HPTN Feature Stories
HPTN 112 Study Team Prepares for Launch
February 2024 | HPTN Communications
HPTN 112 study team members recently met for several training days at the UNC Project Malawi clinical research site in Lilongwe, Malawi, to prepare for the upcoming launch. The study, also known as NJIRA (Navigated Journey to Improve Reduction of HIV in African Men), will evaluate the potential benefit(s), acceptability, and associated costs of a system navigator-delivered HIV prevention intervention in promoting and supporting persistent use of evidence-based HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis among heterosexual, cisgender men receiving care for sexually transmitted infections at the high-volume urban Bwaila STI Clinic in Lilongwe, Malawi.
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HPTN Laboratory Center: Capacity Building for More Efficient and Productive HIV Prevention Studies
September 2023 | HPTN Communications
Since HPTN's formation in 1999, the HPTN Laboratory Center (LC) has helped shape the Network's scientific agenda. It also plays a vital role in all phases of science generation, protocol development, and study implementation.
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Ever Wonder What it's Like to Participate in a Research Study?
May 2023 | HPTN Communications
We sat down with JT Williams, a participant in HPTN 083 and research engagement coordinator, to learn more about his experience as a study volunteer.
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The Future of Multipurpose Prevention Technologies
March 2023 | HPTN Communications
According to UNAIDS, more than 20.2 million women and adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) live with HIV. Along with complications related to pregnancy, HIV is a leading cause of death among women of reproductive age; the highest burden is in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Addressing the HIV & STI Syndemic in Prevention Research
November 2022 | HPTN Communications
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) continue to impact global populations, with transmission rates increasing among those vulnerable to HIV acquisition and those living with HIV. Historically, research has focused on STI and HIV prevention separately. Today, experts say this siloed model no longer makes sense, arguing that because HIV and STIs have a syndemic relationship, our approach to preventing them should harness the same synergy.
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Meeting People Where They Are for HPTN 094
October 2022 | HPTN Communications
Jessica Yeager starts each morning by reading her Bible, recovery books, and meditating. Then, she posts all over social media about the HPTN 094 mobile health unit and its location for the day. According to her peers, Yeager is an influential recovery community leader who thrives on innovative change to create purpose, stomp out stigma, and help others heal while delivering the message of hope. Yeager is a peer support services supervisor at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. She is also a national and Texas-state-certified peer recovery support specialist. Her job is demanding, requiring her to spend her workdays helping others in the recovery health process to reduce their likelihood of relapsing.
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Addressing PrEP Access and Increasing Awareness as a Promising HIV Prevention Method Emerges
September 2022 | HPTN Communications
Around the globe, researchers, scientists, advocates, healthcare professionals, and community leaders continue to develop and implement strategies to close gaps in access to HIV prevention. The landscape of the global HIV epidemic has begun to shift as researchers remain engaged in discovering additional prevention methods through biomedical and integrated strategies.
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Getting to Zero Among Black MSM in the U.S. South
September 2021 | HPTN Communications
The HIV epidemic in the U.S. continues to be marked by geographic, racial, sexual, and gender disparities. According to the latest estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. South experiences the highest rate of new HIV cases and the highest rate of HIV-related deaths in the country. In addition, higher HIV diagnosis rates have been seen in Southern Black men who have sex with men (MSM). To help address this disparity, HPTN 096, a community-randomized trial, will assess an integrated, HIV status-neutral, population-based approach designed to reduce HIV incidence among Black MSM in the U.S. South by increasing HIV testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use among Black MSM living without HIV, and viral suppression rates among Black MSM living with HIV.
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Preventing HIV Acquisition and Transmission Among Transgender Women
August 2021 | HPTN Communications
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, various risk factors such as discrimination, economic vulnerability, and a lack of support can affect access to healthcare and HIV treatment and prevention services. Transgender women (TGW) bear a disproportionate burden of these risk factors, and as such, HIV infections globally. Gender-affirming hormone therapy is also a significant unmet need and community priority for TGW. HPTN 091, also known as the I Am Study, is the first HPTN trial focused solely on the needs of TGW.
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Community Insights on Barriers and Lessons Learned (So Far) From Two HPTN Studies Targeting Young People
July 2021 | HPTN Communications
In July 2020, HPTN researchers launched the first HPTN study to enroll U.S. adolescents under the age of 18 exclusively. HPTN 083-01 evaluates the safety, tolerability, and acceptability of a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) regimen containing long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB LA) for adolescents assigned male at birth. The U.S.-based study is the first collaboration between the HPTN and the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions, part of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. A companion study, HPTN 084-01, launched in November 2020. Also known as “LIFT,” this study examines whether injectable cabotegravir for PrEP is safe, tolerable, and acceptable for adolescents assigned female at birth under 18 years of age. LIFT is enrolling study participants at sites in South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
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HIV/AIDS at 40: Marking the 40th Anniversary of the Pandemic
June 2021 | HPTN Communications
On June 5, 1981, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report, included an article about five young gay men in Los Angeles treated for a rare form of pneumonia. This syndrome became known as gay-related immune deficiency, which would later be called acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV.
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The Role of Proof of Concept Studies in HIV Prevention Research
October 2020 | HPTN Communications
The clinical research process involves a progression of studies that build upon one another. These studies are designed to answer specific research questions. For pharmaceutical product development studies, this includes evaluating dose-response, safety, efficacy and acceptability. Proof-of-concept clinical trials, also known as test-of-concept studies, play an essential role in the product discovery and development process.
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Community Engagement in the Age of COVID-19
July 2020 | HPTN Communications
COVID-19 has affected 213 countries and territories around the world. There have been more than 16 million cases and more than 650,000 deaths worldwide. In a time of fear, uncertainty and doubt, reaching study populations in creative ways has become even more critical given the realities of social distancing and virtual communications.
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Introducing New Study Concepts: A Community Engagement Perspective
April 2020 | HPTN Communications
When a new study concept is introduced, a critical component of the process is engaging study communities. Helping community members understand the benefits and risks of study participation allows them to make decisions about how they want to support or contribute to a study’s development. Whether a new drug, treatment method or technology, the messaging process is critical, and consultation at the protocol development stage is essential. The community engagement team at the KEMRI Centre for Global Health, aka Kisumu Clinical Research Site (CRS), in Kisumu, Kenya, regularly engage community stakeholders, including women, youth, female sex workers, and men who have sex with men.
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Giving Women Control of HIV Prevention: How Injectable PrEP Could Change Everything
December 2017 | Sinead Delany-Moretlwe
As a South African, HIV prevention is a very real and personal issue. I completed my medical training in South Africa at a time when HIV incidence was rising. The hospital wards were full of young people, including women who should have had futures ahead of them and yet for whom we could do very little. Antiretrovirals were in their infancy and had not yet reached South Africa. That experience for me as a clinician was profound. Even now, it is impossible to ignore the impact that HIV has on women in our region, particularly young women.
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