Gita Ramjee Prize Awarded by the International AIDS Society and The Aurum Institute at the HIV Research for Prevention Conference.
Kenneth Mugwanya, an assistant professor of global health at the University of Washington School of Public Health, and his research team have received a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to test the effectiveness of integrating methods of HIV prevention into sexual and reproductive health services for women in Kenya.
A monthly vaginal ring is one significant step closer to potentially becoming a new HIV prevention method for cisgender women in sub-Saharan Africa, who face persistently high rates of HIV infection but have few options to protect themselves.
Jennifer Velloza spent a year crisscrossing the grass-covered plains and sloping hills of rural Swaziland, dividing her time among ten medical clinics in this small southern African country. Here, nearly one in four people have HIV — and that rate is even higher among women.
As a study manager for Doctors Without Borders, Velloza saw many pregnant and postpartum women struggle to get the HIV testing and treatment they needed, because they were also suffering from sexual trauma, depression or anxiety.
It is hard to get much of a reputation if nobody knows you’re around, and that has definitely been the case for mycoplasma genitalium, the tiny bacteria estimated to be more prevalent than the bug that causes gonorrhea but is almost completely off the public’s radar.
That’s because, until very recently, it has been difficult for front-line physicians to confirm that this particular microbe — the smallest bacteria ever detected — was present in specific patients.
The International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) made UW history when its country offices in Haiti and India transitioned into independent organizations. This is the first time a UW-led organization has transitioned into an international one that is locally owned.
By Vanessa Bates Ramirez
Compared to life 100 years ago, life these days is pretty good by many measures. You’ve probably heard the statistics: poverty and infant mortality are down, life expectancy is up, and infectious diseases are being controlled, if not cured. In short, more humans than ever before are having their basic needs met, and it’s undeniable that the world is getting better.
By Lauran Neergaard
Creating new HIV prevention tools for women has proven frustratingly slow and researchers have found another hurdle: bacteria in the reproductive tract.
A new study published Thursday examined what stalled an early attempt at an anti-HIV gel, and found certain types of vaginal bacteria broke down the protective medication before it had time to work.
By Gerard Gallagher
Oral pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, for HIV prevention has a similar efficacy in women with “abnormal” vs. “normal” vaginal microbiota, according to recent findings.
By Tony Kirby
"The last person that I train, I want that training to be in something other than HIV", says Jared Baeten. Speaking to The Lancet Infectious Diseases from the HIV Research for Prevention Conference (HIVR4P) in Chicago, IL, where he brought a 12-strong team of his researchers, Baeten explains: “When that time comes, I want HIV to have been eliminated as public health threat, so we can focus on other diseases”.