HIV/AIDS News

Today on National HIV Testing Day, recognized each year on June 27, the CDC is promoting this year’s theme, “Test Your Way. Do It Today,” to remind patients that there are more ways than ever to get tested. Whether at a clinic, local organization, health care provider’s office, testing event, or at home, the CDC is urging Americans to check their HIV status.

AIDSVu — a project led by Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in partnership with Gilead Sciences, Inc. — released new interactive maps that demonstrate two-thirds of all new HIV infections in 2015 occurred in 2.5% of U.S. counties, according to a press release.

The FDA granted Roche premarket approval for its fourth-generation HIV combination antigen-antibody assay, the company announced today.

The New York State International Training and Research Program of SUNY Downstate Medical Center has received a $1.5 million, 5-year grant from the NIH to develop and implement a training program that will improve HIV care in Ukraine, according to a press release.

The FDA recently approved the first generic version of Truvada for the treatment of HIV-1 infection, in combination with other antiretroviral agents, in adults and children weighing at least 17 kg, and for pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, in uninfected adults at high risk for infection.

For the first time in its 40-year history, WHO’s Model List of Essential Medicines includes advice on when and when not to use certain antibiotics — a significant change that health officials said was aimed at containing the global threat of antimicrobial resistance, optimizing treatment and preserving last-resort antibiotics.

Merck announced today that the FDA has approved Isentress HD — a new, once-daily, 1,200-mg dose of the company’s integrase inhibitor, Isentress — for the treatment of HIV.

After actor Charlie Sheen announced that he was HIV-positive during an interview on NBC’s Today Show on Nov. 17, 2015, researchers found that millions of people conducted online search queries for HIV prevention and testing. In a follow-up study published today in Prevention Science, the same research team discovered that the impact of Sheen’s disclosure, known as the “Charlie Sheen effect,” also resulted in record levels of in-home rapid HIV test sales in the United States.

The first HIV vaccine clinical trial was launched in 1987 at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, according to the HHS. Thirty years later, researchers continue to investigate both preventive and therapeutic HIV vaccines.

The CDC reported that in 2014, 22% of new HIV diagnoses in the United States occurred among young people aged 13 to 24 years, 80% of whom were gay and bisexual men. A 2013 study estimating the prevalence rate among transgender women found that 22% were infected with HIV in five high-income countries, including the U.S. Prior research has also found that compared with other races and ethnicities, African American transgender women are more likely to test positive for HIV.