Px Pulse

In this episode of Px Pulse, hear unique perspectives on how COVID-19 and HIV are shaping one another.  Mark Feinberg, CEO of IAVI, and Helen Rees, Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI), speak to COVID-19 vaccine development.  Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, Director of Research at Wits RHI, Vincent Basajja of the Uganda Virus Research Institute, Jau Nanyondo from Uganda’s Makerere University Walter Reed Project and Philister Adhiambo from the Kenya Medical Research Institute, explain how HIV prevention trials are adapting in the wake of COVID-19. 

AVAC puts a spotlight on HVTN 702. Data show the vaccine tested is safe, but in a major disappointment for the field, vaccinations were stopped early after a scheduled review showed it did not offer protection. In this episode, learn how much there is still be learned from HVTN 702; from data still to be gathered and from strong community engagement. 

With unmet UNAIDS “Fast-Track” targets for ending the epidemic now a reality, the field faces the sobering truth. We’ve been striving towards the 90-90-90 treatment targets without an equal commitment to primary prevention targets.    In this episode of Px Pulse, AVAC’s Emily Bass, lead author of our repot Now What?, talks about AVAC’s blueprint for course-correcting: bold leadership, smart target-setting for HIV prevention research and implementation, and multilayered prevention programs that are centered around people. 

A look at what’s different and what’s the same between F/TDF (Truvada) and F/TAF (Descovy), what’s driving innovation in the proposed trial design, why it's so essential for advocates to engage and more.  

Breaking the Cycle of Transmission, a human-centered design (HCD) project, is shedding new light on how to bring HIV prevention to adolescent girls and young women.

The results of the ECHO trial are out. A much-anticipated study has found no difference in risk among three highly effective contraceptives. But the study also found high HIV infection rates among the women in the study in East and Southern Africa- almost 4 percent. What do the researchers, advocates and the WHO think of the results? 

The ECHO trial (Evidence for Contraceptive options in HIV Outcomes) looked at three highly effective contraceptive methods to determine if one carried a higher risk of acquiring HIV compared to the others. Mixed data from previous observational studies had raised questions about one particularly popular method, known as DMPA-IM. The results of ECHO are due out in June, with stakeholders from both the field of HIV and sexual and reproductive health watching closely. In this episode of Px Pulse, AVAC spoke with two leaders from the ECHO trial team, Dr. Jared Baeten and Dr. Helen Rees, to understand what the trial can and cannot tell us. And you’ll hear leading women’s advocates from several countries where the ECHO trial took place share their demands. Take what you learn forward as the ECHO trial raises the volume on an urgent conversation — how to empower African women around their sexual and reproductive health.

In this episode of Px Pulse, hear DAIDS leader Carl Dieffenbach and colleague Director Sheryl Zwerski address the position of non-systemic strategies of prevention at the January AIDS Research Advisory Committee meeting, where funding priorities were presented. (Non-systemic strategies such as topical microbicides do not provide protection throughout the body.) A major leader in HIV prevention science, South African researcher Linda-Gail Bekker talks about an ideal future pipeline, a research agenda she calls the “science of choice”. And hear AVACer Manju Chatani-Gada's discussion with two young women advocates from Zimbabwe, Maximina Jokonya of Africaid and Audrey Nosenga of Zimbabwe Young Positives. They talk about the limits of prevention today and why more choices will mean greater empowerment.

How will future clinical trials need to be designed as HIV prevention evolves…and how can community engagement become stronger along with it? Check out this episode to hear three fierce voices tackle the questions:  Morenike Giwa-Onaiwu of the Houston HIV Cross-Network Community Advisory Board, Stacey Hannah- AVAC’s Director of Research Engagement &  Jeremiah Johnson,the HIV Project Director for the Treatment Action Group.  Together they explore why this conversation is at a critical moment and how to make the most of it.

The bi-ennial conference on HIV research for prevention, or R4P, is “the” place where HIV prevention science, policy & advocacy come together to share insights and identify what’s next for the field. In this episode of Px Pulse, Ntando Yola, a veteran advocate and part of the Coalition to Accelerate and Support Prevention Research (CASPR) shares his advocacy priorities for R4P and beyond. But first, AVAC’s Emily Bass talks about the just-launched 2018 annual report from AVAC, this year titled No Prevention, No End! This year’s state of the field report looks at today’s prevention crisis and offers context, analysis and strategy to turn that crisis around.

In this episode of Px Pulse we take a look at one issue that was center-stage at the recent AIDS 2018 conference in Amsterdam: Preventing new HIV infections. Hear Brad Jones of Weill Cornell Medical College pose a basic question about T cells and what his research could teach us about the immune system. Advocate Dorothy Okatch of the NGO Young 1ove sizes up the challenges for prevention in her country Botswana, where gains in treatment have been lauded. But first, we talk to the head of PEPFAR (the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), Ambassador Deborah Birx, who oversees one of the biggest programs for HIV/AIDS in the world.

Researchers and advocates debate the rationale, risks and ethics of interrupting treatment as part of cure research. This is known as analytic treatment interruption or ATI. AVAC spoke with advocate Udom Likhitwonnawut about when and why treatment interruption might make sense. Two cure researchers—Dr. Steven Deeks and Dr. Dave Margolis—share their differing views on treatment interruption; Deeks is professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, while Margolis leads the Collaboratory of AIDS Researchers for Eradication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Finally, HIV advocates Flahvia Namwaya and Moses Supercharger Nsubuga talk about what a cure would mean for those living with HIV.

AVAC’s May episode of Px Pulse features four experts steeped in HIV vaccine research. Together they help set expectations for where the field is now and where it is going. For more information about HIV vaccine science go to www.avac.org/px-pulse!

In this episode we bring you two different conversations, each throwing a spotlight on different aspects of HIV prevention advocacy today. AVAC’s Manju Chatani-Gada talks with seasoned and new advocates who attended AVAC’s African Advocacy Partners’ Forum in Johannesburg.  You’ll hear how the forum brought key issues into focus and how these advocates are sharpening their strategies.  Then we turn to a global effort to accelerate prevention. Christine Stegling, the head of the UK-based International HIV/AIDS Alliance joins us to talk about a new initiative by two UN agencies to escalate and maximize HIV prevention in 25 countries with the biggest number of new diagnoses. Dubbed the Global HIV Prevention Coalition, we talk with Christine about how to know if it’s living up to its name.

In March, initial results from the two open-label trials of the dapivirine vaginal ring (HOPE and DREAM) showed that adherence and efficacy improved over the earlier Phase III trials. Learn more about all these trials at https://www.avac.org/podcast/dapivirine-ring. Meanwhile, The ring is also advancing along the pathway to licensure. If approved, it will be the next major prevention option available since the US FDA approved oral PrEP in 2012\. In this episode, Zeda Rosenberg of the International Partnerships for Microbicides, which developed the ring, explains the latest findings and spells out how, when, where and if the ring might become an available tool. A trial participant and community leader in Uganda, Ruth* pulls back the curtain on the ups and downs of using the ring, and a Ugandan investigator with the REACH study, Carolyne Akello of the Makere University- Johns Hopkins University Research Collaboration, explains the importance of this trial, the next step in testing the potential of this monthly

With more efficacy trials underway today than ever before in HIV prevention research, this episode of Px Pulse zooms in on two that have most recently launched: HPTN 084 and HVTN 705.  Veteran Malawian advocate Maureen Luba, Zimbabwe-based bioethicist Paul Ndebele, and leading scientist Dan Barouch each take up the subject of these trials and share their expertise on what they could mean for prevention nationally, regionally and globally.

In this episode hear about recently published findings from a study out of Rakai, Uganda confirm that scaling up a combination of existing interventions, such as voluntary medical male circumcision and antiretroviral therapy provides protection from HIV at the population-level. How do we apply these findings at the global level? How should advocates prepare for results—anticipated in 2019—of the ECHO trial that’s looking at the effect of hormonal contraceptives on HIV risk? And what needs to happen in 2018 to reach long-term global targets for ending the epidemic?   Building on our advocacy agenda laid out in the December episode of Px Pulse this episode expands on the challenges and possibilities for 2018!

AVAC has just published its annual report on the state of the field. AVAC Report 2017: Mixed Messages and How to Untangle Them. It's a must read for anyone tracking the progress of HIV prevention around the world. In this month’s episode of Px Pulse, AVAC’s Director of Strategy and Content Emily Bass shares major highlights from the report and calls for action on the unfinished work of scaling up prevention. Listen for perspective on a US$ 7 billion funding gap and its impact on prevention, hear how leadership at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Division of AIDS (DAIDS) should move forward with their research agenda, and get AVAC’s take on epidemic control. Find related resources at AVAC.org.

Every research trial of a new HIV prevention option offers a package of services to protect participants from HIV. This standard of care is essential to the design of an ethical trial.

Both research and advocacy for HIV prevention are intensifying their focus on young people. Bringing interventions that work for this population holds unique challenges. AVAC’s Manju Chatani-Gada explores how and why prevention research must reach the next generation. You'll hear from two young, South African women at a trial consultation, Sinazo Peter and Anelisa Madalane. And hear from Ntando Yola, a leader in community engagement.