14. HIV Researchers and Advocates Killed in Plane Crash En Route to AIDS Conference

The 2014 International AIDS Conference in Melbourne got off to a somber start in July after several HIV researchers and advocates en route to the meeting were killed on Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, which crashed after being hit by a missile near the Russia-Ukraine border.

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AIDS 2014: Low Level Viral Load Does Not Raise Risk of HIV Treatment Failure

People with HIV who have a low-level viral load between 20 and 50 copies/mL were not more likely to experience virological failure of antiretroviral therapy (ART) compared with those who consistently maintained viral suppression below 20 copies/mL, according to research presented at the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne.

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HIV and Hepatitis C Highlights from AIDS 2014

Latest Positive Pulse Newsletter

Paul Sax from Harvard Medical School and Mark Sulkowski from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine discuss highlights from this summer's International AIDS Conference, the largest and most comprehensive global meeting on the medical, public health, and social aspects of HIV and AIDS.

Highlights of this overview include the HIV cascade of care, developments in antiretroviral therapy, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and other HIV prevention news, and new hepatitis C treatment for people with HIV/HCV coinfection.

10/22/14

AIDS 2014: Australian Bone Marrow Transplant Patients Show No Detectable HIV

An additional 2 people with long-term HIV infection have no evidence of infectious virus or viral genetic material following bone marrow stem cell transplants to treat leukemia or lymphoma, researchers reported at the 20th International AIDS Conference last month in Melbourne. While these individuals remain on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and therefore cannot be considered functionally cured, they offer further evidence that HIV may be controlled off ART in some cases.

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AIDS 2014: Most Gay Men Who Don’t Use Condoms Attempt to Reduce HIV Risk

Three-quarters of Australian gay and bisexual men who report unprotected anal intercourse with casual male partners say that they often or always employ some sort of risk reduction strategy with those partners, according to a report at the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne. Many men attempt to select partners who they believe have the same HIV status as themselves (serosorting), a significant proportion use condoms most but not all of the time, and smaller numbers practice "strategic positioning" or withdrawal before ejaculation.

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AIDS 2014: Only Half of People Who Start HIV Post-exposure Prophylaxis Complete the Course

There are significant losses at each step of the post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) "treatment cascade," according to a systematic review and meta-analysis of 97 studies presented to the 20th International AIDS Conference last month in Melbourne. The problems with uptake, adherence, and completion point to a need for a simplified approach, researchers said.

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Counseling Helps Improve PrEP Adherence Among Serodiscordant Couples

Cognitive-behavioral counseling sessions significantly increased the likelihood of consistently taking pills among participants with faltering adherence in an African trial of Truvada pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for serodiscordant (mixed HIV status) heterosexual couples, according to a report in the August 15 Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

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AIDS 2014: Novel Techniques Probed in HIV Cure Research

A pair of presentations at the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne described new pathways being explored in the search for either a permanent cure for HIV or for longer-acting drugs. In one study, 2 artificial genes that cause cells to generate antiviral entry inhibitors produced significant inhibition of cellular infection. In the other, a technique that is the exact opposite of the much-explored "kick and kill" strategy (which uses drugs to activate cells latently infected with HIV) used an artificial gene fragment to maintain latently infected cells in a locked-down state that resisted strong immune stimulation.

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