HIV Disclosure Updates - 31 January 2016

 Below is an automatic feed from DrMbere. Click Title to be redirected to his curated information page on Paper.li

DrMbere- HIV Disclosure Updates Latest HIV Disclosure Info Curated From Social Media Sources Published by HIV Disclosure To Children 31 January 2016 Science Health Art & Entertainment World Leisure Politics #idu #pwid Today's headline HIV Insight: Methamphetamine Use among Gay & Bisexual Men in Australia: Trends in Recent & Regular Use from the Gay Community Periodic Surveys hiv-insight­.blogspot­.com - This paper examined trends in methamphetamine use among gay and bisexual men in Australia using ongoing behavioural surveillance data. Recent Crystal methamphetamine use increased during 2010-14, a... 2 contributors - featured today: Read paper →

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Lots of educating to be done but the momentum on fighting stigma is noticed.

I think the momentum on fighting #HIVStigma I see everywhere now is great. In 2001 I had been openly gay for only 6ish years, before that only my BF knew, and the rest of the world must have assumed LOL, but I was not going back in the closet for anything. This is why despite all the warning's from healthcare pro's, family, friends, etc. I came out pos from day 1. People asked why I missed work the day before... I simply said "Found out I have #HIV and had to deal with it". Since that day it's as easy as ever for me to disclose, what is not easy is dealing with all the shit we deal with due to social ignorance (#HIVSTIGMA). No one cared when I was yelling this out but now #CDC and #HRC decided to tackle it and everyone hears! Amen, I don't care I just want it to end. Just like being out and proud, marriage equality rights we have won, this too will prevail and we will stand united as communities that are educated and proud rather than suspicious, ignorant and scared. If you are not pos and reading this... please understand, the ENORMOUS amount of people living with this virus and keeping it all to themselves due to fear of being rejected, hurt or simply it's too much to handle since they are dealing with the health issues and trying to keep everything together at the same time. I know first hand. Lots in my community have come to me confidentially and disclosed their status to me asking me questions due to them knowing through the grapevine that I am pos... not once have seen any of these same people come out  about it and in fact short of beg me not to tell anyone else. Once I had two very close friends tell me separately!! Crazy! I keep it to myself as that is a personal journey and one sure fired way to make a person feel betrayed.
Anyhow, the reason I started this post was because although I am an active member of reddit. Daily. I really only go to my sub /r/HIVTruth and always /r/HIVAIDS as it is the most used forum with the most exposure on all of Reddit so I miss a lot of other area's of that community. I have recently starting posting on LGBT and LGBT Dating sites with lots of "likes" and comments. This is my goal to educate as many as possible while still maintaining some sort of life outside of this chromebook!! But today, all within an hour of me logging in, 3 seperate threads were started about #PrEP. This means people are listening to all the blogs, media and thousands who are telling their stories and getting the word out. PrEP along with all the campaigns starting up to #FightStigma are going to result in great things!!

#HIVTruth #FightStigma #SpeakOutHIV #HIV #HIVStigma #AIDS

HIV Insight

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#HIVTruth #FightStigma #SpeakOutHIV #HIV #HIVStigma #AIDS

Characteristics of HIV Patients Who Missed Their Scheduled Appointments

OBJECTIVE:

To analyze whether sociodemographic characteristics, consultations and care in special services are associated with scheduled infectious diseases appointments missed by people living with HIV.

METHODS:

This cross-sectional and analytical study included 3,075 people living with HIV who had at least one scheduled appointment with an infectologist at a specialized health unit in 2007. A secondary data base from the Hospital Management & Information System was used. The outcome variable was missing a scheduled medical appointment. The independent variables were sex, age, appointments in specialized and available disciplines, hospitalizations at the Central Institute of the Clinical Hospital at the Faculdade de Medicina of the Universidade de São Paulo, antiretroviral treatment and change of infectologist. Crude and multiple association analysis were performed among the variables, with a statistical significance of p ≤ 0.05.

Starting Treatment / Already on Treatment? This site is awesome!

http://myHIVhangup.com

#HIVTruth #FightStigma #HIVStigma #HIVTreatment #myHIVhangup #AIDS #HIV

Reddit? Follow my sub !!

www.reddit.com/r/HIVTruth

Click to follow - /r/HIVTruth

Click to follow @HIVTruth on Twitter

Click to follow my HIV Truth Profile on G+

#HIVTruth #FightStigma #SpeakOutHIV #HIV #HIVStigma #AIDS

#HIVTruth Daily - on Paper.li

HIV Truth on HIV Stigma.. a collection of articles from all over the web pertaining to HIV Stigma

#HIVTruth #FightStigma #SpeakOutHIV #HIV #HIVStigma #Paperli

Can Two People With HIV Safely Have Unprotected Sex?

I'm not going to delete this article since it's topic is one of my goals to research about further. I have been in relationships spanning over 8 years with 2 different men that were also #pos and we never experienced any negative reactions or noticable changes in our labs which we did bi-annualy. However, it may have gone un-noticed. Now that we are mostly undetectable Im not sure if it even is worth the time to research?!

#HIV does not kill. #HIVSTIGMA does! This is why we must #FightStigma

#HIVTruth #SpeakOutHIV

 

Dr. Benjamin Young's analysis on life expectancy for the positive individual. From the "ask the expert" section of TheBody.com.

Life expectancy Nov 28, 2015 Doctor Young thank you for all you do. Life expectancy! I am sure you've answered this a ton but what is the deal with all the different information... Today "The Body" had an article saying the average age of death for both genders with HIV was 50 years old. If you search "Life expectancy HIV In Canada" there was a study released this August saying the average is to 65 years old. Others are saying same as regular life expectancy and other doctors are saying 10-15 years behind....

Treatment News: An Article published on POZ.com by: Benjamin Ryan

Condom use is declining among men who have sex with men, with nearly two-thirds in a large survey reporting condomless anal sex during the past year.

What treatment does the CDC recommend for people newly diagnosed with HIV?

What treatment does the CDC recommend for people newly diagnosed with HIV?
Posted by San Francisco AIDS Foundation on Thursday, January 21, 2016

#HIVTruth #FightStigma #SpeakOutHIV @HIVTruth

An Article from TheBody.com by Lucile Scott about HIV Networks

Networks Led by People With HIV Resurge in U.S.

October 15, 2015

In the early days of the HIV epidemic, people with HIV across the United States organized themselves into networks, providing critical support and community for each other. Their efforts were vital for their own heath, but also led to successful advocacy for treatment access and against discriminatory policies. However, after more effective antiretroviral treatment became available in the late 1990s, the networks began to fade away. As a result, advocates say, people with HIV became increasingly hidden and isolated and their interests increasingly un-vocalized and underrepresented.
As they became more invisible and therefore less humanized to the nation-at-large, stigma against people with HIV mounted, according to Sean Strub, executive director of the SERO Project, a national network of people living with HIV. "It is my feeling that HIV stigma is worse than ever," he explained. "And the most effective strategy to combat this stigma is to empower the stigmatized."
In the current era, groups such as the Positive Women's Network of the USA, SERO Project and the U.S. Caucus of People Living with HIV have helped to foster connection between individuals and networks. Earlier this year, the SERO Project launched an initiative to survey and document the state of networks composed of and led by HIV-positive people throughout the U.S.

Things you need to remember about #HIV

By: TheHealthBenefits.infoDec 5, 2015

1: A person may be HIV positive but might not necessarily have AIDS

#HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. A person is termed to be HIV positive when they are found to be infected by this virus. As the disease progresses it eventually eats away at the immune system of the patient, causing a number of opportunistic infections to take hold along the way. #AIDS or Acquired Immunodeficiency Disease is a host of conditions that are associated with the loss of one’s immune system – according to the CDC when a person’s CD4 count is below 200 cells/mm3. This is the most severe stage of the infection. HIV and AIDS are different and a person who is HIV positive does not necessarily have AIDS. Here are real life stories of 5 people who didn’t know they had HIV.

#HIVTruth #FightStigma #SpeakOutHIV #HIV #HIVStigma #AIDS

PrEP Talk - Rising rates of STI's?

Two of the most well-known PrEP advocates sit down to discuss current PrEP hot topics in this video created by HIVE: a hub of positive reproductive & sexual health.
Posted by San Francisco AIDS Foundation on Tuesday, January 19, 2016

#HIVTruth #FightStigma #SpeakOutHIV #HIV #HIVStigma #AIDS

Standing up to #HIVStigma in the media!!

Below is an article from The Body. The table of contents leads to additional articles on stigma that are great reading. It's really awesome to see such a movement on an issue this big finally happening. This is going to lead to great things if we keep on it! ~Damon @HIVTruth  

#HIVTruth #FightStigma #SpeakOutHIV #HIV #HIVStigma #AIDS

12 Ways to Give HIV Stigma a Well-Deserved Side Eye

By Mathew RodriguezFrom TheBody.com

August 19, 2014

Words are powerful little things. If you put them together in the wrong way, they can be extremely hurtful. Negative words, thoughts and attitudes about people living with HIV contribute to HIV stigma. Not only is HIV stigma rude and disturbing, it can have concrete and deeply damaging effects on people's health, well-being and rights, and sets us back in our efforts against the HIV epidemic.

If you encounter HIV stigma, here are some arguments you can use to make it clear that HIV stigma is not allowed in your airspace. We made sure to bring a large helping of side eye to this information picnic.

1. "I think it's so great that you are happy and can act as if nothing is wrong."

How You Can Crush That Stigma:

"Is something actually wrong? And is there a rule that says being happy and living with HIV are mutually exclusive? If anything, your attitude -- and the attitude of others like you -- is what makes living with HIV difficult. Do you know how fulfilling one's life can be after an HIV diagnosis? Due to advances in science and medicine, for many of us, living with HIV isn't as cumbersome as you think it is. However, what's reallycumbersome is your stigma. You should work on that and stop acting as if nothing is wrong with your line of thinking!"

#HIVTruth #FightStigma #SpeakOutHIV #HIV #HIVStigma #AIDS

Towards and HIV free future can antibodies help?

By: Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
From: National Institues of Health
January 19, 2016

Left: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV); Right: VRC01 antibody (blue and green) binding to HIV (grey and red). The VRC01-HIV binding (red) takes place where the virus attaches to primary immune cells. (Credits: C. Bickel, Science Translational Medicine; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)


This year, an estimated 50,000 Americans will learn they have been newly infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS.1 The good news is that if these people are diagnosed and receive antiretroviral therapy (ART) promptly, most will enjoy a near-normal lifespan.The bad news is that, barring any further research advances, they will have to take ART every day for the rest of their lives, a regimen that's inconvenient and may cause unpleasant side effects. Clearly, a new generation of safe, effective, and longer-lasting treatments to keep HIV in check is very much needed.
That's why I'm encouraged to see some early signs of progress emerging from a small, NIH-supported clinical trial of an HIV-neutralizing antibody. While the results need to be replicated in much larger studies, researchers discovered that a single infusion of the antibody reduced levels of HIV in the bloodstreams of several HIV-infected individuals by more than 10-fold.2 Furthermore, the study found that this antibody -- known as a broadly neutralizing antibody (bNAb) for its ability to defend against a wide range of HIV strains -- is well tolerated and remained in the participants' bloodstreams for weeks.
While the human immune system is generally unable to fend off HIV -- in part because the virus tends to mutate as it multiplies -- a minority of infected individuals eventually do produce bNAbs with the ability to target the virus in its many forms. The antibody featured in the new study, called VRC01, is a manufactured version of a protein identical to one that researchers from NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) isolated from the blood of an infected patient back in 2009.3 The NIAID team went on to show that VRC01 and a related antibody could stop more than 90 percent of known HIV strains from infecting human cells in the laboratory.
The secret to VRC01's power to fight off many HIV strains is its ability to target one of a few conserved areas on the viral surface.4 This discovery has inspired efforts to devise a vaccine that could train the immune system to make antibodies with a similarly broad neutralizing ability. It also raised the possibility that direct infusions of bNAbs might benefit HIV-infected people unable to produce these antibodies themselves.
To test this idea, researchers at the NIAID's Vaccine Research Center led by Julie Ledgerwood and John Mascola evaluated VRC01 in 23 HIV-infected people, including 15 who were taking ART and eight who were not. Those treated with ART received two VRC01 infusions 28 days apart. Those with untreated HIV received a single infusion. The average participant was 35 years old, most were college educated, and about 80 percent were male.
In a study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers reported that the antibody treatment proved safe in all participants. While the antibody didn't appear to lower levels of HIV inside of blood cells, it did significantly reduce levels of free-floating virus in the bloodstreams of six of the eight ART-untreated individuals. The reductions, which ranged from 12-to-59 fold, persisted for an extended period of time. What's more, in two of these six, the antibody reduced free-floating HIV to undetectable levels for about three weeks -- or as long as VRC01 remained at therapeutic concentrations.
As for the two ART-untreated individuals who didn't respond to the antibody, they were found to carry viral strains that were more resistant or less sensitive to VRC01. Also, the antibody didn't have any apparent added benefit for 15 participants who were already taking effective ART.
While promising, the findings suggest it will take more than VRC01 alone to treat chronic HIV infection. It's possible the antibody could have a more potent effect in people who are newly infected with the virus, and another early phase trial to test this notion is set to begin soon in sub-Saharan Africa.5 There's also evidence that VRC01 infusions delivered prior to HIV exposure might prevent infection. Clinical studies of VRCO1 infusion in healthy adults at high risk of infection are expected to begin this year in the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa,6 and an early phase safety study in exposed infants is currently recruiting patients in locations around the world.7
There's a long road still ahead in the quest to develop more effective means to treat and prevent HIV. But, with continued advances such as these, the path toward our ultimate goal is finally coming into view: a world in which new HIV infections are rare and deaths due to AIDS are even rarer.

References

HIV/AIDS: Basic Statistics. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2015.
Virologic effects of broadly neutralizing antibody VRC01 administration during chronic HIV-1 infection. Lynch RM, Boritz E, Coates EE, DeZure A, Madden P, Costner P, Enama ME, Plummer S, Holman L, Hendel CS, Gordon I, Casazza J, Conan-Cibotti M, Migueles SA, Tressler R, Bailer RT, McDermott A, Narpala S, O'Dell S, Wolf G, Lifson JD, Freemire BA, Gorelick RJ, Pandey JP, Mohan S, Chomont N, Fromentin R, Chun TW, Fauci AS, Schwartz RM, Koup RA, Douek DC, Hu Z, Capparelli E, Graham BS, Mascola JR, Ledgerwood JE; VRC 601 Study Team. Sci Transl Med. 2015 Dec 23;7(319):319ra206.
Rational design of envelope identifies broadly neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies to HIV-1. Wu X, Yang ZY, Li Y, Hogerkorp CM, Schief WR, Seaman MS, Zhou T, Schmidt SD, Wu L, Xu L, Longo NS, McKee K, O'Dell S, Louder MK, Wycuff DL, Feng Y, Nason M, Doria-Rose N, Connors M, Kwong PD, Roederer M, Wyatt RT, Nabel GJ, Mascola JR. Science. 2010 Aug 13;329(5993):856-861.
Structural basis for broad and potent neutralization of HIV-1 by antibody VRC01. Zhou T1, Georgiev I, Wu X, Yang ZY, Dai K, Finzi A, Kwon YD, Scheid JF, Shi W, Xu L, Yang Y, Zhu J, Nussenzweig MC, Sodroski J, Shapiro L, Nabel GJ, Mascola JR, Kwong PD. Science. 2010 Aug 13;329(5993):811-817.
Safety and Virologic Effect of a Human Monoclonal Antibody (VRC01) Administered Intravenously to Adults During Early Acute HIV Infection. Clinicaltrials.gov.
Evaluating the Safety and Efficacy of the VRC01 Antibody in Reducing Acquisition of HIV-1 Infection. Clinicaltrials.gov.
Evaluating the Safety and Pharmacokinetics of VRC01, a Potent Anti-HIV Neutralizing Monoclonal Antibody, in HIV-1-Exposed Infants. Clinicaltrials.gov.

#HIVTruth #FightStigma

ISIS murder group of at least 25 gay men in Syria

Article on Gay Star News:
"ISIS have murdered a group of at least 25 gay men, according to a new report.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said 16 of them had been thrown from the top of buildings, six had been stoned to death and three were shot in the head.
While it is unknown where or when these deaths have taken place, they were released following the death of a 15-year-old boy.
He had been thrown from the top of a building after he had been allegedly raped by a senior Daesh officer Abu Zaid al-Jarzawi. The man who raped him was spared.
Dozens of LGBTI people have been killed by Islamic extremists. Gay people, according to ISIS, are the ‘worst of creatures’."



#HIVTruth #FightStigma #HRC #LGBT #Gay #fighthomophobia
(Please remember ISIS does not = Muslim's   -   STOP THE HATE)

Unzipped Dallas Up Close: Valerie

She nailed it when she talked about how much of an impact it would make on stigma if people would just come out and act as themselves, beit HIV status or Trans.

"They don't realize how much good it would do by just being you" ~Valerie



#HIVEqual, #HIVTruth, #FightStigma, #SpeakOutHIV

WHY PEOPLE WITH HIV DIE NEEDLESSLY OF HODGKIN LYMPHOMA

Story on www.hivequal.org by: David Heitz

Share your story!

Janssen Therapeutics to make a donation to one of 2 HIV nonprofit organizations for every story told.

Receiving this felt awesome!

PEP talk - A guy in London was worried due to a encounter with someone who may have been pos and didn't disclose. Since it had only been 48hrs. I advised him to see a clinic about PEP and he did right away and he is now on treatment and getting tested regularly for next few months.. maybe preventing another new infection. At the very least it is one more person educated. It really is worth it if you just make a difference in one person :)

Let's bring HIV out of the closet

Let's bring HIV out of the closet -

For those of us that are HIV+ it's time we come out of the closet again. I have been pos for over 15 years now and I understand the importance of privacy but just as our sex lives are private we still had to come out to inspire change. With the advances in modern medicine and the cocktails now provided stigma is what holds us back from an HIV negative future. Now that we can be in a healthy relationship with a person of the opposite status with PrEP for the negative partner and a fairly easy drug regimine (in most cases) to keep the positive partner undetectable knowing your status is key to prevention and staying negative. Knowing your status. Seems simple yet this is what is causing so many new cases still.. people are afraid to get tested or even worse people who know their status are afraid to come out and be open due to their thinking on how society will percieve them. Unfortuneately this leads to dishonest behavior on the part of some pos individuals and just plain ignorance or complete carelessness on the negative individuals. I don't think so many of you know how key "knowing your status" is to ending this epidemic. Assuming everyone did know we need to man up and be open with our status as well... just like the issue of homosexuality, HIV is perceived the way it is and treated the way it us due to ignorance. If all the pos community came out and let their status be known society would be forced to deal with it and come to terms. I have been openly pos since I was diagnosed back in 2001. This was in a small town where I swear out of 100,000 I was the only one. I never met another person in Tulare county that was pos... which is bullshit since the % per capita was very high in that area at that time but no one would come out due to fear. I thought after all this time things would change but honestly at that time I didn't care too much, but now, with things being exactly the same and being out has the ability to change things so much... I just have to say........ man up and come out. IT'S TIME.

HRC 2016

Stigma about Muslims and Islam is just as bad as the stigma about HIV. This kind of ignorant thinking needs to stop in order for our society to grow.

HIV VACCINE "ESSENTIAL" TO ENDING AIDS PANDEMIC

By: David Heitz
January 11th, 2016
TAGS: The Cure, HIV vaccine

Research published this week makes the case that even a “modestly effective” HIV vaccine would be “cost-effective” and “contribute strongly to a sustained HIV/AIDS response.

The research was conducted by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), in partnership with AVAC, which advocates for a vaccine, and Avenir Health, which helps implement costing models for long-term planning for public health events such as vaccine rollouts. The paper appears in the current edition of PLOS ONE.

The paper used an epidemiological model to explore how a vaccine might impact low- and middle-income countries in combination with other inventions through 2070. “Assumptions were based on perspectives from research, vaccination and public health experts, as well as observations from other HIV/AIDS interventions and vaccination programs,” the abstract states. “Sensitivity analysis varied vaccine efficacy, duration of protection, coverage, and cost.”

Critics abound as to whether money funneled toward an HIV vaccine is money well spent. Many argue that by the very nature of the disease itself, finding a vaccine that works long-term is an enormous task. The authors acknowledge that in the paper.

Related HIV Equal News: Antibody that penetrates HIV’s weak spot could lead to potential vaccine

“Developing an AIDS vaccine is a huge scientific challenge,” they wrote. “HIV mutates very rapidly, allowing the virus to escape the body’s immune responses while giving rise to multiple clades (strains) that circulate around the globe. Further, HIV establishes persistent infection quickly following transmission, suggesting that the opportunity to prevent or abort an infection is short-lived.”

The authors concede that, “Of the few vaccine candidates that have progressed to late-stage clinical trials, most have failed to demonstrate efficacy. In 2009, combining the ALVAC and AIDSVAX candidates reduced new infections by 31 percent after three years of follow-up the Phase III RV 144 trial in Thailand. An efficacy study of a redesigned version of this candidate is planned to start in late 2016 in South Africa, including modification to clade C, a new protein boost, different adjuvants, and additional booster shots intended to improve both strength and durability of protection. In addition, there are currently more than 30 earlier stage clinical studies underway around the world to investigate other vaccine candidates aiming at eliciting strong, broad and lasting efficacy.”

Infectious disease expert Dr. Amesh Adalja told HIV Equal it’s important to note that there has not been a vaccine developed that fits the assumption of the model, but nonetheless, “The study is important in that it quantifies how a moderately protective vaccine could change the face of the HIV pandemic above and beyond standard control measures. Such a study should provide further motivation to improve vaccine research and development to substantially augment the efficacy of vaccines being developed because, as is clear with many infectious diseases, a vaccine-based approach is essential to end the pandemic.”

Related HIV Equal News: The race to end HIV: Two paths toward a vaccine

In a news release, AVAC Executive Director Mitchell Warren made a similar point: The pandemic will not end without a vaccine. “Adding a vaccine to a comprehensive HIV response will hasten the end of the global epidemic and ensure that it won’t rebound. A safe, effective, and affordable HIV vaccine is an essential complement to the existing treatment and prevention options, and this study highlights why accelerated investments are needed for both implementation of what we have and the development of what we still need.”

Related HIV Equal News: Designing the Perfect Molecular Blueprint Toward an HIV Vaccine

In the study, the authors also acknowledged that “characteristics of an eventual AIDS vaccine and of vaccination programs remain unknown” and were not based on any particular AIDS vaccine in the pipeline. “Our assumptions seek to carefully balance the potential promise of a vaccine against the remaining scientific challenges in AIDS vaccine research and development, the potential evolution of the broader HIV/AIDS response, the structural realities in relevant health care systems and the potential issues in sustainably reaching target populations, which may be further influenced by vaccine efficacy, required number of doses, costs, and duration of protection.”

Meanwhile, UNAIDS continues to advocate for its ambitious “90/90/90” goal as an approach to getting to zero new infections. The goal calls for 90 percent of all people with HIV knowing their status, being on antiretroviral therapy, and having viral suppression by 2020.

In another epidemiological analysis released this week, researchers showed that two-thirds of new HIV infections in the Netherlands could be prevented if all men who have sex with men are tested annually for HIV, given antiretroviral therapy immediately if they test positive, and if half of HIV-negative men go on PrEP.

The research was published in Science Translational Medicine and was a retroactive analysis of Dutch infections.

Human Rights Equals the End of AIDS

By Micheal Ighodaro
From AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention
December 10, 2015

black hands
Written by AVAC staffer Micheal Ighodaro, this was first published by the International AIDS Society (IAS).

I was infected with HIV as an adolescent in the streets of Nigeria. As an openly gay man coming from a country like mine, I can tell you first-hand that without addressing human rights we cannot address HIV.

I knew I was gay when I was seven years old. My mum always knew but she always tried to hide it. I remember when I first asked her what the meaning of gay was she told me, "It means evil." She locked me up in my room for a whole day for asking her what the meaning of gay was. She took me from church to church and to witch doctors who tried to cure me of what she believed I was.

She did this for three years and realized that all she had been doing was not working and that I really was gay. She and my dad hated me so much that my dad asked me to leave the house. I left home when I was seventeen and dropped out of my final year of high school because my dad was not going to pay my fees anymore. I traveled from city to city in Nigeria doing things that I am not really proud of, just so I could get the next meal.

Apart from Bisi Alimi -- who was living in the UK and openly gay and HIV positive -- no one was openly out as gay and living with HIV in Nigeria because of the stigma and discrimination. I had no idea that I had HIV or that I could contract HIV as a gay man due to lack of information. I lost some of my friends who would still be alive today if it weren't for the stigma they experienced. It felt like no one was interested in us, gay men living with HIV. It seemed like we were almost left to die. Today, I am really happy for the treatment and prevention that is available now and that many gay men like myself, can live longer and healthier lives.

However, we still have over 79 countries where it is illegal to be gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex. These laws make it almost impossible for us to access HIV prevention and treatment services, which is a direct attack on our basic human rights.

LGBTI populations still face the highest risk of getting HIV in Syria and Afghanistan LGBTI populations face heightened discrimination from ISIS and other religious groups and in most cases are sentenced to death. Many of us are now refugees and asylum seekers in different countries.

As a person who has experienced the discrimination that comes from being gay in my own country, I must ask the question: How far have we gone in protecting the rights of vulnerable populations? This question remains to be answered and goes even beyond the legal rights of LGBTI -- it's about the rights of sex workers, trans diverse persons, people who use drugs, and people living with HIV.

All the recent scientific success we have had in the fight against HIV will come to nothing if we continue to have laws that take away the right of individuals to access life-saving care they need. On this International Human Rights Day, I ask that you stand with me in solidarity for all those who have experienced an attack on their human rights. We should and must do better.



Related Stories

More Viewpoints Related to HIV/AIDS Among Gay Men

For HIV and Addiction, the Time to Act Is Now

By David Fawcett, Ph.D., L.C.S.W.
From TheBody.com
November 24, 2015

These are exciting times for those of us working and living with HIV. There are promising new treatments in development, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has added a significant additional resource to our prevention arsenal, and there is talk of seeing the end of the epidemic in our lifetimes. This optimism is reflected in major worldwide goals. UNAIDS, for example, has endorsed 90-90-90. That is, by 2020 at least 90% of people will know their status, 90% will receive sustained antiretroviral medication, and 90% will achieve a suppressed viral load. Policy reforms such as the National HIV/AIDS Policy acknowledge the role of stigma, mental health concerns, and health disparities.

All of this is certainly heady and represents more progress than I ever thought I would witness. Yet new HIV infection rates remain stubbornly consistent. Certain populations, especially gay men, women of color, and transsexuals, continue to see high, and in some cases increasing, rates of HIV while levels of viral suppression remain discouragingly low.

Indeed, the time to act is now, but we need to broaden our understanding of HIV/AIDS. There are epidemics within epidemics at work, and I believe that if they remain unaddressed we will never achieve our lofty goals. Biomedical advances are certainly essential, but so is recognition of the social and behavioral issues that directly impact new infection and medication adherence. First and foremost, among these is the high (and increasing) rate of addiction, which is directly tied to the HIV epidemic.



Heroin

Most states in the U.S. now lose more citizens to drug overdoses than car accidents, and overdoses are the leading cause of death among certain age groups. Entire regions are experiencing a crisis of heroin, one that crosses all lines of race, ethnicity, and income. This trend has been developing for a decade. The CDC reports that between 2002 and 2013, the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled. For many, addiction to heroin began with a prescription for pain medications from their doctor. Dependence on such drugs occurs quickly and many turn to heroin when their prescription runs out, evidenced by a CDC report that 45% of people using heroin are also addicted to pain meds. Significantly, the heroin we see on the street today is not the "old-fashioned" version of times past. The heroin flooding our nation from Mexico is much more powerful, cheap, and accessible.

How is this relevant to HIV? Simply stated, injection drug use (IDU). Higher rates of IDU translate into higher risk for HIV. While only a small portion of new HIV infections are related to IDU, that number is growing. Injection drug use remains the most effective way to get not only HIV, but hepatitis B and hepatitis C as well. The heroin epidemic will only fuel HIV.



Methamphetamine

Another very different kind of drug is back with a vengeance: meth. Last seen at such levels over a decade ago, meth today, like heroin, has higher purity and cheaper prices. Hospital admissions and deaths from methamphetamine are on the rise across the country for all populations, but one group is at especially high risk for meth-related HIV: gay men. The prevalence of meth in the gay community, and its association with high-risk sexual behavior, represents a significant challenge to controlling the HIV epidemic.

Meth is destructive for several reasons. When used as a drug for sexual enhancement it commandeers the reward center of the brain, pushing sexual desire into overdrive. At the same time, it disinhibits and impairs judgment, all of which lead to high-risk sex. Meth-sex is nearly always condomless and users often party for days with multiple partners. In my new book, Lust, Men, and Meth: A Gay Man's Guide to Sex and Recovery, I document this perfect storm of drug use, high-risk sex, and HIV. Meth is wreaking havoc for many gay men and represents a crisis for our community. Many remain discouraged about meth, but it is important to note that, contrary to popular misconception, it is possible to achieve sobriety from methamphetamine and to reclaim healthy sex and intimacy. A roadmap for this recovery process is also provided in my book.

What can be done?

HIV and drug abuse are not two separate epidemics; they are integrally related. We must approach them syndemically, that is, as simultaneous epidemics that affect one another and which have an unfortunate synergy to make each one worse. In addition to understanding how addiction and HIV are related, we must address stigma, which remains a devastating problem. As with HIV, drug abusers experience powerful stigma that prevents them from acknowledging the problem, asking for help, or getting engaged in treatment. Stigma is embodied in many institutions and policies: criminalizing drug use, prohibiting harm reduction methods such as needle exchange, and providing adequate funding for evidenced-based treatment.

Addiction is not a moral issue, it is a medical problem, and one that directly impacts our ability to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The time to act is now, but we must broaden our actions to include not only the HIV virus but its behaviorally-based cousin, addiction. For many, the time to act has nearly run out.

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Truvada PrEP remains effective against HIV with 3TC/FTC resistance in animal study

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The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has found that oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) using a combined tenofovir/FTC (Truvada) pill is still effective against HIV with the M184V resistance mutation, which confers complete resistance to FTC (emtricitabine,Emtriva) and to its sister drug 3TC (lamivudine, Epivir).

In animal studies, five monkeys given oral Truvada PrEP, and then challenged vaginally with a form of HIV that had the M184V mutation and which was adapted to infect monkeys (SHIV), remained uninfected after 14 once-a-week exposures to the virus. In contrast five animals not given PrEP and challenged with SHIV with M184V were infected. 

One out of five animals challenged with a non-resistant, wild-type virus was infected after 14 challenges when the same PrEP regimen was used.

The PrEP regimen used was intermittent: a once-a-week dose ofTruvada was given three days before the challenge with SHIV, and then another dose two hours afterwards, in line with previous animal data, which found that this was the most effective regimen.

CDC researcher Gerardo Garcia-Lerma said that the potential of PrEP to create resistance, and whether it would fail with resistant virus, were crucial research questions. This particularly applies to the M184V mutation, which is one of the most common HIV resistance mutations and was found to arise in two subjects in the iPrEx PrEP trial who took Truvada while, unbeknownst to them, they had acute HIV infection.

There is thus concern about what would happen if Truvada PrEP gave rise to an increase in the proportion of people with HIV with the M184V resistance mutation.

Garcia-Lerma said that the CDC study showed that “exposure to drug-resistant viruses does not necessarily associate with failure of PrEP.”

Fitness assays showed that the strain of SHIV with M184V used in the study replicated 30 times less efficiently and was four times less infectious than the non-resistant virus used (because of this, the dose of PrEP used against the M184V-mutant virus was lower). Furthermore the virus, while completely resistant to FTC, was two to four times more sensitive to tenofovir than wild-type, non-resistant virus.

In other PrEP trials in animals, Truvada was seen to be more effective than tenofovir alone when used as oral PrEP, and animals with M184V are effectively only taking tenofovir as an active drug. Garcia-Lerma speculated that the hypersensitivity to tenofovir seen was compensating for the missing antiviral effect of FTC, which was why Truvada was just as effective in animals with M184V virus.

He also, when questioned, speculated that keeping up the dose of FTC, even if it had no antiviral effect, could serve to maintain the M184V mutation and this useful tenofovir hypersensitivity. However he agreed that repeating the study using tenofovir alone would be necessary to prove this hypothesis.

Reference

Cong M-E et al. (presenter Garcia-Lerma G) Complete protection against rectal transmission of an emtricitabine-resistant SHIV162p3-M184V mutant by intermittent prophylaxis with Truvada. 18th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Boston,abstract 31, 2011.

Abstract and webcast

You can view the abstracts from this research on the official conference website:

Abstract 31: www.retroconference.org/2011/Abstracts/40022.htm

You can also watch webcasts of presentations made at the conference.

The webcast from the conference session HIV Prevention: HSV2, Topical and Oral PrEP, and Circumcision, includes the speaker Gerardo Garcia-Lema.

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