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The results released yesterday of a large clinical research study ‒ known as the Evidence for Contraceptive Options and HIV Outcomes (ECHO) ‒ sought to resolve long-standing questions on a potential link between hormonal contraceptive use and the risk of HIV acquisition. Although the results found no significant difference in HIV risk among women using one of three highly effective contraceptive methods in the trial, it is not all good news. The findings showed high rates of HIV acquisition.

The International AIDS Society (IAS) welcomes the emphasis that the World Health Organization (WHO) places on universal health coverage (UHC), tuberculosis (TB) and vaccines in the agenda for the 72nd World Health Assembly. The IAS commends the prioritisation of efforts to ensure that no one is left behind in reaching the health targets set out in the Sustainable Development Goals. Across the world, for a variety of cultural, social, political and religious reasons, accessing services is still ...

Anton Pozniak, IAS President I was treating a woman named Cindy who had just immigrated to the United Kingdom from a country where tuberculosis (TB) is endemic. She had started her first job as a nanny for two children. She came to me coughing up blood, experiencing chest pain and with a high fever. We diagnosed her with TB. She also tested HIV positive. When her employers found out, they fired her and, at the same time, her boyfriend left her. Within weeks, Cindy’s whole life was turned upsi...

The 26th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2019) has just concluded in Seattle, Washington, United States. International AIDS Society (IAS) Members made dozens of presentations at the meeting. Here are a few of the stories that had attendees and the media talking. Second HIV “cure” reported Until now, researchers have not been able to duplicate the cure for HIV infection that Timothy Ray Brown (the “Berlin Patient”) experienced after receiving a bone marrow trans...

By Judy Chang, IAS Member and Executive Director of the International Network of People Who Use Drugs “In a marketplace of experiences, the privileged inevitably have more platforms from which to narrate, and the marginalised are often spoken for within agendas which are not their own.” Alison Phipps 2016, p. 5-6, Sussex University I am a feminist. I am a woman who uses drugs. Up until recently, these identities have been mutually exclusive, having rarely been held together in the same co...

In contexts where key populations are criminalized, those implementing key population programmes are often at risk of arrest and violence for their work. The risk is multiplied when implementers themselves are also members of key populations. In this IASONEVOICE, we diverge from our usual format to share personal stories that cannot be safely attributed to the individuals interviewed. These stories were shared with the IAS by the USAID- and PEPFAR-supported LINKAGES project. In our joint efforts...

By Chris Beyrer, IAS Past President Every year, in dozens of countries in every region of the world, people living with HIV are prosecuted for HIV non-disclosure, perceived HIV exposure or, in rare cases, allegedly knowing transmission of the virus. Some of these prosecutions are based on HIV-specific laws while others use general laws, such as assault and battery. Civil society advocates and public health experts have long decried these laws and prosecutions as a human rights violation: they ...