AVAC releases "Piecing Together the HIV Prevention Puzzle"

It’s an exciting time in HIV prevention research. We will see results from a number of critically important HIV prevention research trials this year, as well as see the start of new trials around the world that will yield important answers in the years to come, said Mitchell Warren, AVAC executive director, at the release of AVAC’s 13th annual report of the field.

But scientific, community and political leaders must act now to plan for continued research and implementation of effective strategies, or this excitement will be wasted, Warren added.

May 18, 2009

Dear Advocates,

Today, on HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, AVAC is pleased to announce the publication of our 2009 AVAC Report on the state of AIDS vaccine and biomedical HIV prevention research, Piecing Together the HIV Prevention Puzzle. As usual, the AVAC Report is an opinionated, wide-ranging discussion of the strengths and challenges of the biomedical HIV prevention research field in the past year and for the years to come.

Please click here to download the Report in full or by article, view and download figures, tables and graphics from the Report, and to order print copies.

Click here to download the press release that we released today about the Report.

To structure this year's Report, we took inspiration from a quotation in the recent review of the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, which states that the ultimate goal "is to develop a vaccine that prevents HIV infection or disease--anything less than that can be characterized as progress, but not success."

In the first section of the Report, "Puzzling Out Progress," we report on the AIDS vaccine field, where there's an energized focus on discovery, innovation, and basic science. In the second section, "Puzzling Out Success," we turn to the implications of PrEP and other strategies in efficacy trials today. Throughout, we argue that success will depend on combination approaches: on research plus implementation; on vaccines plus PrEP, should either show benefit; and on communities plus researchers working towards common goals.

We hope you'll take time to look at the Report, which addresses various questions, including:

• What does the AIDS vaccine field's renewed focus on basic science mean, and has there been any progress?
  

• What could or should WHO and UNAIDS be doing to prepare for potentially encouraging results from pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) trials?
  

• What can biomedical prevention research contribute to the global epidemic in gay men and other men who have sex with men?
  

• What has the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise accomplished to date--and what more must it do?
  

• What are the scientific lessons that the Step AIDS vaccine trial has taught us--and that the field wouldn't have learned otherwise?
  

• How might the field plan ahead for innovative multi-intervention HIV prevention trials?
  

• Where are we on the road to the launch of HVTN 505, the next large test-of-concept AIDS vaccine trial?
  

• What happens if PrEP is proven safe and effective?
  
  

We'd love to hear your opinions too! Please let us know what you think and what topics you'd like to see us cover in the future. You can email us at avac@avac.org.

Best,
AVAC