 Hey everyone, Raeve Derrazy here and this is your weekly roundup of the latest HIV news for the week of September 18th through September 24th. Today I'll be going through 14 articles covering topics ranging from a new HIV vaccine clinical trial starting in the US and South Africa, and where you can possibly go to sign up and participate. Another promising step towards HIV cure, the effect that dormant HIV has on the body, focusing on older people living with HIV, stigma and prep, aptitudes approval by the European Commission, and more. As usual I won't be reading the articles per se, but I will give you a brief summary and sometimes throw in my own opinion and commentary. If you want access to the complete articles, all links will be available in the description box below. Before I dive in, a big shout out to Dennis Nelson for a whopping $50 super thanks on my Why I Switch to Dovado video. Dennis, you've been a constant source of support for a long time, so thank you so much my friend. If you haven't seen that video, I'll put a card up here. Alright folks, I warned you there would be times when it just wouldn't be possible for me to get one of these videos out every week. I hear it, here we are. I missed two weeks. These happen to be the two busiest weeks of the year for me, but I in constellation have some amazing content that's going to be coming up for you shortly, including two separate interviews, one each with the City of Hope patient, cured of HIV, as well as the Dusseldorf patient, also cured of HIV. Can't wait to get those edited and out to you, coming soon. Alright, and now for the news. Number one, by HuffPost, maybe we should be talking about HIV in the beauty shop. Recent data shows that Black cisgender women account for nearly 60% of all new HIV infections in US women, that's 6-0-60%, but only 10% of those who could benefit from PrEP are being prescribed it. A study suggests that promoting discussions about PrEP in beauty salons could increase awareness and knowledge of the drug's preventative benefits, while also addressing the misconceptions that HIV is only a concern for gay men. The initiative called UPDO, protective styles, using PrEP and doing it for ourselves, trains stylists in salons to have conversations about HIV and PrEP. While it might initially seem unusual to discuss sexual health in a salon, it's seen as a critical step in providing Black women with information about their options for HIV prevention. You know, it's interesting because a barber shop is exactly where I experience the most pointed stigma that I've ever faced. It's equally as important for men to be talking about HIV in this setting as well in barbershops. I just filmed an interview with Christian Phillip Mercer Hall, the founder of a new HIV app that's soon to be released in November, and he actually owns a barber shop and we had a discussion about this and that he would have conversations with his clients about HIV. It really is an important space for men and women to be having these conversations combating stigma, dispelling myths, et cetera. Keep an eye out for our interview with Christian near the end of October. I'm so excited for this app. There's so many great features. It's going to be unlike any app that I've seen come out to date for the HIV community. I cannot wait. Number two, advocate. It's time to pay attention to older Americans living with HIV advocates say. As effective HIV treatments allow people with HIV to live longer, national HIV aids and aging awareness day highlights the unique challenges of aging with HIV. Experts note that there's often a disconnect between HIV specialists and aging specialists when it comes to addressing the health consequences of aging with HIV. Despite increasing numbers of older people living with or at risk of contracting HIV, routine HIV testing is not always offered to those aged 65 and over, potentially leading to late stage diagnoses. Advocacy groups like Sage are pushing for changes to testing guidelines and better knowledge sharing among health care providers to address the complex health needs of older people with HIV, including those who may face discrimination in long term care facilities. I'm making a concerted effort to focus more on aging with HIV and bringing more experts on to discuss that in detail. For a good introductory video on the topic, check out my interview recently with Jeff Taylor. I'll put up a card here so you can watch that. Also I was at the Hope Collaboratory annual meeting this past week, one of the reasons why I was so busy. And while I was there, I, yes, interviewed the two gentlemen at Curative HIV. And I also got to interview Eric Verdun, the CEO director of the Buck Institute in Novato, California. And the Buck Institute is solely focused on research related to aging. And part of that includes aging with HIV. So I'm really excited. We had a fantastic interview to share that interview with you as well, so we can start to dig into that topic a little more on this channel as well. Number three, Newsweek. We must prioritize the incarcerated and HIV elimination efforts. This is an opinion piece. Access to pre-exposure prophylaxis, PrEP medication, which can significantly reduce the risk of contracting HIV, is a vital tool in preventing the spread of HIV. In Australia, increased PrEP access contributed to almost eliminating HIV transmission in inner Sydney. However, this op-ed highlights the lack of access to PrEP in U.S. prisons and jails, where HIV rates are three times higher than in the general population, disproportionately affecting black men and southerners. The PrEP Access and Coverage Act recently reintroduced in Congress aims to expand PrEP access but doesn't address incarcerated individuals. To combat HIV effectively, a tailored approach involving partnerships with incarcerated individuals is necessary, considering the unique challenges and mistrust associated with medical care in prisons. Okay, let's be a little blunt here. Men are going to have sex. Gay, straight, bi, etc., whoever you may be, however you may identify in prison, the only other option for having sex is other men. We know that there's STI risk and transmission of all kinds. Condoms aren't enough. It's not always chosen. People don't always want it. It's pretty obvious to me the impact of providing PrEP in that setting for those who choose it in prison, it would have a tremendously beneficial impact. Heller, pretty obvious in my head. A lot of these things to me are just very obvious and oftentimes it's politics that gets in the way. It's politics. It's ideology. It's religion. It's stigma. It's misinformation. It's all these things that just distract from the facts, the science, the observable truth. I don't know how else to put it, but the madness gets in the way. So we need to cut through the BS for lack of a better word and just do the obvious because we can stop this epidemic and we don't need to have three times more transmission rate. And guess what? These guys who end up acquiring HIV eventually, some of them, a lot of them will be released into the public. And voila, you have potentially higher transmission rates in those communities. Number four, attitude. HIV charity calls for apology from Iceland chairman over highly damaging false claim. The Terence Higgins Trust, THT has called out the chairman of Iceland supermarkets, Richard Walker, for spreading false information about HIV. In an op-ed regarding shoplifting, Walker claimed that three Iceland workers had contracted HIV after needle attacks, which was later corrected by the article. THT and the National AIDS Trust criticized the misinformation, emphasizing that HIV does not survive long outside the body and that such claims perpetuate HIV related stigma. THT's executive chief Richard Engel welcomed the removal of the false line but called for a public apology from Walker, highlighting the importance of accuracy in HIV related information. I mean, this story really got under my skin. First of all, HIV does not, like they said, survive long outside of the body. The world is an incredibly inhospitable place for HIV, as much as we might like to think otherwise. Secondly, people don't run around and stab people with needles with the intent of spreading HIV. That's not real. And to be clear, he made this story up. This did not happen. No one was infected by HIV at any of his stores. And this HIV story has nothing to do with anything. He was just talking about the prevalence of shoplifting in his stores and he decided to use a fake HIV super spreader attacker story to dramatize what he was experiencing with shoplifting and make it sound really bad. It took six days for the article to be corrected and remove the misinformation. Imagine the damage done. Imagine the amount of people in those six days who read the article when it was fresh hot off the press, took this information, ingested it and assimilated it into their worldview of the HIV community and of the risk factors related to HIV. Just imagine that. This is an example of real stigma and real harm that's done in efforts to educate, reduce stigma and end the epidemic. Perpetuating stigma because we, people living with HIV are the boogeyman, right? We are out to get you. We're coming for you and we're coming for your children. That's the narrative in a lot of these cases and that's exactly how this guy positioned us and it's pretty despicable and gross and he has yet to issue an apology. Number five, Toronto Star, a lifestyle risk for us. Gay men report discrimination over PrEP HIV prevention drug. Two individuals in Canada have reported incidents of discrimination related to their use of pre-exposure prophylaxis PrEP, a medication that helps prevent the transmission of HIV. One person was denied critical illness insurance due to his use of PrEP while another faced ignorance and discrimination from a doctor after disclosing PrEP use during a medical emergency. These cases highlight the need for increased awareness and education about PrEP within the healthcare and insurance industries as well as the importance of destigmatizing its use. Yeah, this is particularly troubling. It's a rank display of stigma as it's directly related to the healthcare and healthcare insurance industries. I mean, if we can't rely on the healthcare industry to know better and it's associated health insurance industry, which is the industry that makes decisions about the healthcare we receive, who can we rely on? Moving on. Number six, Medical Express. Many low and middle income countries unprepared for the battle against cardiovascular disease study finds. A study has found that healthcare facilities in low and middle income countries, also known as LMICs, are ill-prepared to treat patients with cardiovascular disease, also known as CVD, even though these conditions cause millions of premature deaths each year, millions. The study compared readiness to provide care for HIV and CVD in several LMICs or low middle income countries, and found that facilities were significantly less prepared to offer CVD care, cardiovascular disease care, despite years of investment in HIV care. However, facilities that could provide HIV care were more likely to be able to offer care for CVD risk factors like diabetes and hypertension. The findings underscore the need for increased investment in CVD care infrastructure in LMICs to meet global health goals. So CVD, cardiovascular disease, is a potential complication for those living with HIV as we age, especially if someone hasn't successfully been on treatment or had any other kind of complications. This is an example that it's not enough to simply treat HIV and then send someone on their merry way. We need to understand all the components that can impact adherence, successful treatment, and then long term risk factors as we age. Components such as social support, mental health, access to treatment, stigma, adequate transportation to and from clinics and facilities, stable housing, food security, financial stability, all these things play a part in our efforts to end the epidemic and can't be overlooked or underestimated. Number seven, Irish examiner. Half of people with HIV avoid health care because of stigma, study finds. A recent study led by Dr. Elena Vaughn at the Health Promotion Research Center in the University of Galway in collaboration with HIV Ireland reveals that more than half of people with HIV have avoided health care due to concerns about how they will be treated by health care workers. The study also found that 40, by the way, I'm sorry if you hear snoring in the background. Duke apparently is just completely bored with what I'm doing here and is fast asleep having cute little puppy dreams. Back to the article, the study also found that 40 percent of health care workers expressed concerns about drawing blood from a person living with HIV. The report emphasizes the need for education to reduce HIV related stigma in health care settings and ensure that people with HIV receive the same level of care and services as other patients. While health care workers generally do not hold negative attitudes toward people with HIV, the study highlights the need to address unfounded fears and concerns among health care workers regarding HIV transmission. Number eight, proactive investors. GSK or GlaxoSmithKline's HIV prevention drug aptitude approved by European Commission. The European Commission has authorized aptitude and HIV prevention drug developed by ViveHealthcare, a subsidiary of GSK, GlaxoSmithKline, aptitude, also known as cabotegravir, is a long-acting option for HIV prevention and can be used in combination with safe sex practices to reduce the risk of sexually acquired HIV-1 infection in high-risk adults and adolescents. Unlike daily oral preexposure prophylaxis, cabotegravir is administered as few as six times per year. This authorization provides an additional option for HIV prevention and may better suit the preferences of some individuals. In 2022, aptitude generated 41 million pounds in global sales. However, it's worth noting that the drug can be expensive, particularly for uninsured individuals in the US. Now, this article has a little bit of a slant on their sales revenue because it's an investor's website. But I still thought it was important to know. So look out Europe, aptitude is coming your way. Number nine, Forbes. Dr. Fauci and colleagues await AIDS relief reauthorization by Congress. The US Congress is considering the reauthorization of PEPFAR, a program that has significantly reduced AIDS-related deaths and improved HIV prevention and treatment worldwide. PEPFAR, initiated by President George W. Bush, Dr. Anthony Fauci and others has prevented 25 million deaths and enabled 5.5 million HIV-free births in the last two decades. It offers partnerships and tools to 55 low and middle income countries to address the HIV AIDS crisis. However, concerns from anti-abortion advocates have delayed Congress's reauthorization efforts. PEPFAR doesn't subsidize abortion, but the debate has created a moral dilemma for lawmakers. Continuing PEPFAR is essential to providing access to HIV prevention, care and treatment, but it's currently entangled in a larger political debate. I talked about this several times before in the days leading up to the expected reauthorization. A lot of people, a lot of articles that I read didn't think much of it as just kind of political theater and then it would inevitably get renewed. But these days, literally anything can happen and anything does happen. I'm talking about politics here in the US. Politicians have absolutely lost their minds. Some have actually lost their minds. You've seen videos of Mitch McConnell lately just completely spaced out and not knowing where he was or what he was talking about or what he was doing. Our politicians are getting old and a lot of them are also crazy. So there's a lot of madness going on, a lot of unprecedented things happening in US politics. So I don't think that anything is a safe bet. I wish I could expect that PEPFAR, of course, will get reauthorized. But at this point, I honestly have no idea. So I'm going to continue to follow it and, of course, I'll report anything I find when I find it to you. Number 10, medical express. Researchers take another big step toward HIV cure. An international team of researchers led by scientists at Orhouse University and Orhouse University Hospital in Denmark has made significant progress in potentially moving closer to a cure for HIV. In a study published in Nature Medicine, researchers found that individuals with HIV who had been on treatment for years benefited from monoclonal antibody therapy. This therapy allowed participants to suppress the virus for more than three months, with some continuing to suppress HIV for more than 18 months after stopping regular treatment, also known as an analytic treatment interruption. The researchers believe this study is an important step toward finding a cure for HIV and are planning further trials to optimize treatment with monoclonal antibodies. Yes, you heard that right. The same type of antibodies that are used for the COVID vaccine. In fact, the work that was done on developing monoclonal antibody treatment for HIV is the work that led to its successful use as a COVID vaccine. HIV research has contributed to so much in the field of medicine outside of just HIV. So anyone who is creating a barrier or a friction for us to focus on HIV research is not only harming those of us living with HIV in the HIV community, HIV research, but everyone. Number 11, medical express. Dormant HIV produces RNA and proteins during antiretroviral therapy. HIV, despite being effectively managed with antiretroviral therapy, still presents challenges due to the presence of dormant viral reservoirs. Researchers have discovered that some of these reservoir cells spontaneously produce HIV RNA and proteins, even in patients on long-term antiretroviral treatment. This finding suggests that HIV continues to interact with the immune system, potentially leading to immune responses that could have negative health consequences, such as inflammation and related conditions. The study highlights the complexity of HIV and the need for further research to understand the implications of these ongoing interactions with the virus. Yes, exactly. And this is not anything new. It's not, don't worry, it's not a doom and gloom thing. But this is exactly what I've been talking about as far as comorbidities, as far as chronic inflammation. Those of us living with HIV, even with undetectable, suppressed virus, we have latent reservoirs, dormant sleeping virus, that are still, they're still creating RNA and they're creating proteins that are being released into the body and our immune system is going, whoa, these are enemies, let's attack, let's attack. So the immune system is constantly like working to attack these things. Even though these things are inert, these little proteins in the RNA strands that are being released, they can't really do anything to us. But the immune system is still working to fight it. So that constant working of our immune system, that's what it means when I say chronic inflammation. It's just our immune system working on overtime. And that over time, over a long period of time, over a life span can have negative health consequences. So those are the things that we need to be aware of and we need to study more what are those negative health consequences and how can we best arm ourselves to protect from those possible comorbidities? How can we modify our diet? How can we increase our metabolism? How can we work on our physical fitness? Things like that that will inherently help to support to reduce the chronic inflammation and then also things like supplements that might help with the chronic inflammation like Propolis was an article that I mentioned recently that has been shown to help with chronic inflammation. I've added that to my supplementation as well. Okay, off my soapbox. Onto the next article, number 12, medical express HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis study finds TAF has higher risk of hypertension than TDF. Researchers have found that in patients taking pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention, the use of tenofovir alifenamide fumerate is associated with a higher incidence of hypertension and initiation of statin medications compared to the alternative formulation tenofovir disaproxyl fumerate, especially individuals aged 40 or older. This conclusion is drawn from a retrospective cohort analysis using electronic health records. TAF is considered more effective and has fewer side effects but the study suggests that it may have unintended effects on cardiometabolic health. Number 13, the Lancet. Uganda's anti-homosexuality laws, Stiney Research. The Anti-Homosexuality Act, known as AHA, passed in Uganda has had a significant negative impact on scientific research, particularly in studies involving LGBTQ communities and men who have sex with men or MSM. Researchers are facing challenges in enrolling and retaining LGBTQ participants in local research trials due to fears and concerns arising from the law. This has also limited scientists' ability to collect important information about these communities. The AHA imposes harsh penalties for homosexuality, including a death penalty for certain cases. Researchers fear that if the law is not repealed or amended, they may have to design studies that exclude LGBTQ participants, hindering progress in HIV prevention research and other health-related studies for these populations. My guess is that the people who designed and support this bill would be happy, would love to hear that LGBTQ people would be excluded from research related to HIV or any other thing in society that would benefit the LGBTQ community. That is the insidious nature of these types of bills and what they hope will be the fallout of said bills. Unfortunately, people who act in this way from discrimination against minorities, from hatred, inadvertently end up not only hurting the people they seek to hurt, but society at large and eventually themselves as well, because the work that's being done on HIV research, including the LGBTQ community, it impacts everyone. Anyway, time will tell what the repercussions of this law are. All right, and on to the final article, number 14, the messenger. NIH launches HIV vaccine trial as eradicating virus remains in sight. New HIV vaccine trials have been announced by the National Institutes of Health NIH in the United States and South Africa. These trials use a vaccine developed by the San Francisco-based biotechnology company called VIR, which employs a harmless virus called Cytomegalovirus, a CMV, to expose the immune system to HIV proteins. The vaccine aims to continuously remind the immune system of HIV's appearance, potentially neutralizing the virus if the recipient is exposed. Phase one of the trial involves 95 HIV negative participants with early results expected in 2024. I managed to find the upcoming clinical trial and the various locations in the U.S. where you can inquire to potentially participate. I'll include the link to the clinical trial along with the link to this article down below this video and the various locations for clinical trial recruitment in the U.S. include Alabama, Georgia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Remember, an HIV vaccine would be for someone who is not currently living with HIV. It is ineffective if you are living with HIV. Okay, you can find links to all these articles in the info box below this video. If you'd like to support my channel monetarily, you can do so via Superthinks below. Or I've also included my PayPal link in the description box as well. 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