PLOS Collections – Advances in HIV Prevention, Treatment and Cure

HIV infection continues to pose a critical risk to health in many countries. UNAIDS estimates that as of 2016 the total HIV-infected population was 36.7 million, including 1.8 million people newly infected that year. Although some 19.5 million people are receiving antiretroviral treatment, a substantial treatment gap leaves many millions of people at risk of AIDS-related diseases and, if unaware of their status, likely to infect others. Research is seeking new approaches to prevent, treat, and ultimately cure HIV infection.

http://collections.plos.org/hiv-special-issue

World AIDS Day 2017: Everybody counts

World AIDS Day is 1st December each year, an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died.

In 2015, global leaders signed up to the Sustainable Development Goals, with the aim to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030. The UHC framework now lies at the centre of all health programmes.

To complement the global World AIDS Day 2017 campaign which promotes the theme “Right to health”, the World Health Organization will highlight the need for all 36.7 million people living with HIV and those who are vulnerable and affected by the epidemic, to reach the goal of universal health coverage.

Under the slogan “Everybody counts”, Continue reading “World AIDS Day 2017: Everybody counts”

The IeDEA All-Africa Meeting – Kigali, Rwanda, November 5-6

IeDEA Central Africa led an all-Africa meeting to discuss how the IeDEA consortium could enhance “treat-all” implementation of universal HIV testing, treatment, retention, and virologic suppression across sub-Saharan Africa. Supported by an R13 from NIAID, the meeting brought together 200 participants to hear about Rwanda’s experience implementing universal HIV treatment, work on prioritizing research questions around the 90-90-90 cascade, develop strategies for how to integrate multi-disciplinary health services, and improve engagement with key populations. Overarching goals discussed included how to measure the impact of treat-all-related policy changes on HIV testing and treatment cascades, while exploring potential threats to long-term retention, including patients developing advanced HIV disease after returning to care following interruptions (“churn”). Continue reading “The IeDEA All-Africa Meeting – Kigali, Rwanda, November 5-6”

New Initiative: IeDEA Pediatric and Adolescent Methods and Modeling Project (IPM2)

The first meeting of the new IPM2 initiative was held in London on October 20-21.  The IeDEA Pediatric Working Group has been collaborating for a number of years with UNAIDS and WHO to inform global epidemic modeling and treatment policy for children.  With new supplemental funding from NICHD, we now have the resources for a dedicated pilot initiative to address critical data and methodological gaps that have been barriers to more accurate characterization of the global pediatric and adolescent HIV epidemics.   Continue reading “New Initiative: IeDEA Pediatric and Adolescent Methods and Modeling Project (IPM2)”

IeDEA at the TB Union Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico

IeDEA TB Working Group members took time out from conference activities at the 48th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Guadalajara, Mexico, to meet and discuss recent projects led by TB WG members and agreed to move forward with developing a concept sheet for a MDRTB Site Practices survey. The group brainstormed around other areas for potential collaboration, including TB transmission and genomics.   Continue reading “IeDEA at the TB Union Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico”

IeDEA at IAS Paris 2017

It was fantastic to have so many IeDEA investigators present results from our regional and multiregional cohort analyses at the HIV Pediatrics Workshop and the IAS Conference on HIV Science, held in Paris in July. This research is facilitated by our working groups of global investigators committed to developing our research agendas around different topics.   Continue reading “IeDEA at IAS Paris 2017”

22nd International Workshop on HIV and Hepatitis Observational Databases

Fuengirola, Spain, 22nd – 24th March 2018

Workshop’s mission

The International Workshop on HIV and Hepatitis Observational Databases (IWHOD) brings senior and junior HIV and hepatitis observational database researchers together to advance the methodology and analysis of observational data. No other workshop or conference devotes attention to the methodology of setting up and analyzing observational data, despite their importance in providing critical information on population outcome in real world settings outside the controlled setting of randomized trials. We are once again aiming to include attendees representing cohort studies from all regions. As in the past, we encourage discussion of work in progress, so all data presented will not be publicised outside of the Workshop Continue reading “22nd International Workshop on HIV and Hepatitis Observational Databases”