PrEP can help us end HIV

It’s not often that a drug’s product information sheet would be cause for excitement, let alone celebration, writes AFAO Executive Director Darryl O'Donell. 

Yet just as experts met in Sydney on 6 May to discuss HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, Australia’s drug regulator quietly changed the product sheet for the drug Truvada to approve its use to prevent HIV.

This change by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration means that doctors can now write a script for Truvada and it can be dispensed at a chemist. This is groundbreaking because it means Australia’s drug technocrats have said that Truvada is safe, and that it works in preventing sexual transmission of HIV.  

HIV video fest

Mini film festivals were a key part of the Community and Advocacy Hubs hosted by AFAO at ASHM’s last two national HIV conferences, and also at AIDS 2014. 

This year, once again, we had an awesome selection of videos from our members and other HIV sector partners, with the videos running on a continuous loop between Hub presentations.

Here’s a selection from the program. There were so many that we can’t share them all, so make sure you click through to the organisations’ channels for more.

Support Don’t Punish Day of Action

There was resounding agreement that the 'War on Drugs' has failed at the AIVL/NUAA day of action celebrating the global movement Support Don’t Punish. 

L to R: Leah McLeod - NUAA, Peter Baume AC, Nicholas Stewart - Dowson Turco, Jude Byrne - AIVL, Will Tregoning - Unharm

Held at NSW Parliament on 26 June, the impressive range of speakers included ex federal Senator Peter Baume – renowned for the key role he played in fostering a constructive political response to HIV in the late 1980s, Jude Byrne from the Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL), Nicholas Stewart, a private legal practitioner and volunteer lawyer at Sydney’s Inner-City Legal Centre, and Will Tregoning from Unharm – a drug law reform advocacy organisation.

TasP and PrEP: AFAO Members Forum

The afternoon session on day one of the AFAO Members Forum involved robust discussions about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and treatment as prevention (TasP). 

Presentations looked at key areas including research, clinical guidelines, regulation and advocacy, both in Australia and the international context.

TasP panel discussion. L-R: Colin Batrouney (VAC), Cam Cox (Scarlet Alliance),
Bridget Haire (AFAO), Robert Mitchell (NAPWHA), Karen Price (ACON)

Are Young Gay Men really so different?

On Thursday 20^th February AFAO hosted an after hours session at the Social Research Conference on HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Related Diseases. Chaired by AFAO’s Sally Cameron, the session provided a venue for the consideration of the specific HIV health promotion needs of young gay men.

A Labour Rights Approach to HIV and Sex Work: Working with Sex Workers to Protect Human Rights, Prevent and Eliminate Violence and Sexual Harassment and Promote Equal Access to Protection Schemes

Session on a report on the labour rights of
sex workers in Laos, funded by the ILO

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), the United Nations peak body on labour, hosted panel discussions at the IAS conference to explore options for building and maintaining successful partnerships with sex worker organisations to improve sex workers’ access to HIV prevention, care, treatment and support services and to address more directly underlying causes of vulnerability such as workplace safety, fair pay and conditions, protection of rights.

24 July: Tuesday (Post) Exposure

Edwina Wright and Dean Murphy

For me, Tuesday was particularly exciting because there were many sessions on HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis. In anticipation of this I breakfasted with Edwina Wright, ASHM president, with whom I had been working to develop a proposal to study how PrEP might be implemented in Australia.

A new terminology has entered PrEP discourse, which relates to 'seasonal' use. Seasonal use refers to using PrEP for limited periods—months or weeks—at times of greatest risk or need. Such sporadic use raises concerns about drug resistance and onward transmission of drug resistance. So there is a need for PrEP users to be aware of the symptoms of HIV seroconversion.

Framework for country-level PrEP demonstration projects being developed

Now that there is evidence of the efficacy of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) we need to determine the best way to deliver PrEP in the 'real world' and to gather evidence of its effectiveness from countries where it is rolled out. At a meeting organised by the World Health Organisation and attended by the UNAIDS, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), US government, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the investigators of the PrEP studies, participants started developing a country-level protocol development framework for PrEP demonstration projects.

Impressions from AFAO’s National Gay Men’s HIV Health Promotion Conference

"Liberty leading the People" by Eugène Delacroix,
was a popular trigger for musings on the meanings
of  the prevention 'revolution' - she featured on the slides
of four presenters. 

These are some impressions from AFAO’s National Gay Men’s HIV Health Promotion Conference held late May. The conference was a place for many discussions. The development of  new HIV prevention options that can be added to our existing tools  was described as a 'revolution' by some, and as an 'evolution' by others. Whether it is thought of as a revolution or an evolution, several major ways to intensify HIV prevention were discussed throughout the conference. 

Health Promotion Conference Resolutions

The following resolutions were passed unanimously at the closing session of the conference.
Resolution on the breakdown of the Queensland HIV Partnership Response
Resolution on HIV Treatments Access
Resolution on HIV Testing Access

Sustaining the HIV response

Speakers at the opening sessions of AFAO's Gay Men's HIV Health Promotion Conference this morning reiterated the value and effectiveness of Australia's partnership approach to HIV prevention.

Healthy Communities (QAHC) to be defunded

Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg announced on Sunday that all Queensland Health funding to the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities (QAHC) will cease within three months.

Healthy Communities, an AFAO member, currently receives $2.6 million in grants from Queensland Health to help combat HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections in the gay community, as well as running programs for other health issues, such as reducing smoking and drug use.