IAPAC NEWS BULLETIN —
MAY 2020
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IAPAC Responds to COVID-19 Pandemic
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IAPAC Hosts Virtual Conference on COVID-19 and HIV
A panel of prominent HIV healthcare professionals and advocates joined IAPAC for a May 6, 2020, virtual conference focused on the
Continuity of Care in the Presence of COVID-19. IAPAC President/CEO Dr. José M. Zuniga and UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Dr. Shannon Hader spoke about the
urgent need to mitigate and avoid HIV-related service disruptions amid the public health response to COVID-19.
HIV advocates, clinicians, and health practitioners shared firsthand insights and new data from COVID-19 responses in Canada, South Africa, Uganda, and the United States. They also discussed how healthcare providers and community advocates are leveraging existing resources and implementing novel approaches to deliver continuous HIV care.
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IAPAC Visualizes COVID-19 Data on Fast-Track Cities Dashboards
IAPAC has retrofitted 41 Fast-Track Cities dashboards that formerly only visualized HIV data to visualize local COVID-19 data as well. The open access dashboards are available via the
Fast-Track Cities Global Web Portal. The retrofit involved adding COVID-19 data visualizations for confirmed cases, deaths, and recoveries, alongside the mapping of COVID-19 testing and urgent care services.
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IAPAC Capacity-Building on COVID-19 and HIV Care Continuity
IAPAC conducted a Fast-Track Cities capacity-building training on May 18, 2020, for 10 clinicians in Nairobi (the number limited by local measures). With physical distancing and face-covering measures in place, the training offered guidance about ensuring the continuity of HIV care in the context of COVID-19. Similar trainings are being conducted in Blantyre, eThekwini, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Kampala, Kigali, Kingston, Kinshasa, Kyiv, Lagos, Lusaka, Maputo, Windhoek, and
Yaoundé.
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Fast-Track Cities Implementation Science Fund Releases
Request for Letters of Intent from Researchers
The new Fast-Track Cities Implementation Science Fund whose launch was announced by IAPAC last month has released a
Request for Letters of Intent, calling for clinical and community researchers to submit proposals for implementation science studies to improve urban HIV responses through interventions, policies, and strategies evaluated using implementation science criteria.
ViiV Healthcare and Gilead Sciences are supporting the Fast-Track Cities Implementation Science Fund, whose efforts are directed by an international advisory committee comprised of implementation science experts. Join us for a webinar on June 1, 2020, to learn more about this new opportunity and how to apply. The deadline for submission of Letters of Intent is July 20, 2020.
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Fast-Track Cities 2020
Program Announced
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The newly-released
conference program
for
Fast-Track Cities 2020
highlights successes achieved across the Fast-Track Cities network, addresses cross-cutting challenges faced by local stakeholders, and shares best practices in accelerating urban HIV, TB, HBV, and HCV responses. IAPAC has also included COVID-19 among the conference program foci.
The conference program
includes one day of pre-conference events (September 7, 2020) followed by three days of conference (September 8-10, 2020) featuring plenary sessions, panel discussions, skills-building workshops, oral abstract sessions, and poster sessions.
In an announcement made May 29, 2020, IAPAC eliminated conference registration fees for
Fast-Track Cities 2020
in light of budget constraints faced by local stakeholders across the Fast-Track Cities network.
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IAPAC Reopens
Adherence 2020
Late-Breaker Abstract Submissions
IAPAC will reopen late-breaker abstract submissions for
Adherence 2020 to accommodate individuals affected by COVID-19 or re-purposed to coordinate/manage local COVID-19 responses. Abstracts will be accepted online from June 1-5, 2020, for late-breaker oral and poster presentations. The new submission deadline is 5 pm EST, June 5, 2020.
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Fast-Track Cities Documentary Adds New Progress from Atlanta
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The latest progress made by Fulton County (Atlanta) towards achieving the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets has been added to an updated release of the
Fast-Track Cities: Making Progress, Changing Lives documentary which premiered last year in London.
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IAPAC Welcomes Two New Staff Members
Dr. Janelle Taveras joins IAPAC as a Program Director, managing an HIV capacity-building and technical assistance program through a new partnership with My Brother's Keeper, a Mississippi-based non-profit organization that works to reduce health disparities among minority and marginalized populations. The partnership, which is funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will support capacity-building in the southern United States.
David Evans joins IAPAC as Senior Director of Medical Information. He will spearhead efforts to translate medical and other information for multiple constituencies, including affected communities. Mr. Evans has
extensive experience in this regard, including through multiple roles at Project Inform (interim Executive Director, Director of Programs, and Director of Research Advocacy). He was also a Senior Editor for AIDSmeds.com and
POZ
magazine.
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HIV Self-Testing Can Be Liberating to HIV-Positive Women and Their Sexual Partners: A Qualitative Study in Kisumu, Western Kenya
The latest edition of the
Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (
JIAPAC) includes new research indicating that an effective way to reach Kenyan men who do not know their HIV status is to offer self-testing kits to their female partners.
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Celebrating the Life of Larry Kramer (1935-2020)
IAPAC is deeply saddened by the passing of Larry Kramer, a giant in the world of AIDS activism. Outspoken and indefatigable, he leaves behind a lionhearted legacy as a crusader
for action and
against silence, because Silence=Death. Rest in Power.
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