UNAIDS: New Q&A on the Need for Routine Viral Load Testing
UNAIDS has released a new reference document, "The need for routine viral load testing." The document is here. Greatly expanded access to viral load testing will be a game-changer in the global response to AIDS. Availability of viral load tests can improve treatment quality and individual health outcomes for people living with HIV.
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Journal of Virus Eradication Accepted on PubMed Central
After just six issues, the Journal of Virus Eradication has been accepted on PubMed Central.
This exciting news means that all content will be available on PMC, as well as be indexed by PubMed. Thank you to everyone for their hard work and commitment to the project, which reaped this wonderful reward. This is a continuing process and hopefully the path towards an impact factor.
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UNAIDS Releases Global AIDS Update 2016
UNAIDS recently released the Global AIDS Update 2016 today. The document reports that treatment scale up continues and reached 17 million people, though this represents less than 50% coverage of people living with HIV and many millions are still in need of HIV treatment. The report also states that there has been barely any recent decline in HIV incidence globally and a dramatic increase in incidence in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
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Jonathan Liu, MPH, Recipient of the UC Berkeley Elberg Award
Jonathan Liu, MPH, an intern at the HIV Forum in 2015, was selected by the Division of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology of the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, as the 2016 recipient of the Sanford Elberg Award, an honor given to a public health student for the best Masters comprehensive paper.
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Large-Scale HIV Vaccine Trial to Launch in South Africa
NIH-Funded Study Will Test Safety, Efficacy of Vaccine Regimen
An early-stage HIV vaccine clinical trial in South Africa has determined that an investigational vaccine regimen is safe and generates comparable immune responses to those reported in a landmark 2009 study showing that a vaccine can protect people from HIV infection. Consequently, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and its partners have decided to advance the experimental HIV vaccine regimen into a large clinical trial. This new study, called HVTN 702, is designed to determine whether the regimen is safe, tolerable and effective at preventing HIV infection among South African adults. The trial is slated to begin in November 2016, pending regulatory approval. “For the first time in seven years, the scientific community is embarking on a large-scale clinical trial of an HIV vaccine, the product of years of study and experimentation,” said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of NIAID, part of the National Institutes of Health and a co-funder of the trial. “A safe and effective HIV vaccine could help bring about a durable end to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and is particularly needed in southern Africa, where HIV is more pervasive than anywhere else in the world.”
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Health-HCV Calls for Increased HCV Testing in Primary and HIV Care Settings
Launches "20/20: A Clear Vision for Increased HCV Testing" Initiative
HealthHCV recognizes Hepatitis Testing Day by launching an initiative encouraging primary care providers and HIV care providers to increaseCDC and USPSTF recommendedhepatitis C (HCV) testing by 20% by 2020. Increasing testing and treatment by 20% or more would reduce HCV-related morbidity and mortality by 50% by 2020.1HealthHCV’s “20/20: A Clear Vision for Increased HCV Testing” Initiative proposes a clear target outcome to increase testing and diagnosis of HCV in settings serving at risk populations. Through this initiative, HealthHCV will be launching an online, self-paced CME module on HCV testing in primary care and HIV care settings, and adding it to their training and certificate programs, as well as developing resources on HCV testing implementation and best practices via the HealthHCV Resource Center.
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CDC Press Release: Hepatitis C Kills More Americans than Any Other Infectious Disease
New CDC studies underscore urgency of hepatitis C testing and treatment, especially for baby boomers.
Deaths associated with hepatitis C reached an all-time high of 19,659 in 2014, according to preliminary surveillance data released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A second CDC study, published online today in Clinical Infectious Diseases, shows that annual hepatitis C-related mortality in 2013 surpassed the total combined number of deaths from 60 other infectious diseases reported to CDC, including HIV, pneumococcal disease, and tuberculosis. Further, both studies use data from death certificates which often underreport hepatitis C, so there likely were even more hepatitis C-related deaths than these numbers suggest.
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ECDC HIV Testing Advisory Panel Report Now Published
In 2010, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) published the guidance HIV testing: increasing uptake and effectiveness in the European Union (from now on referred to as “2010 guidance”). In consideration of the recent developments in the field, ECDC is planning to update the guidance in 2016-2017. In the light of several International and National testing guidelines/guidances released recently, ECDC has to carefully consider if an update of the testing guidance is needed and would be of added value.
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Press Release: WHO highlights hepatitis testing innovations at The International Liver Congress
Innovative hepatitis testing projects from 5 countries will be commended by the World Health Organization (WHO) at an award ceremony and symposium about hepatitis testing on Sunday morning, 17 April 2016, at The International Liver Congress™ (ILC) in Barcelona, Spain. The session will showcase the winning entries from 67 submissions and 27 countries, including new testing models for hepatitis in primary care, the community and prison settings. The winning entries come from Australia, India, Mongolia, the Netherlands and the United States of America (USA).
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Press Release: The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine
Hepatitis B and C Could Be Eliminated as Public Health Problems in U.S., But Reducing Number of New Cases Is More Manageable in Short Term, Says New Report
WASHINGTON – It is possible to end the transmission of hepatitis B and C and prevent further sickness and deaths from the diseases, but time, considerable resources, and attention to various barriers will be required, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. However, controlling the diseases by reducing the number of new and overall cases in the U.S. is more feasible in the short term. This is the first report of a two-phase study; the second report, to be released in early 2017, will outline a strategy for meeting the goals discussed in this report.
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