Summary: UNAIDS, an organization that works to end AIDS, says that even though a recent trial for an HIV vaccine did not work, it is important to continue using other ways to prevent and treat HIV. They say that by using existing methods and making them more widely available, we can still reach the goal of ending AIDS by 2030. The trial was stopped because it did not show that the vaccine was effective. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, together with a consortium of global partners, have announced that an independent data review of the Phase 3 Mosaico study of Janssen’s investigational HIV vaccine regimen was not effective in preventing HIV infection among the study participants. The study will be discontinued and further analysis of the data will be conducted. They revealed no safety issues with the vaccine regimen were identified during the trial. The consortium of global partners
The United States Government, through the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), launched the Accelerating Progress in Pediatrics and PMTCT (AP3) program in Oyo State to scale up HIV case identification among pediatric and adolescent populations and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). Through AP3, the US CDC supports Nigeria’s efforts to close existing treatment gaps in these populations and work towards sustained HIV epidemic control. At the AP3 launch in Ibadan, US Consul General Will Stevens emphasized that “existing
Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) has released its guidelines for the treatment of people co-infected with visceral leishmaniasis and HIV, to recommend better treatments based on the results of two studies conducted by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and their partners in Ethiopia and India. In Ethiopia, the new treatment strategy was shown to have an 88% efficacy rate at the end of therapy (after 58 days), whereas the efficacy
The White House has confirmed that President Joe Biden will nominate Dr. John N. Nkengasong as Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator of United States Government Activities to Combat HIV/AIDS Globally at the Department of State. The Ambassador-at-Large leads, manages, and oversees the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) – the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history, prevent millions of HIV infections, save lives, and make progress towards ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic. If confirmed,
In the final report from the Start Free, Stay Free, AIDS Free initiative, UNAIDS and partners warn that progress towards ending AIDS among children, adolescents and young women has stalled and none of the targets for 2020 were met. The report shows that the total number of children on treatment declined for the first time, despite the fact that nearly 800 000 children living with HIV are not currently on treatment. It also shows that opportunities to identify
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has announced that it is strongly encouraged by new study results showing that the antiretroviral medicine cabotegravir, which is administered by injection every two months, prevents HIV among women. The study shows that the long-acting injections among women in sub-Saharan Africa were 89% more efficient in preventing HIV compared to daily tablets of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). “These results are hugely significant. UNAIDS has long been calling for additional, acceptable and effective HIV prevention options
While recent data collection has shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on HIV testing services, the impact on HIV treatment is less than originally feared. As of August 2020, the UNAIDS, World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund data collection exercise to identify national, regional and global disruptions of routine HIV services caused by COVID-19 had collected treatment data from 85 countries, of which 22 countries reported data over a sufficient number of months to enable the identification
A group of drugs used to treat HIV and hepatitis B could be repurposed to prevent type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests. Researchers found that patients taking the drugs had a 33% lower risk of developing diabetes. The scientists say that the risk reduction makes sense based on how the drugs are known to work, and noted that one of the drugs, lamivudine, improved insulin sensitivity significantly in human cell samples and in a mouse model of diabetes. (In type