Central Demand of "Access Equity/Rights Now" Vocalised on Opening Day of AIDS2016 Durban

The IAS AIDS2016 Conference in Durban, officially opened Monday night local time, however multiple pre-conference meetings had already taken place in the days running up that, including the first MSM Global Forum to be held in Africa; the 1^st IAS HIV Cure Symposium, TB, HIV/HCV co-infection, paediatric HIV sessions as well as funder meetings, and political activism, along with cultural and community events in the Global Village. It is 16 years since the conference was held in South Africa, in Durban and the current meeting's theme is "Access Equity/Rights Now" – a central demand is the need for world leaders to meet global goals they need to continue to support HIV treatment and prevention and stick to their funding commitments and goals as well as a call  to combat inappropriate criminalisation of HIV transmission (and recognising the current evidence base of very low HIV transmission risks in a treatment era) – something ASHM is working on through a Consensus Statement with expert stakeholders nationally.

• See highlights from The Daily Review of Pre-Conference activity here: http://bit.ly/2asdU8N

• See highlights from The Daily Review of the launch on Monday 18 July 2016 here: http://bit.ly/29TH1B8

• See highlights from The Daily Review of Tuesday 19 July 2016 here: www.aidsmap.com/page/3072007

MSM Global Forum points out critical issues

Chris Beyrer, President of the IAS opened the MSM Global Forum pre-conference day meeting, pointing out that the recent UNAIDS High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS struggled to keep key populations on the agenda including MSM, and stigma remains a critical issue intersecting with very low funding (2% of global funding which is out of proportion to the burden of new infections among MSM), violence and criminalisation. An interesting angle taken by the Forum was considering the national economic costs of homophobia, based on a premise that if political leaders and decision makers do not listen to rights based arguments then the ‘dollar value’ impact of the consequences of homophobia on their respective government wallets might work better. Legal reform indicators need also to be included in UNAIDS global indicators.

"Know your epidemic means know your HIVDR"

At a well-attended pre-conference meeting, a WHO organised session on HIV Drug Resistance found speakers addressing an inherent potential paradox of a universal access or ‘Treat All’ global response and indeed PrEP scale up and the increased risk therefore of HIV drug resistance (HIVDR).  This session therefore focused on how to prevent the emergence and transmission of HIV DR and consequent risk of treatment failure, increase in drug costs, higher treatment complexity and lowered durability of 1^st line regimens (i.e. if people need to switch to more expensive 2^nd or even 3^rd line regimens due to DR). Fast tracking of global treatment goals need to include the issue of HIV DR risk and this should be an integral part of delivering quality HIV services and be part of routine program management in terms of VL suppression across all the UNAIDS 90-90-90 goals. Presentations focused on strengthening surveillance with the inclusion of a new zero draft WHO Global Action Plan on Early Warning Indicators (EWI) for HIV DR.  This plan is intended to complement national HIV DR surveillance through for example indicators of possible emergence of DR such as monitoring ART prescribing practices, loss to follow-up at 12 months, retention on ART at 12 months, on-time pill pick up, on time appointment keeping, drug stock outs and their relation to VL suppression. VL monitoring is obviously also critically needed (as a proxy for possible patient HIV DR) but still unavailable in too many country contexts. Clinic level data from  55 countries have indicated high levels of appropriate prescribing but sub-optimal levels of loss to follow-up at 12 months, retention at 12 months on time ARV drug pick up and ARV stock outs – which could indicate emergence of HIV DR.

WHO seeks online public consultation on Global Action Plan on HIV Drug Resistance

WHO is consulting with global and regional stakeholders to inform the Global Action Plan  on HIV DR – of note to the region is a WHO Western Pacific/South-east Asia regional consultation in Bangkok, August 8^th – 12^th, 2016 with a plan finalised by end 2016 and full launch in early 2017.

• The documentation link is here: www.who.int/hiv/drugresistance/hivdr-action-plan-2016-2021/en/ 

• Sign up for HIVDR updates here: www.surveymonkey.com/r/LX28W5Z