Tag Archives: HIV/AIDS

May 21, 2013

Living a Double Life: HIV and Men Who Have Sex with Men

Categories: Daily Impact
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By Lung Vu, Research Advisor, HIV & TB and Rena Greifinger, Technical Advisor, Sexual Reproductive Health and TB

HIV has a devastating impact on men who have sex with men (MSM) in Nigeria.

“[B]ecause of stigma, discrimination, homophobia, and criminalization that MSM face in the course of their lives in many African countries, many are reluctant to access health care services and participate in research thus heightening their vulnerability to HIV infection,” says  an article from the June 1 issue of the Journal of Acquired Immonudeficiency Syndromes (JSAIDS).

Led by PSI’s Lung Vu, the researchers found MSM to practice very high-risk behavior: having more than one sexual partner and high rates of unprotected sex, as well as many who have sex with both men and women. Many of these men suffer with internalized homophobia and are therefore less likely to access HIV prevention and treatment services. The researchers call for a combination prevention approach which includes biomedical (such as HIV counseling and testing and condoms), behavioral (such as mass media campaigns and education programs), and structural (such as advocacy to change discriminating policies) interventions.

May 13, 2013

HIV: Let’s Finish The Job

Categories: Commentary
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By Beth Skorochod, Senior Technical Advisor, Sexual Reproductive Health and TB Department, Population Services International

Pililani Julius is twenty-three years old, from Mtambalika village in the Mulanje district of Malawi. Already the mother of two children, Pililani recently lost her third child, a death likely due to pediatric HIV complications. At the time, Pililani did not know that she was HIV positive — meaning that she was unable to take life-saving treatment that could have prevented transmission to her baby.

Today, Pililani is pregnant with her fourth child — and, this time, she is armed with knowledge. Prior to becoming pregnant, Pililani and her husband had watched an open-air drama performance run by PSI/Malawi, which explained the importance of knowing one’s HIV status and of taking treatment to prevent transmission during pregnancy. Pililani and her husband are now on treatment, protecting their own health and future as well as that of the new baby on the way.

Pililani’s story is an important and hopeful reminder of one of the global health community’s greatest success stories: the prevention, and hopefully, soon-to-be elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Today, thanks to the combined efforts of governments, companies, NGOs, health professionals, researchers and everyday volunteers, more children are born free of HIV than ever before.

March 5, 2013

Baby Cured of HIV. What You Need to Know (Podcast)

Categories: Global Health Beat
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You have no doubt seen the big news today about the Mississipi baby who was cured of HIV.  This case study, which is being presented today at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, could be a pivotal moment in the global fight against HIV/AIDS.

In the podcast below, Impact blog editor Mark Goldberg speaks with Donna Sherard, Senior HIV Communication Technical Advisor at PSI. Sherard explains the significance of this groundbreaking study, but cautions there is still much more we need to know before we can speculate on the applications of this ‘cure’ worldwide. Have a listen.

 

February 25, 2013

Sign the Petition: Ensuring an AIDS Free Generation

Categories: Global Health Beat
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aids free

The Obama administration has made it clear that the end of AIDS is possible. The President included a short section on development in his recent State of the Union address where he said:

[T]he United States will join with our allies to eradicate such extreme poverty in the next two decades: by connecting more people to the global economy and empowering women; by giving our young and brightest minds new opportunities to serve and helping communities to feed, power, and educate themselves; by saving the world’s children from preventable deaths; and by realizing the promise of an AIDS-free generation.

PEPFAR was launched by President Bush 10 years ago and it has proven to be an important program in getting closer to an AIDS-free generation. That is why advocates are coming together to urge the White House to maintain its commitment to an AIDS-free generation with a White House Petition.

We applaud President Obama’s statement in the State of the Union address that the promise of an AIDS-free generation is within our reach. The U.S. has long been a leader in this fight, and we know that we can reach this goal both at home and globally if enough resources are made available.

January 29, 2013

Remembering US Needle-Exchange Pioneer David Purchase

Categories: Global Health Beat
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The needle-exchange movement has been an important development in the effort to reduce the spread of infectious diseases, especially HIV/AIDS, among drug users. A good amount of credit for the growth of the movement in the United States can be attributed to David Purchase.  In fact, there are unconfirmed reports that Mr. Purchase’s needle exchange work in Tacoma, Washington beginning in 1988 was the first such offering in the United States.

A drug counselor, Mr Purchase used the $3,000 he won in a settlement after being struck by a drunk driver while on his motorcycle to begin to provide clean syringes to his clients. Sadly, Mr Purchase passed away from pneumonia on January 21  at the age of 73. His Point Defiance AIDS Project and the North American Syringe Exchange Network are responsible for keeping 15 million potentially harmful syringes off the streets each year.

January 16, 2013

Improving Clinical Trials in Developing Countries

Categories: Global Health Beat
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How can HIV researchers conduct ethical clinical trials in developing countries?
At TEDxGoodenoughCollege, Cameroonian researcher Dr. Boghuma Kabisen Titanji begins with the story of a housewife in rural Cameroon who participated in a HIV clinical trial, but was unable to remain in it due to her inability to afford the bus fare to travel to the clinic.
This story illustrates the tension, to Titanji, between determining whether potentially life-saving drugs work and the greater needs of trial participants.
I do not stand here today to suggest in any way that conducting HIV clinical trials in developing countries is bad. On the contrary, clinical trials are extremely useful tools, and are much needed to address the burden of disease in developing countries. However, the inequalities that exist between richer countries and developing countries in terms of funding pose a real risk for exploitation, especially in the context of externally-funded research. Sadly enough, the fact remains that a lot of the studies that are conducted in developing countries could never be authorized in the richer countries which fund the research.
January 14, 2013

How mHealth is Supporting Medical Male Circumcision

Categories: Global Health Beat
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The following post originally appeared on the Text to Change blog to mark World AIDS Day in December.

Male circumcision can reduce chances of HIV infection by up to 60%. A one-time medical procedure, VMMC (Voluntarily Medical Male Circumcision) provides life-long partial protection against HIV as well as other sexually transmitted infections. That’s why we want to address these important facts today.

How can Text to Change contribute to HIV prevention?

Text to Change (TTC) uses mobile phone technology in several programs that work in the area of HIV/AIDS awareness and other sexually-transmitted infections. TTC implemented very successful mHealth interventions to complement a male circumcision campaign in Tanzania under the Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP) a USAID funded project managed by Jhpiego.

January 7, 2013

Cancer’s Rising Impact in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Categories: Global Health Beat
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By Deputy Editor Tom Murphy

The impact of cancer in low- and middle-income countries is rapidly taking hold with fewer children dying and more people living longer. In fact, more people die from cancer each year than of AIDS, TB and malaria combined. Meanwhile, cancer spending by aid donors is a fraction of what is spent when compared to other health challenges.

“I think cancer and other noncommunicable diseases have been under-recognized and they have been neglected, but that’s not a malicious neglect,” explained Lancet editor Richard Horton to Public Radio International’s The World. “It’s because there’s just been this overwhelming burden of other problems.”

“In many parts of the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the overwhelming burden for many decades has been preventable maternal and child deaths, malaria, tuberculosis, and, over recent decades, HIV/AIDS. And that burden has been so overwhelming to families and to governments that it’s been very hard to see anything else through that very thick fog of death,” continued Horton.
December 3, 2012

Ashley Judd Named Top AIDS Celebrity Activist

Categories: Global Health Beat
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The Daily Beast choose to mark the recently celebrated World AIDS Day by highlighting the celebrities who have championed AIDS. The well known names include Bill and Melinda Gates and Elizabeth Taylor, but did you know that Ashley Judd, PSI Board member, is also among the top celebrities who advocate for AIDS?

From the Daily Beast:

To highlight the global impact of World AIDS Day, The Daily Beast runs down nine of the top celebrity HIV/AIDS fundraisers. When possible, we looked at the most recent tax forms available for the foundations founded by or closely linked to each celebrity. For our final ranking we added the total grant dollars doled out from 2007 to 2010, and the total direct program dollars from 2008 to 2010. For the celebrities and their foundations for which tax returns were not available, or not solely linked to HIV/AIDS causes, we used media reports to make an estimate for the total dollars put toward fighting HIV/AIDS since 2007. Not all the celebrities on this list are alive, but their fame and longstanding commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS still raises awareness for their foundations.

November 30, 2012

Battling Stigma on World AIDS Day

Categories: Partner Insight
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By Paul T. Hempel – Sr. VP Ethics / Compliance, Alere Inc.

As I approach World AIDS Day 2012, just after Thanksgiving, I am reflecting about how much there is to be thankful for this year for those of us living with HIV. For more than a year now, we have known that, if properly treated, the spread of the disease drops by more than 96%, suggesting that there may be the possibility to end the spread of HIV. This year at the World AIDS Conference in Washington, there was talk of testing new drug therapies which might even lead to a cure within my lifetime. And more importantly, better access to good meds allows a longer lifespan for those of us living with HIV than at any time since its discovery.