In TB Fight, Children Must Be a Priority

In spite of an estimated 500,000 new annual cases of children with tuberculosis (TB), there are no appropriate medicines for them, UNITAID and the TB Alliance warn. TB, one of the world's most neglected diseases with almost no new treatments developed in the past 50 years, is one of the top ten causes of childhood death. TB mostly affects the world's poorest; among those, the most vulnerable are children.
Click here to view the full infographic and here to download a fact sheet on pediatric TB. 

With no alternatives available, treatment providers for children are forced to adapt medicines for adults as best they can, such as by cutting pills. This leads to improper treatment, treatment failure, spread of this highly-contagious disease, and conditions ripe for the development of drug-resistant strains of the bacteria.

In response to this need, UNITAID is funding a TB Alliance project to develop a correctly-dosed child-friendly first-line TB treatment which is expected to be available within three years. This work will also help speed the development of other regimens for children that are now in the pipeline.

"Despite the world's capabilities to address this disease, pediatric tuberculosis has been ignored for far too long, resulting in a complete lack of appropriate medicines," said Denis Broun, Executive Director of UNITAID. "This project is designed to spur innovation so that the right kinds of treatments are available as quickly as possible and at affordable prices. We now need other global players to also step up, especially for identifying those children affected."

The extent of the childhood TB pandemic is not fully understood. Most experts believe that TB in children goes largely undiagnosed and that the true scope of the problem is far higher than the estimates today.

"Developing treatments for children with TB is an urgent humanitarian imperative," said Mel Spigelman, M.D., President and CEO of TB Alliance. "An appropriate formulation for the decades-old drugs is not even available. We need to immediately rectify the situation for the present drugs, and also ensure that the improved treatments in the pipeline will be developed for children soon after they are approved for adults."

In 2010, the World Health Organization released new guidelines for pediatric drugs. However, to date, no quality-assured products have been produced to these specifications.

World TB Day, March 24, commemorates the day in 1882 that Robert Koch discovered the tubercle bacillus, the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis. Since that discovery, progress against the disease has surged and ebbed. Now with outbreaks of more deadly forms of TB, documented around the world, it's time to help protect children from this disease.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Research-based pharmaceutical industry and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies join forces to prevent non-communicable diseases

Geneva, 19 March 2013 – The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) announced today a partnership on NCD prevention. The two-year partnership involves support from both organizations to design a behavioral change-based toolkit that promotes healthy lifestyle choices at national and community levels. Through its volunteer network and community-based expertise, the IFRC will make the toolkit available to approximately 3 million people worldwide.

The four main NCDs— cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes — kill three in five people worldwide, with 80 percent of NCD-related deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries.

Because 50 percent of NCDs are avoidable, the IFPMA-IFRC partnership enhances efforts by both organizations to combat NCDs worldwide and support IFRC community interventions to reduce the impact of these diseases locally. Since releasing its Framework for Action on NCDs in 2011, IFPMA has delivered a series of research projects and health education initiatives to identify new ways to help people fight NCDs.

“By leveraging IFRC’s and IFPMA’s shared goal of fighting NCDs, this novel partnership brings synergy and creativity to fighting these diseases globally," says Eduardo Pisani, IFPMA Director General.

One of IFRC’s core strengths lies in community volunteers’ ability to tackle the underlying social, behavioral and environmental factors that determine good health through their on-the-ground work. “Changing behaviors by eliminating shared risk factors can save lives. Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers, going door-to-door in their communities play a vital role in promoting healthy lifestyles,” says Bekele Geleta, IFRC Secretary General. “But no one single player from the public or private sector working in silo can tackle the NCDs challenges. Fighting NCDs requires multi-stakeholders solutions.”

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

The Poorer Nations

Publisher page: http://www.versobooks.com/books/1150-the-poorer-nations

Kindle edition: The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South

In The Darker Nations, Vijay Prashad provided an intellectual history of the Third World and traced the rise and fall of the Non-Aligned Movement. With The Poorer Nations, Prashad takes up the story where he left off.

Since the ’70s, the countries of the Global South have struggled to build political movements. Prashad analyzes the failures of neoliberalism, as well as the rise of the BRICS countries, the World Social Forum, issuebased movements like Via Campesina, the Latin American revolutionary revival—in short, efforts to create alternatives to the neoliberal project advanced militarily by the US and its allies and economically by the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, and other instruments of the powerful. Just as The Darker Nations asserted that the Third World was a project, not a place, The Poorer Nations sees the Global South as a term that properly refers not to geographical space but to a concatenation of protests against neoliberalism.

In his foreword to the book, former Secretary-General of the United Nations Boutros Boutros-Ghali writes that Prashad “has helped open the vista on complex events that preceded today’s global situation and standoff.” The Poorer Nations looks to the future while revising our sense of the past.

Noam Chomsky: “It is startling how insulated the West has remained from the thinking, achievements, and struggles of the great majority of the world's people. This lucid and well-informed study reveals how much there is to learn from this rich and vibrant record.”

Susanne Soederberg, Professor in Global Development Studies, Queens University, Canada: “Vijay Prashad has courageously and meticulously forged a fascinating study that challenges mainstream, Western narratives of world history. In this provocative and sweeping exploration, the injustices and subjugation of peoples in the global South are not only made visible but political.”

Eduardo Galeano: "Vijay Prashad helps to uncover the shining worlds hidden under official history and dominant media.”

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

PAHO/WHO calls for international funding of new Haiti cholera plan

Haitian government reveals $2.2 billion blueprint for water and sanitation investments to eliminate cholera transmission over the next 10 years

 

Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 27 February 2013 (PAHO/WHO) — The Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) today called on the international community to provide financing for a new $2.2 billion plan from the Haitian government to eliminate cholera transmission over the next 10 years through major investments in water and sanitation.

 

“ Today, the Haitian government is giving us the opportunity to do what needs to be done,” said PAHO Director Carissa F. Etienne in welcoming the plan, which was announced by Haitian officials today in Port-au-Prince. “For the plan to be implemented, Haiti’s friends in the international community must align their efforts and harmonize around this plan and provide the necessary financial resources.”

 

The new National Plan for the Elimination of Cholera in Haiti provides a blueprint for increased investments in water and sanitation infrastructure, water-quality monitoring systems and water and sanitation management. It also includes health measures for prevention, surveillance, and case management; interventions for community-based behavior change; and vaccination for targeted groups against cholera.

 

The plan calls for US$485.9 million in investments during the next two years.

 

In revealing the new plan, Haitian Minister of Public Health and Population Florence Guillaume said it reflected “an integrated effort of the entire international community” and called for continued support from Haiti’s partners to help mobilize the resources needed for its implementation.

 

Cholera has sickened nearly 650,000 people in Haiti and claimed more than 8,000 lives since October 2010. The disease’s spread has slowed since the start of the epidemic, when over 18,000 new cases on average were reported each week (2010). But Haiti continues to record new cases, on average more than 1,500 per week so far this year.

 

Even prior to the 2010 earthquake, Haiti had the lowest rates of water and sanitation coverage of any country in the Americas. Only 63% of residents had access to improved water sources in 2008, and only 17% had access to improved sanitation. These conditions led to the rapid spread of cholera throughout the country.

 

The US$485.9 million in proposed investments for the next two years (2013-2015) includes US$81 million for rehabilitation, expansion, and maintenance of drinking water systems, and measures for water quality and emergency preparedness; US$60 million for wastewater and excreta disposal; and US$74 million for capacity building for the National Water and Sanitation Department (DINEPA).

 

The new plan, developed by DINEPA and the Ministry of Public Health and Population, grew out of a “Call to Action for a Cholera-Free Hispaniola” launched in January 2012 by the presidents of Haiti and the Dominican Republic with support from PAHO/WHO, UNICEF and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In June 2012, PAHO/WHO, UNICEF and CDC joined with other organizations to create the Regional Coalition on Water and Sanitation to Eliminate Cholera Transmission in the Island of Hispaniola, to provide technical expertise and resource mobilization for cholera elimination. The cholera call to action received another boost last December, when United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced US$23.5 million in U.N. funds to support these efforts.

 

In welcoming the new elimination plan today, PAHO Director Etienne pledged US$500,000 in funds from PAHO/WHO to install water and sanitation connections in primary health care facilities, strengthen care for cholera patients, and promote oral rehydration at the community level.  

 

“We will work with coalition partners to implement this plan, and I call on the entire international community to play your part in protecting and promoting the health and well-being of our Haitian brothers and sisters,” said Etienne in a taped message for the plan’s launch.

 

PAHO Deputy Director Jon K. Andrus said the new cholera plan is one of several “good news stories in Haiti,” including the introduction of the pentavalent vaccine into the national immunization schedule and progress toward universal immunization coverage. He said the success of the cholera elimination plan would have “a spin-off effect on national economic development, tourism, agricultural production, and overall productivity arising from improvements in the health of the population in general.”

 

PAHO serves as the secretariat of the Regional Coalition on Water and Sanitation to Eliminate Cholera Transmission in the Island of Hispaniola, whose 18 members include the CDC, UNICEF, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the International Federation of Red Cross and, WASH Advocates, and others.

 

Since the beginning of the cholera epidemic, PAHO has provided technical cooperation worth an estimated US$1.5 million and has received and spent some US$25.3 million from other sources to support cholera-related efforts in Haiti. In addition to the US$500,000 announced today, PAHO is allocating US$2.3 million annually from its regular budget to support cholera elimination through technical cooperation in water and sanitation, alert and response, health systems improvements, and health and hygiene promotion.

 

Related Links:

National Plan for the Elimination of Cholera in Haiti 

 

Experts Call for Major Investments in Water and Sanitation to End Cholera in Haiti and the Dominican Republic

 

International Health Leaders Pledge to Work Together to Eliminate Cholera in Haiti and the Dominican Republic  

 

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

New Study Suggests Potential Shift in Burden of Pneumococcal Disease

A High Economic Burden may also be Associated with the Disease in Latin America

Sao Paulo, Brazil - March 5, 2013 – New studies revealed today by Latin American researchers and global health leaders suggest that the highest burden of deadly pneumococcal disease in Latin America may be shifting to adults as countries successfully immunize more infants with new vaccines. The experts called for increased disease monitoring and more surveillance to understand the full extent of pneumococcal disease in the Americas, including its economic impact, and to devise effective strategies to prevent it.

This research was coordinated by the Sabin Vaccine Institute in partnership with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University (JHU's IVAC) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  These results are being presented as part of a two-day symposium that brought together scientists and health leaders to review the pneumococcal situation in the region and discuss the challenges and opportunities of vaccination in older children and adult populations.

“The recent studies that are available in the Latin American and Caribbean context indicate that the cost of illness is an important and significant economic burden, suggesting that more use of pneumococcal vaccines could be cost-effective in adults,” said Dr. Fernando de la Hoz, a member of the Medical Faculty at the National University of Colombia and lead author of the study. “Further research is needed in order for health officials to fully grasp the potential impact of immunizing older populations in Latin America and the Caribbean. We know now that the vaccine is saving the lives of thousands of our region’s youngest citizens. The question is whether we should also be protecting their parents and grandparents.”

The study found that direct medical costs to treat bacteremic pneumonia ranged from USD $993 to USD $3,535 per person, and the cost of treatment for bacteremic meningitis was as high as USD $4,490 for elderly persons. The cost analysis concluded that these diseases pose sizable burdens in five countries studied: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay.

Pneumococcal disease, which causes pneumonia, blood infection, brain inflammation and ear infections kills half a million children worldwide each year—or one child every minute.  Thanks to new and improved vaccines, pneumococcal disease among young children is falling dramatically. Since childhood pneumococcal conjugate vaccines were introduced in Latin America in 2003, the disease is declining among children who are vaccinated, and the burden of disease may now be in the older population. Adults and the elderly across Latin America who also fall prey to this fast-acting disease aren’t getting vaccines, and relatively little was known about the number of pneumococcal-related deaths in these age groups.

Recognizing the intrinsic danger of some types of pneumococcal disease, researchers found case fatality rates can be as high as 35 percent in studies from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. For pneumococcal meningitis, studies in seven countries found that the percentage of people who died after being infected ranged from 9 percent to 58 percent.

“As people continue to live longer lives, more of them will be at risk of contracting this highly contagious and costly disease,” said Carla Domingues of the Brazilian Ministry of Health. “The data reviewed during this study suggests that pneumococcal disease is an important problem among adults, causing disease and death from pneumonia, sepsis and meningitis.”

A major finding of the study is that there is insufficient monitoring and surveillance. “Quantifying the burden of disease for people 5 years of age and older in the Latin America and Caribbean region is important because pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) are increasingly being introduced into routine infant immunization programs and are expected to greatly reduce the burden of pneumococcal disease among young children. Thus, prevention of pneumococcal disease among other high-risk groups such as the elderly or immuno-compromised will become increasingly important,” said Lucia Helena de Oliveira, Regional Advisor of the Comprehensive Family Immunization Project at the Pan American Health Organization.

Experts examined the cost of illness for pneumococcal disease in older persons in five countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay. They found that in these countries, invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) incurs considerable costs to health care systems—generating up to US$4,490 per case. Researchers also found the total health care costs in the studied countries ranged from USD $0.94 million to 14.1 million, with higher costs incurred by the elderly due to higher level of resources used for treating the elderly. In total, health care spending as a GDP per capita for IPD among people above 5 years of age in the region was estimated at 0.1 percent compared to the reported 8 to 10 percent of GDP spent on health care overall.

The study authors are calling on policymakers to prioritize adult pneumococcal disease on their public health agendas, so healthcare professionals will devote more resources to detect and report on occurrences of the disease and find ways to combat it.

“Great determination and collaboration among the international health community helped make global reductions in pediatric pneumococcal disease possible. It is time to transition this success to find solutions to prevent pneumococcal infections in older children and adults, especially those over 65,” said Dr. Ciro de Quadros, Executive Vice President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

BREAKING THE SOUND OF SILENCE ON SYPHILIS

Today marks the first birthday of the Global Congenital Syphilis Partnership (GCSP) whose mission is to accelerate the elimination of congenital syphilis. To coincide with the partnership’s first birthday, GCSP member Dr. Jeffrey D. Klausner, Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, is today issuing a call to arms entitled “The sound of silence: missing the opportunity to save lives at birth”.

Syphilis has plagued the most infamous and famous men in history: Hitler, Oscar Wilde, Van Gogh, Al Capone, Manet, Henry VIII, Napoleon, Picasso, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Schubert and Gauguin are all thought to have suffered from it. Today the face of syphilis is not of an artist or a tyrant, or even of a man. Today the face of syphilis is of a baby silenced by premature death, that hasn’t even had the chance to lead a life of any such potential.

Despite its former ubiquity it is not widely known that today syphilis affects more pregnant women than HIV and kills over 400,000 babies every year. At a cost of less than US$1 (UK£0.70) for a test and treatment with a single dose of penicillin, congenital syphilis can easily be eliminated.

Syphilis’ relationship to HIV is also not widely known. Dr. Jeffrey D. Klausner says, “In mothers with both syphilis and HIV, syphilis greatly increases the spread of HIV from the mother to an unborn child. The world has been slow to act on the great opportunity to save babies’ lives using the very same infrastructure set up to prevent the mother to child transmission of HIV.”

With more pregnant women around the world accessing antenatal care and HIV testing and treatment to prevent the spread of HIV (PMTCT) to their babies, integrating syphilis testing into existing antenatal care services could be one of the most cost effective ways of getting closer to achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) four to reduce child mortality. Klausner highlights that an estimated 90% or more cases of congenital syphilis infections remain undetected and untreated, which emphasises the need for increasing the availability of testing and treatment.

In recognition of this, in June 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) updated its syphilis elimination strategy by formally twinning it with the elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV. This change came about soon after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine-led project, which successfully piloted a rapid syphilis test kit in hard-to-reach areas of high prevalence countries including Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, China, Peru, Brazil and Haiti. As a result, all seven pilot countries adopted point-of-care syphilis testing into their prenatal screening programmes.

Since the partnership’s inception, much has been done to build on this breakthrough. Several of the pilot countries have secured donor funding to scale up the use of point-of-care syphilis tests for prenatal screening. The WHO has published an investment case for eliminating mother-to-child transmission of syphilis to mobilise resources. The private sector is increasingly beginning to engage with GCSP members to develop and roll out test kits, and alternative, social business models to increase access to testing are being explored. GCSP member, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia’s School of Public Health, is developing and testing a model for enhancing rapid and sustainable uptake of point of care tests for prenatal screening using social and business innovation.

Founding GCSP member Dr Rosanna Peeling, Professor and Chair of Diagnostics Research at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who co-led the successful initial syphilis test kit research said “We’ve found a way to detect syphilis rapidly and to work with governments to incorporate rapid testing and treatment into policy. We now even have a dual combination HIV- syphilis testing kit. With the partnership as a platform, what we need now are the funds and the will to enable innovative delivery of these lifesaving tools.”

In countdown to the 2015 Millennium Development Goals, the partnership is redoubling its efforts to ensure testing and treatment can be the right of every pregnant woman, not just those in the developed world. The GCSP wants policy makers, donors, governments and the health community globally to move congenital syphilis out of the academic domain and into every level of maternal and child health policy and programmes, so that congenital syphilis can one day be relegated to the history books. GCSP member Klausner says, “It’s not evidence or a safe, effective treatment that have been lacking in the effort to end this centuries-old scourge. The missing elements are political will, advocacy and private donor investment. What will it take? Is anyone listening to the sound of silence?”

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Towards Resilience - new resource

Toward Resilience is a small, user- friendly guide aimed at helping field practitioners implement effective, sustainable, and integrated Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change adaptation (CCA) programming. The guide is organized around 10 guiding principles and features an extensive, well-organized tools and resources annex.  It provides guidance and case studies of incorporating DRR and CCA into new and existing programming and specifically addresses the needs of key vulnerable groups such as women, children, and high-risk communities. It explains how DRR and CCA can be integrated into program cycle management as well as issues around addressing advocacy and governance. It also focuses on how DRR and CCA can be applied in key sectors, such as food security, natural resource management, and education, as well as key contexts, such as conflict, early recovery, and urban areas.

Where to find it:

Toward Resilience is available in print through Practical Action’s Development Bookstore at:

http://developmentbookshop.com/toward-resilience

And free online in English, French, and Spanish at:

www.ecbproject.org/drrguide

This resource was produced by The Emergency Capacity Building (ECB) Project, working across multiple countries and using a field-focused, participatory process. The ECB Project aims to improve the speed, quality and effectiveness of the humanitarian community to save lives, improve welfare and protect the rights of people in emergency situations.  The ECB Project agencies include CARE International, Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, Oxfam, Save the Children and World Vision International. ECB focuses on three themes for improving aid: 1) Staff Capacity; 2) Accountability and Impact Measurement; and 3) Disaster Risk Reduction; these themes are incorporated into context specific programming in the 5 ECB consortia countries: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Horn of Africa, Niger, and Bolivia.  Toward Resilience was generously supported by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ECHO, USAID/OFDA, and the Fidelity Charitable Trustees’ Philanthropy Fund. 

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Dawes Turns Up the Volume in the Fight Against Malaria

Dawes Turns Up the Volume in the Fight Against Malaria

Los Angeles-based rock quartet travels to Rwanda with the Nothing But Nets campaign,

providing refugees with life-saving bed nets to protect them from malaria—and urging their fans to help

Washington, DC (March 4, 2013)—Rock band Dawes will visit refugee camps in Rwanda next week with the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign to help raise awareness and funds to fight malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. Guitarist and vocalist Taylor Goldsmith, drummer Griffin Goldsmith, bassist Wylie Gelber, and keyboardist Tay Strathairn will help distribute life-saving bed nets to help protect refugee families from malaria—and perform with local musicians. Refugees in the region are fleeing conflict in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. The band will also meet with officials from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to learn about the humanitarian situation there.

“Refugees already face incredibly difficult conditions,” said Chris Helfrich, Director of Nothing But Nets. “These families fleeing violence shouldn’t have to worry about a deadly mosquito bite. Every 60 seconds a child dies from malaria—but a simple bed net can keep them safe. Through the trip to Rwanda and beyond, Nothing But Nets and Dawes will raise awareness among the band’s fans and inspire them to send nets and save lives.”

“Nothing But Nets’ mission is simple, but makes a real difference,” said Taylor Goldsmith. “A $10 bed net is all it takes to give a family hope. We believe no child should die from a preventable disease like malaria.”

Nothing But Nets has worked with UNHCR since 2008 to provide vulnerable refugee families fleeing conflict or natural disasters with insecticide-treated mosquito nets to keep them safe from malaria. Together, they have provided more than 1 million bed nets to refugees living in camps across Africa; as a result, malaria dropped from the leading killer of refugees to the number five cause of death.

Since 2006, Nothing But Nets has raised more than $45 million from hundreds of thousands of grassroots supporters, and sent over 7 million bed nets to families across Africa. Anyone—from students to CEOs—can help protect families in Africa from malaria. To learn more and to donate, visit www.NothingButNets.net.

TWEET THIS: .@NothingButNets is distributing bed nets to #refugees in Rwanda w/@dawestheband. Help them fight #malaria! http://bit.ly/WAVeFV

Dawes’ much-anticipated third album, Stories Don’t End, will be released April 9, and isavailable for pre-order.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

Working Group on U.S. Women and PrEP

Coalition of U.S. Women’s Health and HIV Advocates Call for Accelerated
US Government Plan for Demonstrating Feasibility of PrEP for Women

VOICE Results Underscore Need for Clear, US-Based PrEP Implementation Agenda

Atlanta, March 4, 2013 – The U.S. Women and PrEP Working Group, a coalition of more than 50 women from leading AIDS and women’s health organizations, today called on US government agencies to coordinate a national agenda that will quickly and accurately answer questions about how the antiretroviral (ARV) drug Truvada can best be made available as an HIV prevention option for women at risk of HIV infection.

The Working Group called for a US federal coordinating group to be convened with the goal of ensuring that plans and funds are in place for demonstration projects that will answer key questions about the use of daily tenofovir/emtricitibine (TDF/FTC, brand name Truvada) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among women in the United States, as well as plans for educational campaigns for women, their partners and health care providers as PrEP is rolled out.

“Many women in the US are at high risk for HIV. In some communities African American women are at as much risk of HIV as in many African communities and they need new HIV prevention options that they can control and use to protect themselves. PrEP can be that option for some women. The scientific evidence is clear, and last year’s FDA approval of Truvada as PrEP for all men and women at risk of HIV paved the way for the next steps,” said Dazon Dixon Diallo, MPH, Executive Director of SisterLove and convener of the Working Group.

“While the clinical science is clear, the social and behavioral implications are less so, and we now need to develop and fund demonstration projects that will help answer a range of questions about real-world use of PrEP by American women and move toward an integrated plan for PrEP rollout in our communities that includes support for healthcare providers, social workers and others who will help women use PrEP effectively,” Diallo added.

Researchers reported today at the 20^th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Atlanta that none of three interventions tested in a large scale trial among African women, known as VOICE (Vaginal and Oral Interventions to Control the Epidemic) –  daily oral tenofovir, daily oral TDF/FTC and daily 1% vaginal tenofovir gel – provided additional protection against HIV, likely because of low adherence in across all three interventions.

PrEP trials in Africa have provided key data about women in different populations and life circumstances. Trials have shown high rates of effectiveness among African women in stable relationships in which one partner is HIV-positive and low or flat rates of effectiveness among young women who were less likely to be in stable relationships. In all of these trials, including the VOICE trial, higher rates of effectiveness were linked with higher rates of adherence.

“The VOICE results were disappointing. The fact that few women in a trial which had very high rates of HIV incidence chose to, or were able to, use the products daily shows that we have much work to do to understand what social, cultural and other factors affect adherence to the prescribed dose and how we can support women in effectively using new prevention tools. But PrEP remains a valuable option for many women who will want to and can use it as prescribed,” said Manju Chatani-Gada, Senior Program Manager at AVAC and co-convener of the Working Group. “Well-designed demonstration projects will help us understand adherence and other real-world issues for women who choose to use PrEP.”

The Working Group calls for a coordinated, timely and adequately funded U.S. government response to PrEP for women that involves the full participation and leadership of individuals and communities most in need of effective, comprehensive HIV prevention. The federal coordinating group must look to answer critical questions not answered by current data about daily Truvada for PrEP, including:

• How will daily PrEP be used for HIV prevention by women in the United States?
• What data are needed regarding daily PrEP’s acceptability and effectiveness among those women?
• How will daily PrEP be promoted, made accessible and financed for use by U.S. women?

The Working Group calls for prompt action from federal agencies, led by the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) todevelop a plan that willfill the gaps in PrEP research, public and provider education, social marketing and public policy, and that defines the next steps required for real-world use and development of a comprehensive rollout plan for PrEP among at risk women in the United States.

“Male and female condoms are wonderful HIV prevention options that work for many women and their partners. But some women can’t insist their partners use condoms, and many young women and their HIV-positive partners want to have children,” said Erika Aaron, a nurse practitioner at Drexel University School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and HIV Medicine. “Those women need other options to protect themselves from HIV. PrEP can help them stay HIV-negative. We have a moral imperative to find ways to make it available to women who need it and who can use it.”

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The Working Group on U.S. Women and PrEP Statement and other information about PrEP and women is available at http://www.prepwatch.org/#women.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.

New HIV Prevention Study Results Show Greater Need for Women's Research

Today’s results from the VOICE trial are disappointing, but they do not change the data that supported the  July 2012 decision by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve daily oral TDF/FTC (Truvada)  for HIV-negative women and men to reduce risk of HIV infection. The data to support this approval come from several HIV prevention clinical trials and these data are clear: those who are able to take daily TDF/FTC reduce their risk of HIV. What is not yet clear is how best to deliver this intervention and support to women interested in taking it. We need a national coordination plan for how the recently approved PrEP drug, Truvada, will be rolled out to US Women.

Please review the National Statement on US Women & PrEP, the Key Points of our position statement, and thePress Releasefor the Statement.  SisterLove and AVAC will be hosting a community discussion on these results and other HIV biomedical prevention study information that is being reported this week in Atlanta at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.  The Working Group on US Women & PrEP will be sponsoring several activities in the coming months to highlight the issues and demands expressed in the Position Statement. Please visit the following links for more information and to retrieve the statements.  Please share widely, and we welcome your comments on our social media sites: www.Twitter.com/Sisterlove_Inc,  www.Facebook.com/SisterloveInc.

Position Statement

Key Points

Press Release

If you are in Atlanta please join AVAC, SisterLove and partners at a community event tonight to discuss these results and the next steps in ARV-based prevention. Click here for more details.

Please join fellow advocates for a post-CROI webinar next Monday, March 11 at 6am US Pacific/9am US Eastern/3pm South Africa/4pm East Africa (check the time in your area at  www.timeanddate.com—and remember that the US will be on daylight savings time). You can register here, and the webinar will be recorded and archived at  www.avac.org/meetingreports. The webinar will include VOICE trial investigators and others in the field to discuss these recent results.

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This press release is reprinted by Alanna Shaikh out of an obscure sense of guilt. It does not represent the opinions of Alanna Shaikh or any of her employers.