Submitted by mjvesper on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 10:18am
As noted in these pages and press reports worldwide, the iPrex trial found that daily use of truvada protected gay men, other MSM and trangender women from HIV infection.
Updated data presented at this week's Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) showed the trial results held true through 144 weeks - nearly three years - and that the key challenge seems to be adherence. Those who took the drug most or all of the time (about 1/2 of the people in the study) had high rates of protection - over 90%. But because the other half took little or no drug at all (as confirmed by blood tests), the overal efficacy rate among trial participants was 44%.
After a long day at the conference, an eager crew of conference-goers - including researchers, people with HIV, White House officials and press - joined local community members here in Boston last night in the auditorium of Fenway Community Health for ARV-Based Prevention: A Community & Research Forum on Recent Results and What Happens Next, sponsored by AVAC and Fenway.
At the end of the formal presentations, the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance asked panelists, "What are one to three next steps that are vital to making PrEP [pre-exposure prophylaxis] effective at the community or public health level, rather than just a boutique intervention for a few individuals?"
Read more »
Thanks to everyone who joined us yesterday for the first HIV PJA LiveBlog.
We started the conversation as people with HIV and other activists around the country while we waited on hold for the teleconference meeting of the Presidential
Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) , the top advisory body
to President Obama on the epidemic. Its membership includes
people living with HIV, and it also includes long-time allies of CHAMP
and members of the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance.
Three HIV PJA founders - myself, Dazon
Dixon-Diallo of SisterLove and David Munar of AIDS Foundation of Chicago
- led the liveblog session. Just click "Replay" below to see how it rolled...
The main item of business was passing a resolution that addressed the crisis in access to AIDS drugs, referencing the need for more (and more than one year) funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), and the need to accelerate expanded access to Medicaid coverage for people with HIV through the Early Treatment for HIV Act (ETHA) which is now not set to go into effect until 2014. But also, about halfway through, things go a bit haywire when they open up the call, unmuting everyone AND there seems to be some sort of fire alarm as well! It was a disappointment to those who were scheduled to give public comment (only eight were allowed but only one got a chance to do it) and everyone else who wanted to chime in but was not allowed.
2) It's not too late to get your public comment into PACHA!
Just get it to the PACHA Coordinator - here's his full contact information:
Read more »
Submitted by mjvesper on Wed, 06/16/2010 - 11:39am
The HIV Prevention Justice Alliance (HIV PJA) is pleased to begin accepting public comments on a draft of our second issue brief, LGBT Marginalization as a Social Driver of HIV.
This draft was developed by HIV PJA in collaboration with HIV PJA members amfAR and the National Coalition on LGBT Health.
Head over to our Issue Briefs homepage to find out all about these resources and to download our Housing as a Social Driver of HIV brief, released earlier this year.
Submitted by mjvesper on Wed, 05/19/2010 - 12:49pm
Thanks so much to all of you who endorsed the HIV
Prevention Justice Alliance / Project UNSHACKLE letter to CDC.
You joined a forceful call to insist that
CDC commits to its plan to confront the criminalization of HIV.Thanks to you, CDC has
pledged to: Read more »
Submitted by mjvesper on Mon, 03/29/2010 - 10:10am
By Naina Khanna and Waheedah Shabazz-El
The HIV epidemic among women in the United States is not driven by women making "risky or rash decisions." Until we redefine vulnerability and transform the social and economic context in which women live, play, work, and love, we will fail to achieve prevention justice for women and HIV will continue to ravage our sisters, daughters, mothers, and grandmothers.
Women comprise nearly one-third of HIV infections in the U.S. today, up from 8% in 1987. Women of color, especially Black and Latina women, are disproportionately impacted by the HIV epidemic - representing over 80% of infections among women. AIDS remains the leading cause of death among African-American women ages 25 to 34 - women in their prime as productive and central members of our communities. And data recently released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that adolescent girls bear an undue burden of common sexually transmitted diseases among youth.
With this kind of data at our fingertips, federal agencies responsible for the health and wellbeing of Americans ought to have a sense of real urgency; and make this critical epidemic among women and communities of color an immediate priority.
Read more »
For anyone involved in HIV/AIDS or social justice issues, March has been a busy month. We've been tracking a whole slew of activities.
Here's what's been keeping us busy:
- Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard about the final passage of health care reform legislation. Many of us are wondering how this historic legislation will immediately affect our work and what we can expect as the full package is implemented over the next few years. Here is a great breakdown of what's happening immediately and what's still to come. Also, the Kaiser Family Foundation has a fantastic set of resources for anyone interested in all the ins and outs of health reform.
- National Women and Girls HIV Awareness Day was March 10, 2010. HIV PJA members Naina Khanna and Waheedah Shabazz-El have a must-read article on how to achieve prevention justice for women.
- Also on March 10 - the CDC released staggering data on STD rates among gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men. Our friends at LifeLube picked apart the data.
- We assisted in collecting signatures for a sign-on letter asking President Obama to support emergency increased funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). Dose of Change has a running list of ADAP advocacy across the country.
Thank you to all of those who participated in the public commenting period for the HIV PJA Housing Issue Brief. We received a lot of great feedback and will incorporate your comments into the final draft, which will be publish on this website. Please stay tuned for more opportunities to participate in upcoming issue briefs.
Mounting state budget cuts and only nominal proposed federal
budget increases threaten HIV prevention services across the nation.
The fate of health care reform is uncertain. Marginalized
members of our communities
continue to be to be denied the prevention, health, and housing services they desperately need to improve their lives. Resource allocation remains limited for gay men
of all
races, African American women, people who use drugs, and other
individuals who
are at risk of HIV.
Despite this bleak winter landscape, this is not the time for
prevention advocates to hunker down in our burrows and wait for a more
favorable climate for action. HIV
prevention justice is needed now more than ever. 2010 will prove to be a
pivotal year in building a unified and effective social movement for HIV
prevention rooted in human rights.
The HIV Prevention Justice Alliance (HIV PJA) is a network
of 79 organizations advocating for
effective and just HIV prevention policies for the United States. We
grew out of the successful 2007 Prevention
Justice Mobilization, which united hundreds of groups across the country
at the
intersection of HIV/AIDS, human rights, and struggles for social,
racial,
gender, and economic justice.
In 2010, the HIV PJA will continue to grow this movement by:
Growing the HIV PJA membership
through active
recruitment of individuals and organizations committed to the principles
of HIV
prevention justice as well as identifying and engaging other allies
about the
social determinants that fuel the epidemic
Developing
a clear policy agenda through member engagement and public dialogue
Mobilizing
members to help enact this agenda
Facilitating the on-going discussion
about the
role social drivers, human rights, and social justice play in
perpetuating the
epidemic
Stay tuned for more updates and opportunities to help shape
the future of the HIV PJA.
Not already an HIV PJA member and wondering why you should
join? Several of the benefits of
membership in the HIV PJA you'll find are:
Members-only
email lists on federal prevention justice issues and state-level
prevention
justice advocacy
Quarterly
teleconferences to assist in the development of the HIV PJA policy
agenda and
mobilization plans
Capacity-building
support on development and
maintenance of mobilization structures
Go
here for more information on
the alliance and how you can help bring justice to HIV prevention.
ShareThis
Like the recent blast of snow, a political chill has set in across Washington and complicated the efforts of social justice and HIV advocates to pursue progressive federal policy.
Senate leaders and the White House, reeling from an unexpected special-election defeat in Massachusetts, scaled back their ambitions and embraced a more centrist agenda anchored in pocketbook issues.
President Barack Obama's State of the Union address heralded the shifting political stance of Democrats, who remain firmly in control of both chambers of Congress and the White House. Jobs creation, economic revitalization, fiscal responsibility and deficit reduction are squarely at the top of the agenda. By contrast, healthcare reform, immigration reform, and significant social investments appear downgraded for the time being as priorities.
In this issue of Base Building, the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance (HIV PJA) examines early 2010 political developments and their likely impact on policy-making aimed at rooting out the social drivers of HIV vulnerability in the U.S. ShareThis
The HIV Prevention Justice Alliance (HIV PJA) is pleased to begin accepting public comments on a draft of our second 
The HIV epidemic among women in the United States is not driven by women making "risky or rash decisions." Until we redefine vulnerability and transform the social and economic context in which women live, play, work, and love, we will fail to achieve prevention justice for women and HIV will continue to ravage our sisters, daughters, mothers, and grandmothers.
Baby, it's cold outside.
Like the recent blast of snow, a political chill has set in across Washington and complicated the efforts of social justice and HIV advocates to pursue progressive federal policy.
