Notifications of HIV & STIs reported in Ireland – Week 21, 2020
Health Protection Surveillance Centre, 28 May 2020
Latest weekly report from the HPSC shows that 224 HIV notifications have been reported in Ireland to date in 2020.

'A giant of a man': Influential Aids campaigner and playwright Larry Kramer dies aged 84
The Journal, 27 May 2020
Tributes have been paid to Larry Kramer, the playwright and HIV activist who raised awareness about Aids, who has died aged 84.

Irish LGBT+ community pay tribute to legacy of pioneering HIV and AIDS activist Larry Kramer
GCN, 28 May 2020
The Irish LGBT+ community honour the memory of playwright Larry Kramer by speaking about his legendary life campaigning for HIV and AIDS awareness.

UNAIDS celebrates the life of pioneer AIDS activist Larry Kramer
UNAIDS, 28 May 2020
Press Release: The AIDS movement has lost one of its earliest and leading activists, Larry Kramer, who passed away on 27 May 2020 in New York City. Mr Kramer was one of the first to raise the alarm in the United States of America about the spread of the AIDS epidemic and throughout his life he actively rallied support to accelerate research into treatment and support for people living with HIV.

The incredible MPOWER team are hiring a Sexual Health Outreach Worker
GCN, 27 May 2020
HIV Ireland are looking for a Sexual Health Outreach Worker to join the incredible peer led MPOWER team and help develop changes which will immensely benefit the community. 

BHIVA, DAIG, EACS, GESIDA & Polish Scientific AIDS Society Statement on risk of COVID-19 for people living with HIV (PLWH)
BHIVA, 25 May 2020
Latest update on COVID-19 for people living with HIV show that there is no clear evidence for a higher COVID-19 infection rate or different disease course in people with HIV than in HIV-negative people. Of note, most HIV case series report a younger age in their study population than in HIV-negative hospitalised COVID-19 patients but comparable rates of comorbidities.

Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966
Live Science, 26 May 2020
The virus was found in a tissue sample from 1966, almost two decades before HIV was discovered.

All Epidemics Are Social
Jewish Currents, 28 May 2020
The historical memory of those who lived through, organized during, and documented the AIDS crisis offers an invaluable resource in the daunting struggle for a just response to the current health emergency.

Telehealth Seen as Future for Managing Patients With HIV
Infectious Disease Special Edition, 20 May 2020
A telehealth system implemented by University of Florida Health may serve as a model for how to remotely manage patients with HIV during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Coronavirus New York Update: Wearing Face Mask Similar To Condom Use During AIDS Crisis, Gov. Cuomo Says
International Business Times, 22 May 2020
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in one of his daily coronavirus press conferences that wearing face mask can be compared to the importance of using a condom during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s

New progress in the fight to end HIV in Canada by 2025
Globe Newswire, 26 May 2020
A new initiative sponsored by the CIHR Centre for REACH 3.0 and the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR) seeks to end the stigma that inhibits Canada’s progress to reaching its goal to end the HIV epidemic by 2025.

Increase in HIV cases, but decline in numbers first diagnosed in New Zealand
Medical Xpress, 28 May 2020
After two years of declining numbers of HIV cases in New Zealand, there was a slight increase in 2019, but many of these cases were first diagnosed overseas.

The COVID-19 pandemic could be ‘devastating’ for battles against tuberculosis, HIV and malaria
The Globe and Mail, 22 May 2020
New figures from the front lines of infectious-disease campaigns are confirming the fears of many health experts: The coronavirus pandemic is inflicting heavy damage on the global fight against HIV and tuberculosis.

Black people and women are under represented in anti-HIV drug studies
Aidsmap, 25 May 2020
Failure to recruit a representative population in a clinical trial could mean that important information about the pharmacokinetics of drugs is missed and that potentially dangerous side effects go unnoticed in a key stage in the drug approval process.

Canadian study provides damning evidence of the “dramatic overrepresentation” of Black men in HIV criminalisation news reporting
HIV Justice Network, 22 May 2020
A new study published this month by a group of leading Canadian social science academics provides damning evidence of the extraordinary over-representation of Black and Black immigrant male defendants in news reporting of Canadian HIV criminalisation cases.

With HIV/AIDS, What Does Successful Aging Look Like?
Next Avenue, 22 May 2020
Within the last several years, HIV researchers have turned a focus to not only aging with HIV, but aging successfully with HIV.

State Law Allows HIV Disclosure of Recently Deceased
POZ, 22 May 2020
A new law in Oklahoma requires that anyone handling the remains of an HIV-positive person—such as medical personnel and funeral directors—be informed of the decedent’s HIV status.

HIV drug patients’ privacy violated by Gilead, lawsuit claims
The Philadelphia Enquirer, 22 May 2020
The AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania has filed a federal class action suit against Gilead. It claims the company illegally compromised the privacy rights of patients by recklessly mailing the inappropriately marked envelopes after promising confidentiality.

Scientists Uncover Ways HIV Is Sexually Transmitted in Women
Gladstone Institute, 26 May 2020
A team of scientists at Gladstone Institutes and UCSF recently uncovered unique properties of immune cells from women’s reproductive tissues that, together with HIV molecular tricks, facilitate the virus’s spread in a woman’s body. Their findings could inform the design of preventive drugs specially tailored for women.

Weight gain and HIV treatment
Aidsmap, May 2020
Recent studies have reported that people living with HIV gain weight after starting HIV treatment. Not everyone gains weight and the amount of weight gained varies.

Persons Living With HIV Have a Higher Risk of Recurrent Blood Clots
AJMC, 28 May 2020
Close to 40 million individuals are infected with HIV globally. A new study describes how some have a higher risk for a first venous thromboembolism that is 2 to 10 times above that of the general population.


PrEP & PEP

PrEP to be phased into routine commissioning during 2020/2021
Pharmaceutical Journal, 28 May 2020
The Department of Health and Social Care has told The Pharmaceutical Journal that routine access to pre-exposure prophylaxis will be rolled out in phases across England in 2020/2021.

HIV 'morning-after pill' prescriptions have fallen sixfold during the lockdown
Aidsmap, 29 May 2020
According to figures just published in The Lancet HIV, prescriptions for PEP at the largest HIV and sexual health clinic in Europe, 56 Dean Street in London, fell by 82%.

Injectable antiretrovirals for HIV treatment or prevention: ambivalent views of potential users
Aidsmap, 26 May 2020
A French study has explored perceptions of injectable long-acting antiretrovirals among potential users, that is, people living with HIV taking oral HIV treatment and users of HIV oral pre-exposure prophylaxis

HIV postexposure prophylaxis during COVID-19
The Lancet, 25 May 2020
Latest data on PEP provision during the current COVID-19 lockdown. 56 Dean Street has still maintained the assessment and provision of PEP as a walk-in service.


Drugs

Sex Work