Category Archives: HIV/AIDS

As deadline approaches for HIV control testing and treatment targets, sex workers still face “glaring gaps” between services and access

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Authors of 2014 recommendations to tackle HIV among sex workers revisit literature and find impacts of pandemic, structural drivers continue to be “under addressed and under-resourced” When, in the months leading up to the 2014 International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, a team of researchers put together a series of articles examining the drivers and impacts  […]

Access to on-the-spot testing led to improved rates of treatment for infants with HIV

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Tests to detect HIV in infants conducted at health facilities where they received care led to a significant increase in the percentage of infants with the virus given access to life-saving treatment, compared to tests analyzed in central laboratories, according to a report in Clinical Infectious Diseases. The report notes that the findings have critical […]

UNAIDS global HIV data shows “miles to go”

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The tale of two global HIV responses continues to unfold this week, in data released by UNAIDS in the run-up to the 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam. One response, driven by antiretroviral treatment and pre-exposure prophylaxis, by unhindered access to health services and education, by the decriminalization of drug use and sex work, along […]

An affirmation on the way to AIDS 2018: Much has changed, not enough, and some for the worse

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In calls for improved inclusiveness, evidence-based expenditures, and people-based policies, screeds released in advance of International AIDS Conferences tend to echo those of the year before, holding, if not advancing, established intentions. This year’s, an “affirmation,” rather than a “declaration” seems to acknowledge that in its title, but it also notes significant changes — in […]

What do you read, to track 25 years of HIV stigma and progress? Words, words, words . . .

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From the first International AIDS Conference in Atlanta with about a thousand attendees in 1985, to the upcoming one in Amsterdam where about 18,000 are expected later this month, the annual, and then biennial meetings served as milestones in a slow climb of scientific, political and community progress against the pandemic. Memorable peaks include the […]

In Lesotho, where life expectancy is under 50, the last to test for HIV are the hardest to reach

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Clinics for men, adolescent-dedicated sections in existing clinics, and increased support for community-based services are all needed to expand the reach of HIV testing in Lesotho, and offer hope of controlling the epidemic in a country where the virus is responsible for one of the shortest life expectancies in the world, according to a report […]

What we’re reading: Testing lag highlights role of healthcare access in HIV prevention and more about knowing the right thing to do, but . . .

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Tests are lagging and the end of the epidemic is far away – How can it be that nearly four decades after what later became known as HIV was first recognized as a syndrome killing men who had sex with men, and more than a decade since U.S. public health officials recommended routine testing as […]

Study surprises with findings that use of efavirenz appeared to lessen depression risk among patients in Uganda

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For years the association of a life-saving medicine commonly used in first-line antiretroviral treatment regimens with psychiatric side effects that included thoughts of suicide, posed an urgent question to HIV physicians administering care across Africa. Risks of depression among people living with HIV already are higher than among those of the general population and threaten […]