Josh Thomas's blog

Around the world (including the United States), thousands of HIV-negative people are enrolled in clinical trials to determine whether taking anti-retroviral drugs could reduce the risk of being infected with HIV. This strategy is called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP.

By the middle of next year, more people will be enrolling in PrEP trials than in all HIV vaccine and microbicide efficacy trials combined. Advocates will need to weigh in now, as results from current efficacy trials may become available beginning as early as 2009. There is a role for prevention research advocates to seek answers to questions that can help to determine the next steps in the PrEP research program, to prepare for the trial results, and to ensure access to PrEP if proven effective.  read more »

In response to this challenge, the Prevention Research Advocacy Working Group (PRAWG) of HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP) recently formed a PrEP Committee. The PrEP Committee is composed of researchers and community advocates, including representatives from AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), Global Campaign for Microbicides & Project Inform. It is focused on identifying questions that must be answered, fostering discussions in and beyond our communities about the opportunities and challenges of this potentially successful intervention, and preparing for advocacy efforts to ensure access to PrEP if proven effective.

~ Declare That People with Disabilities Get HIV Due to Discrimination and Exclusion ~

~ Demand Immediate Inclusion in HIV/AIDS Research and Programming to End A Generation of Neglect ~

Today people living with disabilities - including people living with HIV/AIDS and disabilities - and allies will convene at an historic AIDS2008 satellite session to demand that international AIDS community end decades of neglect of this population, who lives at heightened risk of HIV acquisition and morbidity.  AIDS-Free World and Disabled Peoples' International will call for immediate inclusion in HIV/AIDS research agendas, data collection and programming for prevention, treatment and care.

At an August 4 press conference organized by AIDS-Free World and Disabled People's International, activists and researchers laid out the context that makes people living with disabilities especially vulnerable to HIV.  At least 10% of the world's population - 650 Million people - has a disability affecting their daily lives.  Globally, most people with disabilities face poverty, stigma, social isolation and marginalization, and 80% dwell in rural areas of developing countries.  read more »