Transmission and prevention

Transmission and prevention features

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  Uncomfortable news on lubes for anal sex

  Commercially available sexual lubricants may increase people’s susceptibility to sexually transmitted infection (STIs), US scientists reported recently. A study found that people who consistently used shop-bought ‘lubes’ for...

  From:HIV treatment update

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  Pre-exposure prophylaxis

  By Gus CairnsTwo studies of the use of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in heterosexual people show that oral PrEP will protect women against HIV. The 6th...

  From:HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  Treatment is prevention!

  Results from a trial showing that antiretroviral treatment prevents HIV from being passed onto uninfected partners received a standing ovation today at the Sixth International...

  From:HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  Where next for HIV prevention?

  Gus Cairns finds that UK HIV prevention campaigners and researchers are all in agreement that something has to change. They’re not so certain about where we go...

  From:HIV treatment update

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  The new prevention?

  The Health Protection Agency (soon to become part of Public Health England) has proposed a radical shake-up in HIV prevention for gay men at the highest risk of...

  From:HIV treatment update

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  Another weapon against HIV

  There has been good news this month. The Pope changed 2000 years of Catholic doctrine by saying condom use might under certain circumstances be OK, because...

  From:HIV treatment update

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  Are lubricants safe?

  The ‘lubes’ used most often in sex may actually make HIV transmission more likely. Gus Cairns explores some unnerving new findings from the 2010 International Microbicides Conference. ...

  From:HIV treatment update

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  Love is a danger

  American researchers have reported that gay men in the US are more likely to contract HIV from their main sexual partner than from casual sex.  What are the...

  From:HIV treatment update

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  A jagged little pill: are we prepared for PrEP?

  Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is the idea of taking HIV drugs in order to avoid being infected with HIV in the first place. We might know if it...

  From:HIV treatment update

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  Microbicides and the trouble with good news

  ...

  From:HIV treatment update

Transmission and prevention in your own words

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  Bored and horny

  It’s Sunday afternoon and it’s raining. I’m bored and horny. However, I’ve got £20 left over from the night before and this will be enough...

  From:In your own words

Transmission and prevention news from aidsmap

• Men who have sex with men may now be the highest-risk group for HIV in Africa, IAVI study suggests

  Men who have sex with men may now be at considerably higher risk of acquiring HIV than other at-risk groups such as female sex workers or young people of either sex, if findings by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative ...

  01 February 2012 | Gus Cairns

• Quarter of men resume sex before wounds from circumcision fully healed in Zambian study

  Approximately a quarter of men undergoing circumcision resume sexual activity before their wounds have fully healed, Zambian research published in the online edition of AIDS shows. Most of the men reporting the early resumption of sexual activity engaged in unprotected ...

  31 January 2012 | Michael Carter

• Raltegravir/Truvada HIV PEP regimen well tolerated with no infections after its use

  Raltegravir could have a “useful” role in HIV post-exposure prophylaxis, according to investigators from the US writing in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. Doctors in Boston, Massachusetts, prescribed a post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) regimen of ...

  31 January 2012 | Michael Carter

• Hormonal contraception and HIV risk: no increased risk in South African cohort

  During a study of 5567 South African women, looking at the effect of hormonal contraception on HIV acquisition, 270 women became HIV-infected. The researchers report that use of hormonal contraception did not increase the risk, overall, of ...

  26 January 2012 | Carole Leach-Lemens

• Upsurge in HIV diagnoses among IDUs in Greece and Romania - are reduced prevention services the cause?

  New diagnosis and prevalence of HIV increased sharply among injecting drug users in Greece and Romania in 2011, European investigators report. Several other countries in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) also reported slight increases in diagnoses or ...

  16 January 2012 | Michael Carter

• PEP guidelines for the UK revised to take account of undetectable viral load

  New UK guidelines for the use of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) following sexual exposure have been published in the December issue of the International Journal of STD and AIDS. The guidelines are notable for no longer recommending that PEP is provided ...

  21 December 2011 | Roger Pebody

• Alcohol increases desire for sex without condoms: systematic review

  Alcohol consumption has an impact on the intention of individuals to have unprotected sex, according to the results of a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the journal Addiction. “The higher the blood alcohol content, the more pronounced the intention ...

  21 December 2011 | Michael Carter

• Ongoing risk behaviour likely cause of high HIV incidence rate among gay men treated with PEP

  HIV incidence is high among gay men who use post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), investigators from Amsterdam report in the online edition of AIDS. Overall, users of PEP were almost four times more likely to become infected with HIV than gay ...

  20 December 2011 | Michael Carter

• Gay men having unprotected sex think that having HIV is still a big deal, but that it’s now harder to transmit

  A study of Australian gay men examining unprotected sex and the beliefs that are associated with it has found that the concept of ‘treatments optimism’ needs to be unpacked. While some men do think that having HIV is less ...

  19 December 2011 | Roger Pebody

• Undiagnosed infections and poor retention in care mean that few US patients fully benefit from HIV treatment

  Only a small minority of HIV-positive patients in the United States are gaining the full benefit of antiretroviral therapy, a study published in the November 29th edition of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report shows.  Investigators calculated that only a half ...

  01 December 2011 | Michael Carter

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Transmission and prevention news selected from other sources

• HIV docs tell a powerful tale of combination prevention

  “This is an extraordinary moment in the AIDS epidemic – we finally have the tools to turn the tide,” said Diane Havlir, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, speaking to the arsenal of HIV prevention interventions the AIDS community now has at its disposal to combat new infections worldwide.

  03 February 2012 | Science Speaks: HIV & TB News

• Department of Health kicks off £10m HIV advertising review

  The Department of Health is looking for an advertising agency to handle a £10 million national awareness programme around HIV and Aids.

  02 February 2012 | Campaign

• First Impressions of HIV Risk: It Takes Only Milliseconds to Scan a Stranger

  Research indicates that many people do not use condoms consistently but instead rely on intuition to identify sexual partners high at risk for HIV infection...These data suggest that impressions about HIV risk can be formed in a split second and despite a lack of information about the actual risk profile.

  25 January 2012 | PLoS One

• Gilead not immune to concern over Truvada's wider HIV use

  Gilead Sciences’ once-daily Truvada pill has seen only tepid interest for adoption in the HIV prevention setting, despite treatment guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), experts told Biopharm Insight.
  24 January 2012 | Financial Times

• Russia's strategies 'failing' to fight HIV

  Number of newly infected people rising despite doubling of government budget to prevent the spread of the disease.

  20 January 2012 | Al Jazeera

• Revamping HIV-prevention programs in the Caribbean

  By adopting a new approach to HIV prevention, Michigan State University's Institute of International Health is hoping to turn the tide on new infections on the island of Hispaniola, which accounts for nearly 75 percent of the Caribbean's AIDS cases.

  19 January 2012 | Eurekalert Medicine & Health

• Testing for HIV together, hearing results together

  Newly dating and slightly anxious, two men bared their arms for blood tests and pondered the possibility that one of them, or both, could be infected with HIV. An innovative program — called Testing Together — would allow them to hear their test results minutes later, while sitting side by side.

  18 January 2012 | SFGate

• Condoms are slowing HIV spread in South Africa

  CONDOMS are to thank for falling HIV infection rates in South Africa. So say Leigh Johnson at the University of Cape Town and colleagues. They fed data from 2000 to 2008 on the country's HIV rates, condom use and the number of people taking antiretroviral therapy into two computer models.

  18 January 2012 | New Scientist

• Launch of first pre-HIV exposure prevention trial for gay men in Europe

  The ANRS (French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis) is about to launch in Europe the first pre-HIV exposure prevention trial in men who have sex with men.

  11 January 2012 | ANRS press release

• Fisting on trial

  New Statesman blogger David Allen Green looks at the obscenity trial taking place in London

  06 January 2012 | New Statesman

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