This week, boxes of the brand-new edition of our booklet covering stigma issues, entitled HIV, stigma & discrimination arrived at our mailhouse, and very excited we are about it too!

We blogged recently about the booklet's content being updated and available on our website, but at the time we had not been able to secure funding to have the booklet printed.

Since publishing the booklet online we've had phone calls and emails from people across the UK asking for the booklet to be printed. You told us that this booklet is a key title and needs to be available in print in order to fully benefit people with HIV. The information in this booklet helps people to understand and overcome the stigma and discrimination that can sometimes come hand in hand with a positive diagnosis.

Having listened to this feeback, we went on a mission to secure funding to print the booklet and were absolutely delighted when the Make A Difference Trust agreed to cover the costs! We are so gratefulfor their support, and are pleased to announce that this booklet is once again available to order in print. If you live in the UK and would like to order a copy please email us at info@nam.org.uk. 

NAM's free booklet scheme

If you work in a UK clinic or organisation, you can join our free booklet scheme, which allows you to order multiple copies of our booklets free of charge. Contact us for more details by email info@nam.org.uk or call us on 020 3242 0820.

This morning, I boarded a train at Euston with one of NAM’s editors, Roger Pebody, at an impressively early hour to get to Birmingham to attend the British HIV Association spring conference.

After a soggy walk through the town centre in the pouring rain we arrived and set up our stand in the exhibition centre, delighted that our cargo had remained dry, phew.

Sharing our resources

As well as our editors attending the conference to hear the research being presented, NAM attends this conference every year to showcase our new materials, gather invaluable feedback about how our resources are helping nurses, doctors and other clinicians in their work and have the opportunity to find out where there are gaps in information, and how NAM might help bridge these gaps.

This year, we are showcasing the brand new, hot-off-the-press edition of the Anti-HIV drugs booklet, along with 12 new titles in The basics information series.

We’ve also had the opportunity to further introduce Talking points to delegates, an online tool that allows people to build a personalised checklist of important issues to talk to their doctor about, in relation to their HIV treatment and care.

We’ve been delighted by the number of people who have come to visit us on the stand, picked up our materials and told us how they use them in their work. The new drug chart in the back of the Anti-HIV drugs booklet is proving to be particularly useful, with clinicians telling us that being able to show people in their care a picture of the drug they will be taking is often reassuring before starting treatment.

The new basics titles have also been received well so far, with lots of people telling us they are the main source of information they use when seeing people who have been recently diagnosed.

A special thank you!

We were especially delighted to get some feedback about The basics from one of our 10K runners, Siobhan Lynch, who uses them in her work at the Florey Unit. Siobhan has already started her training for the British 10K run and is well on her way to raising an impressive amount of sponsorship to support our work. 

Come and say hello!

If you’re attending the conference in the next few days do pop over to the NAM stand to say hello – if you need an extra incentive we’re right next to the tea and biscuits.

If you’re not at the conference and would like to find out more or give us feedback on our information resources, you can get in touch either by emailing info@nam.org.uk or by calling 020 3242 0820.

We’ve been working on the design and development of a new website for Community action on harm reduction, a project which works in five countries, expanding access to harm reduction services for injecting drug users.

The new website has now been launched – you can find it here: www.cahrproject.org

The CAHR project

Injecting drug use is a hugely significant driver of the HIV epidemic worldwide. CAHR is working with community-based organisations; involving people who use drugs in the design and delivery of services; sharing knowledge and increasing capacity, with the aim of bringing harm reduction services to more than 180,000 injecting drug users.

The CAHR project is supported by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and draws on the expertise of a network of international partner organisations. The focus of the project is in five key countries – India, Indonesia, Kenya, China and Malaysia.

The website brings together resources, case studies and news from the project to support people working at the frontline of services. The website is an open and accessible resource for anyone with an interest in HIV, drug use and community involvement in harm reduction.

Design and web development from NAM

We worked with the team at the Alliance, based in the UK and in the Ukraine, to develop a design and structure for the website which would be clear and simple, with its own identity and quick access to key resources.

As well as clear navigation, the homepage also delivers:

• the latest news from the project
• the latest publications
• quick links to the country project pages
• what people are saying about harm reduction on twitter.

“It looks fantastic! It really does get across the human impact, the complexity and the spirit of collective effort that shapes CAHR.” Susie McLean, International HIV/AIDS Alliance

Want to find out more about CAHR?

For more information on the CAHR project, visit the new website: www.cahrproject.org

Can NAM help you?

NAM has a longstanding track record of developing and delivering high-quality accessible websites and resources. We understand the importance of creating resources that are appropriate and relevant to the needs of their users, and use design effectively to help people engage with key messages.

If you are developing your own website, or information materials, and would like some help or advice, then please get in touch at info@nam.org.uk  

The new edition of HIV treatment update (HTU) is now available in print and online. You can read it online, download it as a pdf, or use the ‘flipbook’ function to read the pdf online. If you would like to receive your own copy in future, in print or by email, please contact us.

What’s in this edition?

I often scratch my head about whether there’s a theme or issue that unites the different articles we have in each edition of HTU. This spring, what we have may look like a particularly disparate bunch. What unites:

• the complexities of the English NHS reforms (Overhauling health: NHS reform, HIV and patient power)
• the hectic pace of research into hepatitis C drugs (Full speed ahead to curing hepatitis C), and
• the concerns about financial security for people who are just trying to have a normal life (Rest assured: life insurance for people with HIV)? 

This variety of topic was also a feature of the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) last month, which we cover extensively in the news pages of HTU and in Upfront, as well as in the hepatitis C article. There wasn’t one big topic or result that dominated the news; further research into prevention, hepatitis C drugs, new HIV drugs and basic research into a cure all jostled for attention.

It’s all about access

In fact, it hasn’t been difficult to find a theme, and that theme can be summed up in one word: access. We are at a particularly crucial point in the way the world treats HIV. US funding for HIV is no longer growing, and the Global Fund, in disarray after accusations of mismanagement – partly fed by politicians who never liked it – has had to cancel its 2012 round of grant giving. UNAIDS estimates that the total amount donated towards HIV treatment and care went down last year – for the first time ever, from $7.6 to $6.9 billion. 

One study at CROI showed that in eight African countries, one in six of the general population might now be dead had it not been for treatment and care paid for by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programme: an extraordinary figure, but one imperilled by the global financial situation and the deprioritisation of HIV as a topic.

The same theme can be seen in our features. Will the high cost of the treatments bar access to the new generation of hepatitis C drugs for the people who might best respond to them? Will the NHS reforms be used as an excuse to erode the standard of care patients, particularly those with chronic or complex conditions, can expect? How can we persuade a reluctant insurance industry that we are as entitled to financial security as anyone with any other long-term condition?   

There is more hope among scientists about the possibility of ending HIV than there has ever been, whether by extending treatment and effective prevention methods to as many people as possible, or by finding a cure or vaccine. All this takes money, though. It would be bitterly ironic if, at a point when we could end the epidemic, the means to do so were snatched away.  

For more information

HIV treatment update was created to help people become familiar with their treatment options and to encourage informed communication between people with HIV and doctors.

HTU is available free to people personally affected by HIV. You can subscribe to a free emailed PDF edition wherever you live. If you live in the UK, you can choose to have a print edition.

Alternatively you can subscribe for a year for £35 (£30 for UK charities).

Contact us on 020 3242 0820 or at info@nam.org.uk to subscribe or to find out more.

You can browse an archive of HIV treatment update at www.aidsmap.com/htu.

NAM has been involved, over the last two years, with two HIV prevention partnerships in England: CHAPS and NAHIP.

New Making it count website

Sigma Research (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) and the CHAPS partners recently launched an all-new website: www.makingitcount.org.uk. Building on four editions of Making it count, a strategic planning framework to prevent sexual HIV transmissions among men who have sex with men, the content has been updated and reorganised to make it easier to navigate the wide range of information covered in the framework.

It includes information on:

• HIV among gay and bisexual men in England
• The Making it Count approach
• Sexual risk and precaution
• Planning HIV prevention

The website also contains new information to help with commissioning, planning and delivering HIV prevention interventions. These sections help put the theory, goals and aims into the context of day-to-day activity, by describing the usual range of HIV prevention interventions commissioned and delivered.

These sections contain 30 case studies of successful interventions from a variety of gay men’s health agencies across England, which are also highlighted on the homepage, alongside a newsfeed from NAM and a selection of downloadable briefing sheets on specific topics of concern to HIV health promoters.

The partnerships

CHAPS is an England-wide collaborative programme of HIV health promotion for gay and bisexual men. It is funded by the Department of Health and co-ordinated by Terrence Higgins Trust (THT). The partners include: The Eddystone Trust, GMFA, Healthy Gay Life, The Lesbian & Gay Foundation, The Metro Centre, NAM, Trade Sexual Health, Sigma Research (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) and Yorkshire MESMAC.

NAHIP is the national (again, England-wide) African HIV prevention programme. Also funded by the Department of Health, all NAHIP partners are contracted by the African Health Policy Network. Partners are: Black Health Agency, The Centre for All Families Positive Health, Leicestershire AIDS Support Services, The Metro Centre, NAM, Positive East, The Rain Trust, Sigma Research, Terrence Higgins Trust and Yorkshire MESMAC.

Each partnership has its own strategic document, which provides the basis for all its activities.  Both publications have been endorsed by the Department of Health. 

In the CHAPS partnership, Making it count, first published in 1998 and now in its fourth edition, provides a framework for minimising HIV infection during sex between men. 

In the NAHIP partnership, The knowledge, will and the power (KWP), printed in March 2008, sets out a plan to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV among African people in England.

The KWP in practice website, www.kwp.org.uk, combines updated content for The knowledge, will and the power, with NAHIP’s The Handbook, which specifies a range of activities that are used to reduce HIV prevention need among African people in England. It goes on to address key planning issues and outcomes related to each type of prevention activity. Again there are case studies of successful interventions, a newsfeed from NAM and downloadable briefing sheets.

Both are highly bookmark-able websites for anyone interested in preventing sexual HIV transmission in England.