The NewsDesk @ HIV Ireland

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The NewsDesk @ HIV Ireland
30th July 2021

Global AIDS Update 2021

The recently published UNAIDS Global AIDS Update 2021 shows that people living with HIV face a double jeopardy, HIV and COVID-19, while key populations continue to be left behind in access to HIV services.

New specialised HIV clinic launched at St. James's Hospital

The GUIDe Clinic at St James’s Hospital, Dublin is teaming up with the hospital’s Mercer’s Institute for Successful Ageing (MISA) to establish the Platinum Clinic for people aged 65 and over who are living with HIV.

A collaboration between two specialist consultants, Dr Emma Devitt and Dr David Robinson, the clinic aims to empower GUIDe Clinic service users to live healthy, independent lives as they get older.

St James's Hospital launches first specialised clinic for older people living with HIV (GCN.ie)

Joint care clinic to collaborate on care of older HIV patients (Irish Medical News - imt.ie)

St James’s launches specialised clinic for over-65s living with HIV (MedicalIndependent.ie)

With HIV on the rise in Ireland, can St James' new clinic spread vital sexual health awareness (HotPress.com)

New Survey: Developing a National HIV Peer Support Programme

HIV Ireland, Positive Now and Positive Life NI are collaborating to develop a pilot National Peer Support Programme for people living with HIV in Ireland.

To ensure the programme meets the needs of service users, a short survey has been developed.

Have Your Say - Take the Survey Now

National Outbreak of Syphilis in Ireland

A national outbreak of early infectious syphilis (EIS) has been declared and is under investigation in Ireland since June 2021. An outbreak control team has been convened which includes representation from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), public health, clinical services, laboratories, antenatal services, NGOs and community representatives.

In response to the outbreak, HIV Ireland teamed up with public health and the HSE to offer free testing to gay and bisexual men at a pop-up clinic in our offices during the month of July, and the Gay Health Network launched a new awareness-raising campaign.

Increase in early infectious syphilis in Ireland (Epi Insight, Vol. 22, Issue 4 - Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HSE)

National outbreak of syphilis in Ireland declared (GCN.ie)

Man2Man launch campaign to raise awareness of syphilis outbreak (GCN.ie)

Syphilis outbreak partly caused by 'significant restrictions' on access to testing during Covid (thejournal.ie)

Pandemic contributed to big increase in undiagnosed STDs (Independent.ie)

Listen Back: HIV Ireland's MPOWER Programme Manager, Adam Shanley, spoke with Ciara Plunkett on KFM's Kildare Focus, about the national outbreak of syphilis.

HPSC Weekly HIV & STI Reports

As of 17/05/2021, as a result of the current disruption to the HSE IT systems, there is a pause on the production of HPSC daily and weekly reports, due to limited users' access to CIDR across the HSE. This pause will be effective until further notice.

Service Update

The Sláintecare and HSE pilot home STI testing service has been expanded to include two additional counties and availability has been extended to the end of August 2021. The service is now available to anyone aged 17+ with an address in Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Cork and Kerry. To allow for the processing of orders, and to ensure clinical services capacity, the amount of tests per day is limited.

Related news: Pilot online STI testing service proving to be a great success! (HSE Health & Wellbeing, Issue 3, July 2021)

www.sh24.ie

Other News In Summary: July 2021

Limited access to HIV services during pandemic an ongoing concern for LGBT+ community (thejournal.ie)

WHO warns that HIV infection increases risk of severe and critical COVID-19 (WHO.int)

WHO publishes new Consolidated HIV guidelines for prevention, treatment, service delivery and monitoring (WHO.int)

HIV has changed, but public knowledge and attitudes lag behind (aidsmap.com)

Private data of NHS patients shared with strangers including HIV status after 3,500 breaches in two years (thesun.co.uk)

Chemsex is top of the list of risk factors for HIV infection in gay and bisexual men in England (aidsmap.com)

'Gamechanger': HIV transmission dropped 90% for men taking PrEP, Australian study finds (The Guardian)

Lawyers for man jailed for infecting former partners with HIV take case to Court of Appeal (SundayWorld.com)

Legal challenge launched by gay prisoner at Maghaberry over sex and condom ban (GCN.ie)

Mobile unit to bring rapid HIV testing and condoms to Cork and Kerry villages (Irish Examiner.com)

UK's leading HIV and sexual health charities unite in powerful call to protect trans lives (pinknews.co.uk)

First major study of new HIV therapy opens to recruitment (Imperial College London)

Oxford researchers launch HIV vaccine trial (pharmatimes.com)

Campaigners call for changes to Ireland's restriction of blood donation by gay men (GCN.ie)

Campaign launched calling for end to blood donor ban in Ireland (GCN.ie)

WHO releases first guidelines on hepatitis C virus self-testing (WHO.int)

Drop in HCV treatments (MedicalIndependent.ie)

Ireland is 21 years behind schedule in bid to overcome 'silent disease' Hepatitis C (Independent.ie)

Cork Prison to pilot new HSE hepatitis C project (IrishExaminer.com)

HIQA advises Minister to introduce birth cohort testing for hepatitis C virus (MedicalIndependent.ie)

Episodes 2 and 3 of the International AIDS Society’s #HIVunmuted podcast series marking 40 years since AIDS was first reported, with special guests including Nobel Laureate and HIV co-discoverer Francoise Barré-Sinoussi, and Dr. David Ho, Time Magazine's 1996 Person of the Year and personal doctor to basketball legend Magic Johnson.

Poz Vibe Podcast: Drag Queen Veda and activist Robbie Lawlor are the hosts of this Poz Vibe Podcast series for people living with HIV, friends, families and allies. Sponsored by Dublin LGBTQ+ Pride, the series includes special guests every week. Four more episodes were added in the month of July and are available now on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Recent Publications

2021 UK HIV Public Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Report (National AIDS Trust, Fast-Track Cities London, and Britain Thinks)

2021 London HIV Public Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Report (National AIDS Trust, Fast-Track Cities London, and Britain Thinks)
Related Press Release: Stigma, discrimination and lack of understanding about HIV persist in London 40 years after first reported cases, new research finds

2021 UNAIDS Global AIDS Update – Confronting inequalities – Lessons for pandemic responses from 40 years of AIDS (UNAIDS)

Consolidated guidelines on HIV prevention, testing, treatment, service delivery and monitoring: recommendations for a public health approach (WHO)

Preventing HIV infections at the time of a new pandemic (Global HIV Prevention Coalition)

Recommendations and guidance on hepatitis C virus self-testing (WHO)

Manual: Increasing access to hepatitis C testing and care for people who inject drugs (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction)

Toolkit: Increase access to hepatitis C (HV) testing and care in drug services (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction)

Promoting the Health and Rights of Gay Men Worldwide: A Handbook for all Health Professionals (MPact Global Action & John Hopkins University)

GHN 2020 Annual Report (Gay Health Network)

HSE Social Prescribing Framework: Mainstreaming social prescribing in partnership with community and voluntary organisations (HSE)

The 2019-20 Irish National Drug and Alcohol Survey: Main Findings (Health Research Board)

Brass Munkie, Issue 38 (UISCE)

Recent Journal and Research Articles

Determinants of HIV-1 Late Presentation in patients followed in Europe (mdpi.com)

Long-term protection from HIV infection with oral HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in gay and bisexual men: findings from the expanded and extended EPIC-NSW prospective implementation study (The Lancet)

HIV and STI positivity rates among transgender people attending two large STI clinics in the Netherlands (BMJ Journals – Sexually Transmitted Infections)

The time to end the war on drugs is long overdue (The Lancet HIV)

HIV Ireland services during current restrictions

Our offices remain closed to the public, with the exception of our rapid HIV testing service, and our teams continue to provide services and support remotely and online.

Community Support Services for people living with HIV: Contact the team at 01 873 3799 or email communitysupport@hivireland.ie

Education and Training Services: In-person programmes remain suspended. We are providing a series of Education Webinars.

MPOWER programme: providing free and confidential HIV and sexual health services for gay and bisexual men. Contact the team by phone, Whatsapp or email.

Our rapid HIV testing service for gay and bisexual men continues every Wednesday and Saturday.
Access to our HIV Self-Test service for gay and bisexual men is available every Tuesday at 1pm.

COVID-19 and HIV: View our platform of information about COVID-19 and HIV.

Cyber-Criminal attack on HSE: View our information about the cyber attack for people living with HIV.

Conferences & Events

News from IAS 2021 - the 11th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science - which was held virtually from 18th to 21st July. NAM aidsmap was an official scientific media partner for the conference.

Upcoming:

2021 Annual (Virtual) BASHH Conference (vBASHH21), 12th to 13th October 2021

HIV Nursing Conference 2021, 16th to 17th October 2021

Sex, Drugs and Scotland’s Health, 19^th to 21^st October 2021

18th European AIDS Conference (EACS2021), 27th to 30th October 2021

Fast-Track Cities 2021, 20^th to 22^nd October 2021

Adherence 2021, 7th to 9th November 2021

ESCAIDE 2021, 16th to 19th November 2021