Announcing the 2012 Omololu Falobi Award for Excellence in HIV Prevention Research Community Advocacy

Five years ago on October 5 2006, we lost our brother and colleague Omololu Falobi. Those who knew Omololu professionally will remember him, among many other things - as a talented journalist on HIV, as an activist for social justice, as an advocate for prevention research and as a son of Africa in his zeal to ensure Africans were taking ownership of their own HIV care and prevention.

Omololu founded the Journalists Against AIDS in Nigeria (JAAIDS), was an instrumental pioneer member of the Nigerian Treatment Access Movement (TAM), and co-founded the New HIV Vaccine & Microbicide Advocacy Society (NHMAS). He was tragically killed in 2006 in Lagos, Nigeria.

In 2008, in honour of Omololu’s memory and commitment to the field, The Omololu Falobi Award for Excellence in HIV Prevention Research Community Advocacy was established by the African Microbicides Advocacy Group (AMAG) and partners. The Award is presented to an individual nominated by their peers at the biennial International Microbicides Conferences. Lori Heise (USA) and Aylur Srikrishnan (India) were the 2008 recipients and Charles Shagi (Tanzania) the recipient in 2010.

In continuation of this tradition and to mark the fifth anniversary of Omololu’s death, we proudly announce the call for nominations of The Omololu Falobi Award for Excellence in HIV Prevention Research Community Advocacy 2012 to be awarded to a community advocate in recognition of their contribution to the HIV prevention research field through community advocacy.

The 2012 Award Planning Committee includes representatives from the African AIDS Vaccine Program (AAVP), AMAG, AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention, the Global Campaign for Microbicides (GCM), International Rectal Microbicides Advocates (IRMA), JAAIDS, NHVMAS and TAM, with acknowledgment from the Omololu Falobi Foundation.

Nominations will be reviewed by a committee of stakeholders in the prevention research field and the selected individual will then be recognized and awarded at the Closing Ceremony of the International Microbicides 2012 Conference in Sydney, Australia in April 2012. We are pleased to work with the Microbicides 2012 Conference Planning Committee to present the Award next year.
A call for nominations and information on the selection process will be circulated later this month.

On behalf of the planning committee:
AAVP, AMAG, AVAC, GCM, IRMA, JAAIDS, NHVMAS, TAM

For more information:
Website: http://www.avac.org/ht/d/sp/i/4345/pid/4345
Email: amag_info@yahoo.com


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Whatever Happened to the AIDS Vaccine?

via the Huffington Post, by Michael Warren

"Now is exactly the time to maintain commitment. Now is exactly the time to hold a steady course in funding for basic science, clinical trials and product development. It's good business sense: Our investments are paying off -- and the dividend, in the form of an effective vaccine, would have value beyond our wildest dreams."

Recent news about HIV/AIDS has focused on the good -- promising trial results that prove the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs used to treat HIV can also prevent HIV infections -- and the bad -- retreats in donor commitment that imperil the substantial gains that have been made in treating global AIDS, at the precise moment that treatment has been recognized as a powerful prevention strategy. In discussions about whether AIDS treatment can be used to end the AIDS epidemic, scant attention is paid to the search for an AIDS vaccine.

When AIDS vaccines do get mentioned, it is often in the context of questions about whether a vaccine is still needed, or whether the search for an AIDS vaccine is affordable in today's economic climate.

Researchers and advocates who gathered Sept. 12-15 in Bangkok, Thailand, for the AIDS Vaccine 2011 conference have clear answers: Yes, we still need a vaccine, and yes, we need to continue to invest in AIDS vaccine research.

Read the rest.


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Project ARM: John Shaw Memorial Scholarship Call for Application

Project ARM—Africa for Rectal Microbicides—is a long-term, sustained project which aims to develop community capacity around rectal microbicide advocacy in order to ensure broad participation in research activities and well-informed community input into the development of an African rectal microbicide agenda. The end goal is enhanced rectal microbicide advocacy in Africa as well as the planning and implementation of rectal microbicide trials on the continent. Project ARM is coordinated by International Rectal Microbicide Advocates (IRMA). First year funding for Project ARM has been secured from the United States National Institutes of Health – Office of AIDS Research and the New Venture Fund. AVAC is also partnering with IRMA on this initiative.

Project ARM evolved from discussions initiated by IRMA through its listserv, and from input received from African advocates and partners at two informal meetings held in conjunction with the Microbicides 2010 (Pittsburgh) and AIDS 2010 (Vienna) conferences. A working group was formed following the Microbicides 2010 meeting, and has guided this process ever since. There are now 60 working group members including advocates and community members, researchers, funders and policy-makers from 10 African countries, as well as a few key international partners.

In order to develop an African rectal microbicide agenda that articulates research, advocacy and community mobilisation strategies, IRMA is hosting a working meeting on 2-3 December 2011 in Addis Ababa as part of Project ARM. This invite-only meeting is taking place prior to the 16th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA, December 4–8), and is considered an official satellite session.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a working meeting—not a workshop, nor a conference.

The objectives of the December working meeting are:

• To promote a common understanding of how rectal microbicide (RM) research and advocacy is proceeding, the potential role that African RM research and advocacy could play, and the various African contexts within which RMs would be introduced.


• To enhance the capacity of African community advocates to participate in RM agenda-setting, research and mobilisation efforts.


• To stimulate strategies for African community mobilization around RMs; to put RMs on the research agenda in Africa; and, to develop an African RM research agenda that is part of a global RM research agenda.

AIMS OF THE SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME 

1. To strengthen research literacy and advocacy capacity amongst IRMA membership in Africa


2. To promote and enhance the role and standing of IRMA within the microbicide community in Africa


3. To facilitate the involvement of well-informed and active members of the African research and advocacy communities in the development of an African rectal microbicides agenda


4. To ensure diversity in participation at the meeting, including from researchers and community members, women and men, gay men and other men who have sex with men, people living with HIV, and different regions of Africa

We are covering the travel costs of more than 30 of the 40 meeting participants—most of which are Africans—including speakers, organisers, invited guests, and key partners. This includes an additional 12 scholarships for Africans through this call for applications.

For more information, please send an email to rectalmicro@gmail.com.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

IAS 2011 HIV Prevention Research Roadmap

Via our friends at AVAC.

Where: Rome, Italy

When: July 17 - July 20, 2011

The IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention is held every two years, and this year it will take place in Rome, July 17-20. The 2011 conference has a program that includes many sessions on a range of HIV-related topics. AVAC has compiled a roadmap that includes the range of HIV prevention research-related sessions planned for the conference. You can download a PDF of the current roadmap here (both detailed and abridged versions).

Or view the conference's Programme-at-a-Glance system, go to pag.ias2011.org and select the HIV Prevention from the roadmap drop-down menu.


AVAC is working with various partners on the following sessions that may be of interest:

Sunday, July 17


•10:15–13:15: Satellite, MR 1: Controlling the HIV Epidemic, the Promise of ARV-based Prevention (A flyer for this session is available.)

•12:30–14:30, Satellite, MR 2: GPP in Action: Introducing the 2nd Edition of Good Participatory Practice Guidelines for Biomedical HIV Prevention Trials and Examples of its Implementation in Current Research

•14:45–16:45: Satellite, MR 2: HIV Vaccines and the Prevention Revolution: Shortening the Path to the End of the Epidemic


Monday, July 18

•18:30–20:30: Satellite, MR 3: Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP): How Will the Future Pipeline Look Like?


Tuesday, July 19

•7:00–8:30, Satellite, MR 4: Zeroing out New Infections Through Prevention Tools and Technologies

•16:30–18:00, Bridging Session, SR 1: Use of Antivirals in Prevention—Current Challenges and Controversies
•18:30–20:30, Satellite, MR 3: Can We End the Epidemic?

And, for those of you who won't be attending in person, you can follow the conference proceedings from afar via regular reports from NAM, the official online partner for scientific reporting at IAS 2011, and post-conference coverage from Clinical Care Options (CCO), the official online partner for scientific analysis at IAS 2011. In addition, the Global Health Council will be blogging from the conference. Finally, you may follow IAS 2011 on Facebook and Twitter as well as AVAC on our own AVAC on our own Facebook and Twitter pages for updates.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Q and A: Moving PrEP from Promising Trial Result to Practical, Public Health Prevention Intervention?

by Julie Davids, AIDS Foundation of Chicago, HIV Prevention Justice Alliance and IRMA member

As noted in these pages and press reports worldwide, the iPrex trial found that daily use of truvada protected gay men, other MSM and trangender women from HIV infection.

Updated data presented at this week's Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) showed the trial results held true through 144 weeks - nearly three years - and that the key challenge seems to be adherence. Those who took the drug most or all of the time (about 1/2 of the people in the study) had high rates of protection - over 90%. But because the other half took little or no drug at all (as confirmed by blood tests), the overal efficacy rate among trial participants was 44%.

After a long day at the conference, an eager crew of conference-goers - including researchers, people with HIV, White House officials and press - joined local community members here in Boston on Tuesday night in the auditorium of Fenway Community Health for ARV-Based Prevention: A Community & Research Forum on Recent Results and What Happens Next, sponsored by AVAC and Fenway.

At the end of the formal presentations, I asked the panelists (on behalf of the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance)

"What are one to three next steps that are vital to making PrEP [pre-exposure prophylaxis] effective at the community or public health level, rather than just a boutique intervention for a few individuals?"

I captured the responses, which cover a wide range of issues and strategies, and wanted to share them with you. Panelists, in order of response, were:

- Morenike Ukpong, New HIV Vaccines and Microbicide Advocacy Society, Nigeria
- Kevin Cranston, Massachusetts Bureau of Infectious Disease
- Cate Hankins, UNAIDS
- Salim Abdool Karim, CAPRISA
- Jared Baeten, University of Washington and Partners PrEP
- Robert Grant, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology
- Jim Rooney, Gilead Sciences
- Mark Hubbard, Tennessee Association of People With AIDS



Q and A: Moving PrEP from Promising Trial Result to Practical, Public Health Prevention Intervention? from HIV Prevention Justice Alliance on Vimeo.

AVAC helps us understand male circumcision, and its impact on women

from AVAC

 It has been roughly four years since randomized controlled trials of medical male circumcision in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda showed that medical male circumcision is safe and reduces men's risk of HIV infection during vaginal sex by about 60 percent. The advent of this new biomedical strategy has prompted a range of implementation efforts and civil society responses. WHiPT is a response to women’s concerns that emerged from the earliest discussions of this new strategy.

WHiPT released its first findings on male circumcision rollout at the 2010 IAS conference in Vienna. Teams of women in Namibia, Kenya, South Africa, Swaziland, and Uganda were part of the first, pilot phase of this research, focusing on the implications of MMC for women. In all but one region of focus (Nyanza in Kenya), MMC had not yet been rolled out; therefore, the women documented perceptions and concerns around MMC’s pending rollout, not actual or anecdotal experiences of the rollout.

Read the report: Making Medical Male Circumcision Work for Women

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]