The House Ball Community and HIV Prevention: "We Are Family" Study

CAPS/PRC Community Advisory Board discusses community engagement and research dissemination

Andrew Reynolds and eleven other CAPS/PRC Community Advisory Board members alert researchers to important community issues and help disseminate community-engaged research findings to impacted populations, especially those experiencing health disparities.

Ryan White in Health Care Reform Era (pg. 4)

Wayne Steward examined the combined role of Ryan White and the Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA) serving people living with HIV (PLWH) in five California Counties. The two systems together fill existing healthcare service gaps. Comprehensive services are poised to alleviate health disparities experienced by low-income PLWH and improve engagement in care by addressing socioeconomic barriers to care.

What People Living with HIV Think about HIV Cure

Judith Auerbach and colleagues conducted ethnically diverse focus groups in the U.S. among PLWH to discuss HIV Cure. Main themes centered on meanings of HIV cure and deterrents and motivators to participate in HIV cure research. Participants preferred eradication over remission. They expressed anxiety with interrupting HIV medication, taking part in risky cure studies, and losing disability insurance (financial burden). Potential clinical side effects of HIV cure strategies and expectations of biomedical investigators recruiting special populations were also concerns. These perceptions of HIV cure among racial/ethnic groups that typically are not included or do not participate in biomedical research fill a gap in this new area. 

Mothers most at risk for mother-to-child HIV transmission in Zimbabwe

Mi-Suk Kang-Dufour and her team identified subgroups most at need for intervention for the final push toward elimination of mother-to-child HIV transmission [≥95% antenatal care (ANC) attendance] in Zimbabwe. Researchers found that 6.2% of mothers in two regions reported no ANC visits. Outreach to mothers of Apostolic religion and outreach to mothers with 3 or more previous pregnancies or a previous non-institutional delivery resulted in a decreased proportion of women not receiving ANC (from 6.2% to 4.1% and 6.2% to 4.5%, respectively). These women however only represented 55% of the target population. Reaching the last group of women who do not attend ANC will require significant, targeted effort.

Migration patterns predict sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) in the SEARCH study

Carol Camlin, Torsten Neilands, Craig Cohen, Edwin Charlebois, and their team assessed the effect of migration on sexual risk behavior and sexually-transmitted infection (STI) risk in eastern Africa. Higher sexual risk behavior was: 1) more strongly associated with past-year migration in women compared to men and 2) associated with past-year STI among women but not men. Although women migrated less than men, STI prevalence was higher among female migrants. Focused prevention efforts among mobile populations are needed to address challenges of geographic mobility and this gender disparity.