 Hi everyone, my name is Raif Derrazy and this is another weekly roundup of the latest HIV news for the week of July 3rd to July 9th. This week, I'll be going through six articles covering topics ranging from a new awareness day, HIV-focused pharmacies, global health disparities, and more. I'm not doing that many articles this week. It's a short one. It's kind of late. It's already Friday the 14th today. So I'm just gonna knock this video out and then I'll start working on this past weeks. HIV news. As usual, I won't be reading the articles per se. I will go over a small summary of the article. However, all the links to every article will be in the description box below this video so you can always go through it and read it if it piques your interest. Okay, and diving right in. And the first one is HIV zero HIV stigma day. Several organizations have teamed up to launch the inaugural zero HIV stigma day which will be this coming Friday, July 21st, and this year's theme is humans first. Human first. You can find the link to the campaign website in the description box below and the hashtag zero HIV stigma day will be used all across social media posts. So you can find the via the hashtags or visit the organizations that are setting this up as well, their handles, and you'll be able to find the content on social media as well. Okay, add to the next one. HIV drug makers Gilead and Teva didn't pay to delay drugs rules jury. The article discusses the outcome of a lawsuit against HIV drug makers Gilead Sciences and Teva Pharmaceuticals. The lawsuit alleged that Gilead paid Teva to delay the release of a generic version of Travada, a widely used HIV medication and pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP drug. However, a federal court jury found that the companies did not engage in a pay to delay scheme. The plaintiff sought 3.6 billion in damages, but the jury's verdict favored Gilead and Teva. This marks the second legal victory for Gilead this year following another case regarding PrEP patents. The article highlights the ongoing legal battles and debates surrounding the availability and coverage of HIV prevention and treatment options. I don't doubt that, you know, companies with self-interest want to guard and protect their patents, even after they're expired, to maintain market sharing, get as many profits as possible. I'm sure this is something that even if it did happen is very, very hard to prove. Who knows? But that's, there you go. You got it. Walmart opens 70 more, that's 7-0, more HIV focused pharmacies. Walmart has opened over 70 specialty HIV pharmacies across several states with plans to open more than 80 by the end of 2023. These pharmacies aim to provide accessible and discreet HIV care to individuals who may not have easy access or feel comfortable seeking such services elsewhere. Located inside Walmart stores, these specialty pharmacies offer comprehensive care, including treatment options, mental health support, resource sharing, and assistance with insurance navigation. Walmart partnered with the Elton John AIDS Foundation to train its pharmacists and expand its HIV focused pharmacy services. The company is also founding member of the U.S. Business Action to End HIV Coalition, demonstrating its commitment to supporting the goals of the national HIV AIDS strategy and ending the HIV epidemic in the United States by 2030. Awesome, I think. Anytime you can integrate HIV services in a non-threatening environment, in this case, Walmart stores is a win for reducing stigma and helping, you know, give anonymity to those who value that. This article in the Lancet addressing disparities and challenges in global health from an LMIC perspective. The article discusses the disparities and challenges faced by researchers from low-income and middle-income countries. That's LMIC's low-income and middle-income countries in the field of global health. The power dynamics in colonial practices inherent in global health have created asymmetries between high-income countries and low-to-middle-income countries, resulting in limited visibility and impact for researchers from LMIC's or low-to-middle-income countries. Issues such as article processing charges, manuscript rejection based on scope, and strict publication requirements pose obstacles for low-middle-income country researchers. The under-representation of LMIC's in global health education and leadership roles further perpetuates these disparities. To address these challenges, the article suggests promoting equitable research opportunities, supporting LMIC research needs, prioritizing evidence-based decision-making and fostering inclusivity in publishing by training journal editors and reviewers and promoting diverse representation. Ultimately, achieving decolonization in global health requires a collaborative effort between HICs or high-income countries and LMIC's low-middle-income countries based on justice, inclusion, and sustainability. I think I mentioned something in a recent video recently talking about looking for articles and research and things like that from different countries around the world and noting that there's some difficulty in finding that and that maybe there's a multi-factorial reason for that, maybe because of stigma or because of the laws against people who are LGBTQI+, or the stigma against just having HIV, that that might inhibit some of that. But this is another factor clearly that shows that in the medical science research world, there is inequality and disparities there depending on whether you come from a high-income country or a low-middle-income country. And so the fact that they are actually addressing this in an article in the Lancet and saying that this needs to be addressed is crucial. It's important and I'm glad there's some attention being brought to it. Now the next step is like, how do we get there? How does that happen? Because if researchers don't feel empowered from low- to middle-income countries, then there's going to be this continual gap and this disparity in the amount of research and articles and information that's coming from these low-middle-income countries. How to get ARVs delivered to your home in the rural eastern Cape? The article highlights the challenges faced by people living with HIV in rural areas when accessing medication. It tells the story of a woman who had to walk long distances to the clinic to refill her prescription, often missing doses due to the arduous journey. The article introduces the concept of community pickup points or PUPS, which are alternative locations where people can collect their medication instead of going to a clinic. These PUPS can be set up in various community spaces and are facilitated by nonprofit organizations or other community entities. The article emphasizes the importance of PUPS in improving medication adherence and reducing the spread of HIV. It also provides insights on how to establish and run PUPS effectively, including partnering with nearby clinics and understanding the specific needs of the community. The goal is to make it easier for people to access their medication and improve their quality of life, particularly in hard-to-reach areas. This is such a great article in South Africa and talking about just innovative ways to deal with things like people living in remote areas and not having easy access to health care and how, as a community and with neighbors, you can work together to create a system that makes it easier for people to have access. I love that this article outlines as a guideline, as a rubric, as a proof of concept for other areas so that hopefully they can take those notes and then apply there as well. Okay, last article. Antibiotic shortage could worsen syphilis epidemic. Infectious disease experts are alarmed by a shortage of Bicillin LA, a crucial penicillin used to fight against syphilis. Pfizer, the drugmaker, announced the shortage due to increased demand caused by rising rates of syphilis infections. Bicillin LA is also being used as an alternative to amoxicillin, which is facing periodic shortages. Syphilis cases have been on the rise in the United States with congenital syphilis tripling in the past four years. Bicillin is the recommended treatment for pregnant women with syphilis, effectively preventing transmission to the fetus. The shortage raises concerns about access to life-saving medication and the potential for the epidemic to worsen. Pfizer estimates it will take about a year to increase production and meet the demand. I bring this up because there are a lot of links between HIV and syphilis and syphilis can have an increased negative impact on those living with HIV as well, so be aware. All right, in closing, I do want to mention that I've had quite a bit of pushback from certain folks on social media in regards to my recent video on the HIV cure hopeful potential trial. It was the clinical trial phase one of AGT is AGT 103T is the phase one clinical trial and their announcement, their really positive announcement. And people said that it was misleading that I was, it said HIV cure announcement. So, you know, they said that was misleading and it was immoral and shame on you and you name it. There was a lot of negativity. I mean, there was a lot of people who really appreciated it, thought it was great and didn't see any problem with it. But then there was also people who were like this title of your video and the graphic is completely misleading. It's so wrong of you. You're, you know, you need to be more responsible and more accountable and this is not right. And so I kind of thought about it for a while and took a hard look at it. And so I made some changes. So I'll put up right now the first initial title and the graphic that I had launched for this video. And then this is what I changed it to. And so in the new one, I think it's pretty clear that it is a HIV cure hopeful. It's an HIV cure potential. It's not the HIV cure. And then after that I'm explaining it's the AGT 103T phase one clinical trial. So if, if people fail to read the full title or they don't take the time to actually listen or read what I'm writing and then therefore are misinformed, you know, I can't control everybody. And no matter what I say on my channel and on social media, people will misinterpret the things that I say. I've noticed that constantly. People, it's like people have blinders on because all they all they want to know is when HIV cure, when HIV cure. And so even if I hint at the word cure HIV, people run with that and then like interpret it in in far out ways. And then the graphic also, I think it's very clear now it says a first step to HIV cure, meaning that that implies we're at the beginning stages, we're not like, okay, when's the HIV cure coming out? It's like, we're at the first step. It's the very beginning. So I'm at peace with this. I understand people are going to see this and they're still not going to like it simply because of the fact that it says HIV cure in the title and in the graphic. But you know what? I found a happy medium. I'm at peace with this. So I'm going to leave it as is. All right. With that said, I will remind you again that all these links to the articles are in the description box below. Head down there, read more if you're interested if something piqued your interest. Remember, send me links to international articles. It really helps me be able to compile more interesting things from around the world. Please like this video if you liked it. Subscribe if you haven't already. Hit that bell so you get a notification every time a new video comes out. And I will have a new HIV latest news video coming out shortly since this one was delayed for you here soon. So stay tuned. Cheers. I'll see you next time.