HIV/AIDS News

The slogan of this year’s National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day was “Stay the course, the fight is not over!” Yet for health professionals and people living with HIV, or PLWH, “staying the course” is simply not good enough. The “blackening” of the HIV epidemic in America has been going on for decades, and now blacks account for 43% of PLWH and 45% of deaths among PLWH, while making up only 12% of the U.S. population. Georgia, where I practice, has the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses among states, and blacks there account for nearly three-quarters of new diagnoses. Although new diagnoses have decreased nationally overall, among black gay and bisexual men the rate has continued at a steady pace, starkly illustrating that our progress in both treatment and prevention is not sufficiently reaching those who need it most. Transgender populations, especially those of color, are largely not counted but they experience especially severe disparities.

Feb. 7 is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. To mark the occasion, Melanie A. Thompson, MD, chair of the HIV Medicine Association, discusses the disproportionate burden of HIV that black communities bear, and the role health leaders must take to end the epidemic.

Children who are HIV-positive or have been exposed to HIV are at increased risk of having poorer outcomes regarding cognitive and motor development when compared with children who are HIV-negative and have not been exposed, according to findings published in Pediatrics.

The NIH announced that it has launched a large international trial to compare the safety and efficacy of current WHO-recommended first-line ART and two other HIV regimens containing dolutegravir in pregnant women.

HHS recently announced that a new “Conscience and Religious Freedom Division” in HHS’ Office for Civil Rights has been established to enforce federal laws that protect health care professionals from being forced to provide medical care services that violate their conscience and religious freedom.

A one-time routine HIV screening at 25 years of age was cost-effective and led to better clinical outcomes among teenagers and young adults without identified HIV risk factors, according to findings published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Children with HIV in Kenya whose urine samples tested positive for lipoarabinomannan, or LAM — a biomarker of tuberculosis — had a nearly fivefold increased risk for mortality compared with children with negative LAM results, according to recent data.

The prevalence of viral load suppression was well below UNAIDS targets in adolescent girls and young women in seven African nations between 2015 and 2017, according to a report by the CDC.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America, HIV Medicine Association and Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society released a joint statement today addressing recent reports that claim the CDC may be banned from using the terms “science-based,” “evidence-based,” “transgender,” “diversity,” “entitlement,” “vulnerable” and “fetus” in federal budget documents.

Gilead Sciences has launched an initiative that promises $100 million over 10 years to help organizations combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Southern United States, according to a press release.