Dear Advocate,
The new issue of Px Wire, AVAC's quarterly newsletter on HIV prevention research, is now available.
Click here to download the issue and centerspread graphic.
AIDS vaccines are the feature story in this issue, while the centerspread looks at the pace of treatment scale-up with a new graphic to help readers understand the “tipping point” and why it’s so important.
In our AIDS vaccine piece we report on a recent think tank meeting on therapeutic HIV vaccines—these vaccines would attempt to control or eliminate the virus by prompting immune responses in HIV-positive people. Participants discussed early research and the different ways an effective therapeutic vaccine might be used.
We also give a brief report on the recent NIAID "mini-summit" on adenovirus platforms for HIV vaccines where participants talked about what the results of the three trials of adenovirus-vectored vaccines mean for the field. Step, Phambili and HVTN 505 all had flat results. Step and Phambili data suggested some vaccine recipients might have been at increased risk of infection. The recent meeting delved into the implications of and possible mechanisms behind these findings. (The AIDS Vaccine 2013 Conference takes place next week in Barcelona. A guide for those attending and following from afar is available here.)
In this issue’s centerspread, we take a closer look at one way to measure the progress in fighting AIDS—comparing the number of new HIV infections with the increase in patients receiving antiretroviral treatment over a given time period. When the rate of ART treatment scale-up outpaces HIV incidence in a particular countries, we reach a "tipping point", a key milestone on the road to ending the epidemic. Our graphic shows encouraging signs in a number of countries but much remains to be done.
Additional resources including the Px Wire archive, information about subscribing, reprint requests and bulk orders can be found at www.avac.org/pxwire.
As always, comments are most welcome at avac@avac.org.
Best,
AVAC
