A daily pill, a monthly vaginal ring or an injection every two months: These were the prevention options available to young women on the uChoose study to help them prevent HIV infection. Brady Hooley, from the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, presented the findings of this study. There are many new prevention tools becoming available to…
DetailsKey figures leading the fight against HIV discussed the status of the elusive HIV cure. Chaired by Prof Linda-Gail Bekker, Chief Operations Officer at the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, the speakers discussed why we need an HIV cure, is a cure possible and what that cure might look like. The landscape of the disease has…
DetailsOnly one man has ever been cured of HIV. Timothy Ray Brown has been living ten years since an extremely dangerous procedure that removed all the HIV in his body. Frequently referred to as the ‘Berlin Patient’ based on the city the procedure was performed in, Brown came to the “Is an HIV Cure possible?”…
DetailsAt the UN General Assembly meeting Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS, announced that an exciting new pricing agreement has been made to accelerate the availability of the first affordable, generic, single-pill HIV treatment, which will contain Dolutegravir. A potent integrase inhibitor, Dolutegravir is an antiretroviral drug championed due to its low risk of side…
DetailsThe Plus Pills study, led by Professor Bekker, is a part of a three-part study examining PrEP use in different groups. PrEP, which stands for PreExposure Prophylaxis, is an HIV prevention drug that can be taken by HIV-negative people to protect them from infection. This wonder-drug is a game changer in the fight to end…
DetailsPrEP is an everyday pill that an HIV negative person can take to prevent getting HIV. Consistent use is essential for protection. Since PrEP is still a relatively new advancement in HIV prevention technology, there are still a lot of concerns and misconceptions around it. Fortunately, there has been a flurry of research in the…
DetailsMen who have sex with men (MSM) are a population at high risk of HIV infection. In order to end HIV, we need targeted prevention strategies for this key population and the Sibanye study has been researching just that. The Sibanye study recorded the uptake of a package of HIV prevention tools in MSM in sites…
DetailsThis week, we were fortunate to have a visit from Sabine Van Elsland from the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and VU University, who spoke about her research involving HIV positive children and how they respond to HIV treatment. Getting antiretroviral therapy (ART) to youths is one challenge, however, that is only the first…
DetailsThe International AIDS Symposium (IAS) Conference 2017 was a wealth of cutting edge research and discussion on HIV and AIDS, and the representatives from the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation (DTHF) were no exception. Opening the conference was our own Prof Linda-Gail Bekker, the IAS President and International Scientific Chair of IAS 2017. Bekker spoke about…
DetailsIt was a delight to have a two-for-one research meeting with Ndumiso Madubela and Caroline Reid. Madubela discussed his PhD research outline looking at how men in high HIV burden communities engage with their local health services. Reid discussed her master’s research in science journalism and outlined the popular science journalism process. Women bear a…
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