Don't forget about PEP (CROI Day 4)

AFAO Health Promotion Officer, Sean Slavin, blogs live from CROI 2015:

Amidst all the excitement at ‪#‎CROI2015‬ about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a session this afternoon on post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) - 'PEP: Remember Me?' - was an important reminder that this prevention technology should not be forgotten.

Hepatitis C: "Mission accomplished"? (CROI 2015 Day 4)

AFAO Health Promotion Officer, Sean Slavin, blogs live from CROI 2015:

A cure for hepatitis C? "Mission accomplished" is the message from ‪#‎CROI2015‬, as a range of new drugs demonstrate high efficacy with minimal side effects. A number of these have been approved for use in the US.

Implementation, however, is in its infancy and there are currently significant cost barriers with the drug manufacturers struggling to demonstrate cost effectiveness at current prices.In recent weeks competitive bidding began in the US between rival manufacturers and prices are expected to fall as more agents come onto the market.

HIV and lung cancer: smoking is a greater risk than HIV (CROI 2015 Day 3)

AFAO Health Promotion Officer, Sean Slavin, blogs live from CROI 2015:
 
In a session today at ‪#‎CROI2015‬ on cancer and HIV, lung cancer was highlighted as one of the most prevalent among people with HIV.

PrEP and women: low adherance highlights stigma and gender inequality (CROI 2015 Day 2)

AFAO Health Promotion Officer, Sean Slavin, blogs live from CROI 2015:

One of the most interesting papers at ‪#‎CROI2015‬ today was about the failure of Tenofovir gel as PrEP for women in the South African FACTS 001 trial. This study, among young, poor women showed that adherence is indeed a challenge and not necessarily because of any failure of the participants.

Good news on PrEP for gay men (CROI 2015 Day 1)

The annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2015) is being held in Seatle from 23-26 February. AFAO Health Promotion Officer Sean Slavin  is blogging live from Seattle, reflecting on some of the key highlights:

What AFAO did in 2014

Check out our photo story on AFAO's activities in 2014.

January

We’re in Australia. It was what’s known as the silly season. We went to the beach.

Ok, ok, we were working too, but nothing worth photographing.

Joint launch highlights HIV issues for migrant and mobile populations

Speakers at the launch.

Mobile and migrant populations are an increasingly prominent proportion of Australia’s HIV epidemic in 2014. 

Surveillance data indicates that people born overseas in 2013 have HIV at double the rate of those who are Australian born. The data also shows an increase of HIV diagnoses acquired overseas among Australian born people over the past decade.

Against this background, two documents were launched in Melbourne on 2 December that make important contributions to the response to HIV for people who travel to or from high prevalence countries: The HIV and Mobility in Australia: Road Map forAction, developed by the Western Australian Centre for Health Promotion Research (WACHPR), the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) and the Sexual Health and Blood-borne Virus Applied Research and Evaluation Network (SiREN); and AFAO’s HIV and Stigma: A Guide for Religious Leaders.