IRMA's next teleconference: Yes, Africa Needs Rectal Microbicides - 9/27

Yes, Africa Needs Rectal Microbicides
Tuesday, September 27, 2011, 10:00 EDT

(click here to determine the time in your area)

Please join IRMA and AVAC with our special guest Dr. Salim Abdool Karim (Slim.)

Slim is a clinical infectious diseases epidemiologist whose main current research interests are in microbicides and vaccines to prevent HIV infection and implementing antiretroviral therapy in resource constrained settings. He is Pro Vice- Chancellor (Research) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa and is also Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He is Director of CAPRISA - Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa.

Slim did a fantastic presentation at the Microbicides 2010 called "Does Africa Need a Rectal Microbicide" and the data he shared revealed the answer to be a resounding "YES!" He will be doing an updated version of this presentation on our call.

Additionally, IRMA's Jim Pickett will discuss Project ARM - Africa for Rectal Microbicides. Project ARM is hosting a 2-day strategy meeting at the ICASA 2011 conference in Ethiopia this December. The 40 invited participants and speakers will be working on crafting an African-specific agenda for rectal microbicide advocacy and research that ensures Africa remains on the rectal microbicide map, and that all Africans who need rectal microbicides have access to them when they become available.

Click here to RSVP. Check back here in advance of the call for presentation slides. An audio recording of the call will be made available shortly after its completion.


[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.]

ICASA 2011: The 16th Annual International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa

IRMA's Project ARM is is a project with the goal of expanding African mobilization and enhancing community capacity around rectal microbicide advocacy, eventually hoping to aid the development of an African rectal microbicide agenda through community participation. IRMA and Project ARM are going to be at ICASA - the 16th annual International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa - this December in Ethiopia - are you?

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Who? IRMA, Project ARM, and thousands and thousands of other advocates from all over Africa and the world. YOU too!

What? The theme for this year's conference is OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN.

Where? Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

When? 4-8 December 2011

Why? Register to impart your knowledge, experience and best practices on HIV, AIDS and STIs; call up all players to raise ownership, commitment and support; and get your voice heard in an international platform.

 [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.]

POZ love for IRMA - The Anal Dialogues

The July/August 2011 issue of POZ Magazine belongs to IRMA and rectal microbicides. Check it out for a nice history of our work and a snapshot of the science, including important information on lubricant safety.

via POZ.com, by Trenton Straub

Excerpt:

Perhaps IRMA’s most visible work is three game-changing reports it published in conjunction with the biennial International Microbicides Conference. The first, Rectal Microbicides: Investments & Advocacy in 2006, compiled what research was being done and where—a tricky task. “A lot of researchers were concerned that if ‘anal’ or ‘rectal’ appeared in research proposals or reports, they wouldn’t get funded, so they’d scrub their papers so those words wouldn’t show up,” LeBlanc says. “Instead, they would refer to ‘topical use of products’ or other language.” And because of the dangers surrounding the subject—male-to-male sex is illegal in many countries, including 31 in sub-Saharan Africa—IRMA first had to gain researchers’ trust, proving they were not raging advocates who would alienate and antagonize. Their professionalism paid off, and the report was a hit. “It showed we were serious,” Pickett says, “and we got hundreds of new members.” 


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.]

Arming Africa with rectal microbicides: IRMA's Project ARM

 via Science Speaks, by IRMA chair Jim Pickett

About a decade behind vaginal microbicide development, the rectal microbicide field has completed two small Phase I safety trials and is currently conducting a third Phase I trial testing a rectal formulation of tenofovir gel. On the heels of the groundbreaking results from the South African CAPRISA 004 microbicide trial that showed a tenofovir-based gel could provide protection against HIV when applied vaginally, it is critical for the entire field – community members, advocates, scientists and policy makers – to prepare for advanced-stage effectiveness trials of rectal microbicides. In fact, the National Institutes of Health-funded Microbicide Trials Network is currently developing a protocol (MTN 017) for a Phase II rectal microbicide safety trial that would take place at sites in Thailand, South Africa, Peru and the United States, with a launch date sometime in 2012.

Africa needs more of our attention in terms of rectal microbicide advocacy. While IRMA has hundreds of active African members across the continent, until recently rectal microbicides have simply not been part of the larger HIV prevention discussion in Africa. This is partly due to the denial of anal sex among heterosexual men and women and the pervasive homophobia that has denied and criminalized the very existence of gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM). It had long been incorrectly assumed that the primary (read: only one that matters) means of HIV transmission on the continent was through unprotected vaginal intercourse. The truth is much more complex than that – unprotected anal intercourse DOES play a role in the African epidemic – a significant percentage of heterosexual Africans most certainly engage in anal intercourse, and gay men and other MSM exist in every country, and in most, bear a much higher HIV burden when compared to the general population.

Read the whole thing.


[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.]