and to discuss what we can do now to prepare prevention markets to include new MPT options.

Featured Speakers:
Ruth Akulu, ICWEA, AVAC fellow
Barbara Friedland, Population Council
Gregorio Millet, amfAR
Dr. Thesla Palanee-Phillips, Wits RHI
Danielle Resar, Clinton Health Access Initiative
Co-moderators: Wawira Nyagah, AVAC Kate Segal, AVAC

Register here.

This webinar is a part of The Choice Agenda.

Avac Event

Biomedical Px Summit

The 2023 Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit is coming to Las Vegas, April 11 – 12. Now in it’s seventh year, the Summit’s continuing focus has been on the implementation of biomedical tools in our prevention and treatment efforts to ultimately end the HIV epidemic in communities. To make real impacts, it’s important to learn about and from different communities. This year’s Summit will lean into sex and pleasure. Since sex is the main way that HIV is transmitted, we need to focus on consensual sex in all of its iterations. We’ll talk about kink, fetishes, sex work, etc. in an open, honest, and frank way. After all, if we can’t talk about sex, how can we talk about HIV prevention?

The Summit will feature sessions on the need for a National PrEP program, community participation in research, sex positivity, insurance for PrEP and other topics. Make sure to visit the Abstracts tab for the full listing of tracks and track descriptions. The abstract submission deadline is February 6. Stay tuned for information about the general abstract webinar on January 19.

We’re expecting over 1,400 people to join us this year. Summit attendees include leaders, advocates, and educators all interested in sharing ideas and learning about new approaches to maximize the use of biomedical HIV prevention methods. Make sure you’re there to exhibit or provide support as a sponsor to engage with these groups. Visit the Exhibits and Sponsors tabs to get more information and reserve a spot.

“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” This time, we want what happens in Vegas to influence HIV prevention all over the country.

More information including registration here.

Avac Event

DRM Learning Collaborative

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.

Register here.

Avac Event

Mpox – Sexual Networks, HIV and Activism

Wednesday, March 29 at 9:30–11:00am ET

MPX NYC: A community-led study on queer sex in New York City
Dr. Keletso Makofane, Harvard University, FXB Health & Human Rights Fellow

Mpox and HIV
Dr. Chloe Orkin, Professor of HIV Medicine, Queen Mary University of London

Register here.

This webinar is a part of The Choice Agenda.