Join Us for Adherence 2020 Virtual

Health professionals and advocates for people living with HIV will meet virtually November 2-3, 2020, for the Adherence 2020 Virtual conference. The conference's faculty will address antiretroviral therapy and biomedical prevention adherence within the context of optimized care and prevention continua and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Shannon Hader, Deputy Executive Director for Programs at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), will deliver the conference’s keynote address regarding a universal HIV test-and-connect approach to attain the 90-90-90 targets within the context of COVID-19 HIV service disruptions. Her keynote address will commence at 9:15 am EST, November 2, 2020.

Adherence 2020 Virtual is made possible through grant support and sponsorships from Gilead Sciences, Janssen Therapeutics, Merck & Co., and ViiV Healthcare.

COVID-19 in the Americas Conference Launched in October 2020

COVID-19 in The Americas began this week with a series of online panels including two framing panel discussions that featured IAPAC President/CEO Dr. José M. Zuniga and AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) President Michael Weinstein, as well as Dr. Julio Frenk, President of the University of Miami, and the Executive Directors of the AHF Global Public Health Institute (Dr. Jorge Saavedra) and the Institute for Advanced Study of The Americas (Dr. Felicia Knaul).

Registration is available free-of-charge. Registrants will receive email updates as new panel discussions and plenary sessions are scheduled to take place from October 2020 through March 2021. All sessions will be archived on IAPAC's website (www.IAPAC.org).

IAPAC conducted a virtual workshop entitled, Affirming Life: Self-Advocacy against Implicit Bias in Clinical Settings Delivering HIV Services, which took place during the National Minority AIDS Council's 2020 US Conference on HIV/AIDS.

IAPAC and the Lancet HIV are embarking on a partnership over the coming year through an IAPAC-Lancet HIV Commission on the Future of Urban HIV Responses (IAPAC-Lancet HIV Commission) whose focus will be defining a pathway towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 and 11 - ending the epidemics of HIV, TB, and viral hepatitis, and promoting inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and municipalities, respectively.

A regionally diverse, multidisciplinary group of Commissioners and Advisors have been tasked with: 1) reflecting on the calculus of political will, community engagement, and data-driven/equity-based HIV responses to close gaps across the HIV prevention and treatment continua and end HIV-related stigma; 2) documenting experiences and best practices in urban HIV responses; 3) reinforcing the need to address HIV-associated comorbidities and syndemic conditions; 4) examining structural barriers to achieving SDGs 3 and 11 in urban settings (e.g., social and economic inequality, health and other disparities, and intersectional stigma; and 5) addressing the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics.

The IAPAC-Lancet HIV Commission's work is made possible through grant support from ViiV Healthcare and the Fast-Track Cities Institute.

IAPAC is partnering with Virology Education, a provider of innovative scientific and educational programs, by endorsing and promoting a new online resource to our membership. Online Meeting Highlights (OMH) is an educational resource designed for health professionals to stay up to date with developments in the clinical management of HIV. The OMH resource is comprised of three modules containing 15- to 20-minute video presentations, relevant literature, post-presentation tests, and links to related international conferences.

European HIV-Hepatitis Testing Week 2020 will take place November 20-27, 2020. Testing and linkage to HIV and viral hepatitis prevention and treatment services is critical to averting new infections and curbing mortality, particularly because Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) for HIV and due to the availability of direct-acting antivirals that can cure HCV infection. IAPAC is an official partner supporting a week of HIV and viral hepatitis testing awareness activities across the European Fast-Track Cities network.

IAPAC welcomes Justin Hill as our new Regional Director for Fast-Track Cities in North America. Prior to joining IAPAC, he was a Senior Program Officer at FHI 360 for over seven years, most recently working in Mozambique. He was also previously a Research and Fulbright Fellow at the Ministry of Health of Barbados. Mr. Hill will take over from Dashiell Sears, who now serves as IAPAC's Director of Advocacy and Public Policy.