Meet Virginia - A Friendly Rectal Microbicide Advocate

Check out this interesting mini-bio of Virginia Zalazar, the latest in IRMA's "Meet a Friendly Rectal Microbicide Advocate" series on the IRMA website here.  Virginia is one of six new bios just posted a few days ago, including individuals from Kenya, Thailand, the UK, India and the US.  Each will be featured on the blog, and you can read all of them here right now.


Virginia Zalazar
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Virginia is a psychologist and social researcher at Fundación Huésped, an NGO that works in response to HIV/AIDS, both as an infectious disease and as a social challenge. Since 2007, she has been performing research studies focusing on microbicide acceptability with women, gay men, and transgender populations.

Virginia also coordinates workshops for serodiscordant couples, and conducts pre and post-HIV test counseling at a public hospital in Buenos Aires.

In her spare time, Virginia enjoys reading novels and science fiction books, travelling, watching movies, listening to music, and spending time with her family and friends.

Virginia first got involved with IRMA at the 2009 IAS Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. She believes that rectal microbicides are important, as well as vaginal and other biomedical prevention methods, because sexual practices require different and suitable options for each individual separately. Virginia hopes that in the near future, drugstores, healthcare centers or hospitals will carry a variety of products that will promote sexual health and sexual pleasure.

Virginia advises IRMA to continue consolidating collaborative work, strengthening international relationships, engaging additional partners, and identifying existing and future research opportunities for the region.

Currently, Virginia is looking for funding to conduct a study focusing on the public health impact of PrEP, and the accessibility of treatment among transgender sex workers in Northern Provinces of Argentina.

Virginia was introduced to a number of partners connected with IRMA-ALC (IRMA's South American chapter based at Epicentro in Lima, Peru) at the Microbicides 2012 conference in April. Less than a month later, she participated in a two-day strategic meeting led by IRMA-ALC and AVAC in Lima - with colleagues from Peru and Paraguay - to plan for expanded and improved advocacy around rectal microbicides, PrEP, sexual health and other LGBT issues. Click here for photos (on the IRMA ALC Facebook page) from the meeting. She is very excited about the possibilities this growing initiative will bring to the future of rectal microbicides and PrEP in the Latin American region.

Virginia has been influenced by her family, friends, colleagues, patients and activists. Her appreciation extends out to everyone who is passionate about what they do, and working towards a better future.

Thank you, Virginia, for all that you do!

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*Join IRMA's robust, highly-active. moderated, global listserv addressing rectal microbicide research and advocacy as well as other interesting new HIV prevention technologies by contacting us at rectalmicro@gmail.com. Joining our listserv automatically makes you a member of IRMA - a network of more than 1,100 advocates, scientists, policy makers and funders from all over the world.

*Please look for us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/InternationalRectalMicrobicideAdvocates, and you can follow us on Twitter: @rectalmicro.

*Also, please note that shared news items from other sources posted on this blog do not necessarily mean IRMA has taken any position on the article's content.
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[VIDEO] McGowan and Pickett Talk the Rectal Microbicide Walk at Microbicides 2012

Rectal microbicides were ALL OVER the Microbicides 2012 conference...

Chatting up rectal microbicide research and advocacy activities and issues at the recent Microbicides 2012 conference (held in Sydney this past April) were Dr. Ian McGowan, co-principal investigator of the Microbicide Trials Network (and IRMA Scientific Co-Chair) and IRMA Chair Jim Pickett.

Have a look/listen to their discussion with reporters.

 

*Check out pics from the Microbicides 2012 conference on IRMA's Facebook page.

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*Join IRMA's robust, highly-active. moderated, global listserv addressing rectal microbicide research and advocacy as well as other interesting new HIV prevention technologies by contacting us. Joining our listserv automatically makes you a member of IRMA - a network of more than 1,100 advocates, scientists, policy makers and funders from all over the world.

*Also, please note that shared news items from other sources posted on this blog do not necessarily mean IRMA has taken any position on the article's content.

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Microbicides Conference Changing to a More Integrated HIV Prevention Conference

via AIDSmap.com, by Gus Cairns

The International Microbicides Conference held in Sydney this week will be the last of its kind, delegates were told in a closing plenary today.

From 2014 onwards, it is planned, a single biennial conference on all aspects of HIV prevention will be held.
Globally, the two largest funders of HIV prevention research are the US National Institutes of Health's Office of AIDS Research and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gina Brown of the Office of AIDS Research and Stephen Becker of the Gates Foundation shared the podium to make a joint speech outlining the reasons for no longer funding separate conferences, and instead convening a programme committee to plan a biennial global HIV prevention conference.

They said they were proposing an "integrative prevention meeting" in recognition of the fact that no one HIV prevention method is likely to end the epidemic and that different methods can be synergistic. Stephen Becker said that the demand for a more integrated approach to HIV prevention “was being voiced from the ground up", by community advocates and NGOs, as well as by donors who wished to see more efficiency and less duplication of effort within the field.

Cross-cutting dialogue between specialists pursuing different areas is more likely to generate combinations of prevention approaches than individual approaches being pursued in neighbouring research 'silos', Becker added.

There was duplication of effort in some areas. Much of the animal-model and mucosal-immunity work being done in the HIV prevention technologies underlay HIV vaccine development as much as it did microbicide development. he said. And, he added, the social and behavioural research that underpinned prevention technology research by helping to understand which populations need what HIV prevention methods formed the same backdrop, whether what was being developed was a vaccine, a microbicide or the roll-out of a circumcision programme.

Gina Brown said that a world HIV prevention conference planning committee would be convened immediately, comprising experts from all fields including social sciences and community advocacy. In common with the international microbicides conferences, which have been held biennially since 2002, the last of the the annual AIDS Vaccine conferences, which started in 2000, will be held in 2013 in Barcelona. Other prevention conferences, such as next week's second international Treatment as Prevention Workshop in Vancouver, will also no longer receive funding as separate events.

Read the Rest.


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Sydney Microbicides 2012 Media Coverage : New Information on Lubricants and Anal Health

via Citizen News, by Bobby Ramakant

For how long will anal health and hygiene be neglected?

“It is high time that anal health [and hygiene] comes out of the closet” said Dr Ross Cranston, Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh, USA. Dr Cranston was referring to the multitude of anal health complications people practicing receptive anal intercourse are likely to be dealing with in their lives and very little quality care and products that exist to relieve them. Dr Cranston was speaking at the International Microbicides Conference (M2012) in Sydney, Australia. According to the UNAIDS, United Nations joint programme on HIV/AIDS, men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) are at a high risk of HIV around the world.

Many countries such as those in Africa who had earlier reported no significant HIV rates in people with same sex behaviour, have reported alarming HIV rates in recent past.

Although ‘anal’ and ‘rectal’ words are used as synonyms, but they aren’t same – and rather refer to different parts biologically. Anal canal is distinct from rectal canal with a unique set of diagnosis. Rectal canal is made up of columnar epithelial cells and anal canal is made up of stratified epithelial cells. Anal canal is also a high pressure environment with about 77 mmHg pressure when sphincters are resting and 180 mmHg pressure when sphincters constrict. In contrast, pressure in human vagina is 0 mmHg in resting phase.

Anal canal is very sensitive to hot, cold, wet, dry, light touch, pin prick, distension, pleasure or pain, however rectal canal is only sensitive to distension, pleasure or pain.
The incidence of adverse events in rectal microbicides studies is quite high with 11% symptoms and signs of anal adverse events in anal canal and 13% in rectal canal. These adverse events include prolapsing haemorrhoids (piles), anal fissure, anal fistula, anal abscess, anal warts, anal or rectal canal cancers, fungal infections, herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection, or sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

The need for right awareness in healthcare providers and their appropriate training is acute as often anal adverse events are misdiagnosed or ill-treated.

The awareness level in people (men and women) who reported to practice receptive anal intercourse was abysmally low. Zero per cent of such respondents had knowledge related to their anal cancer risk, and just half of them knew about HSV. Awareness certainly needs to be upped in people practicing receptive anal sex.

Read the Rest.

More safety data needed on lubricants used in anal sex

There is a growing realization that there is a significant issue of HIV acquisition through anal intercourse not only for men who have sex with men (MSM) who are clearly very visible HIV high risk group but increasingly for women who may be exposed to the virus through anal intercourse with their male partners. Also in recent studies, most people (men and women) who practice anal intercourse reported using some kind of a lubricant (such as gel, cream, or saliva among others).

So when the ongoing rectal microbicides research yields a safe and effective rectal microbicide towards later half of this decade, then rectal microbicide could be added to these lubricants as most people practicing anal intercourse are already comfortable with using lubricants, said Professor (Dr) Ian McGowan, Co-Chair of International Microbicides Conference (M2012) in Sydney, Australia; Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and co-principal investigator, Microbicide Trials Network (MTN).

Rectal microbicides are products that could take the form of gels or lubricants – being developed to reduce a person’s risk of HIV or other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) through anal receptive sex.

"What we have seen at this conference is that there is a growing evidence of MSM populations in African nations and HIV rates are alarmingly high in them" said Dr McGowan.
As per published data, not only MSM, there are number of women as well who reported to have anal sex. According to the data from a study in San Francisco, US, very high lubricant use was reported (89%) among those MSM who were practicing anal intercourse, said Dr Shauna Stahlman from Department of Epidemiology, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Read the Rest.


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Join IRMA and Partners for Dynamic Microbicides 2012 Advocates’ Pre-conference!

Please join us for this dynamic pre-conference….


Advocacy in a New Prevention Landscape:

BUILDING OUR KNOWLEDGE AND CAPACITY FOR EFFECTIVE ADVOCACY
AROUND HIV PREVENTION RESEARCH AND IMPLEMENTATION


Timing: Sunday 15 April 2012, 0830 to 1600
Venue: Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour, Sydney

 

M2012 offers new opportunities and challenges to advocates across the world involved and/or interested in advocacy around microbicides and other HIV prevention research and rollout. We have new tools to consider in HIV prevention with the exciting results from PrEP and treatment as prevention trials - and yet confusing results from the early termination of the FEM-PrEP trial and the microbicide gel and tenofovir tablet arms of the VOICE study. What does this mean for communities and how does it affect the work we do as advocates?

The African Microbicides Advocacy Group, AVAC, the Global Campaign for Microbicides, IRMA (International Rectal Microbicides Advocates), the New HIV Vaccine & Microbicide Advocacy Society and local Australian partners ACON and AFAO will hold a day-long pre-conference workshop on Sunday, April 15. The M2012 Advocates' Pre-Conference Workshop will begin at 08:30 and conclude by 16:00, ensuring participants have ample time to get to the M2012 opening ceremony. The workshop will be held at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, and lunch will be provided.


The goal of the workshop is to equip new and experienced advocates, community representatives, trial staff and others with the tools needed to fully participate in the M2012 Conference by:

• Providing an overview of the field to contextualize the themes and issues presented at M2012;

• Connecting research and advocacy priorities and exploring common goals;

• Building capacity of advocates and trial staff to better engage with emerging issues in the field.


The pre-conference workshop will feature seasoned advocates and researchers from the HIV prevention research field who will provide participants with updates and previews to topics to be presented at the conference. An array of thematic discussion and skills-building sessions will be conducted including an update on key issues in the field, influencing relevant country policies and processes, prevention research literacy and ethics, and training on advocacy and campaign building.


Registration for this workshop is free for all interested participants but has limited space so registration will be offered on first-come first-served basis.


Registrations will be accepted through 23 March 2012 or until we have reached capacity.


To register – please fill this registration form at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/39SPS5P. If you have any questions or having problems with the registration form, please write to M2012AdvocatesPrecon@gmail.com.


Organizers: AMAG, AVAC, GCM, IRMA and NHVMAS with Australian Partners ACON and AFAO


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Gratitude, Love, and XOXO from IRMA

Dearest IRMA members -

Just a quick note to say THANK YOU for everything you have done this year to advance the research and development of safe, effective, acceptable, and accessible rectal microbicides for the human beings who need them.

I think IRMA has had a banner year - and the reason it was so incredible is YOU.

Here are some highlights. Feel free to chime in with your own - this list is by no means exhaustive of all the fabulous things IRMA, and the field as a whole, have been up to...

- With thanks to AVAC, in 2011 IRMA greatly expanded our advocacy footprint in South America with a strengthened IRMA-ALC (America Latina y el Caribe). Based at the gay men's health organization Epicentro in Lima, Peru, IRMA ALC has been invigorating rectal microbicide and PrEP advocacy throughout the region, and is now perfectly poised to engage with the upcoming Phase II rectal microbicide trial MTN 017 that will include a site in Lima.  Pictured above is Tia IRMA (Auntie IRMA) - a character created by IRMA-ALC to help share information on rectal microbicides, anal sex, lubricants, etc  - and make it fun/funny :)

- In 2011, IRMA secured funding from MAC AIDS Foundation, the Microbicide Trials Network, and the Population Council to develop a short, fun video about rectal microbicide science and clinical trial involvement. We actually JUST HIRED a production company (based in Cape Town, South Africa), and will begin work on the project in earnest as soon as the clock switches to 2012. The video will be something that all our advocates can use, and will be especially helpful for folks in cities where advanced rectal microbicide trials are planned as the video will be designed to support site recruitment activities. We plan to have this baby ready to go by the time MTN 017 launches in mid-year.

- IRMA successfully launched a new initiative called Project ARM - Africa for Rectal Microbicides. With support from the National Institutes of Health Office of AIDS Research, the New Venture Fund, and AVAC - we held a fantastic kick-off meeting with 40 individuals in Addis Ababa in early December, and came up with a whole set of advocacy and scientific activities designed to fully engage Africa in rectal microbicide research and advocacy. A report from the meeting - a road map of sorts - will be released at Microbicides 2012. But not content to wait, the group that met in Addis is already busy getting started on Project ARM goals and objectives - and will be reaching out to our broader IRMA membership in 2012 to help move us all forward.

None of this would have happened without our amazing membership - so much love and gratitude to you all. You make me so happy and proud :)

I am excited to say that I am headed to Thailand tomorrow. IRMA is helping conduct civil society consultations in Bangkok and Chiang Mai in conjunction with MTN 017 - similar to the ones that were held in Cape Town and Pittsburgh already (and are being planned for Boston and Lima.) This will be a great opportunity for IRMA to expand it's membership in Thailand. And I must say, my slides that have been translated into the Thai language look STUNNING - the Thai script is so lovely.

Actually, the announcement of MTN 017 was another HUGE highlight in 2011. It will be the field's very first Phase II rectal microbicide trial - how cool is that?! We will be sure to tell you more about it once the protocol is finalized in the new year - including a global teleconference which will explain all the details.

If you have other highlights to share regarding our field - please feel free.

In the meantime, best wishes to each of you, and happy, happy, happy New Year.

Jim Pickett
IRMA Chair


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Microbicides 2012 Abstract and Scholarship Deadlines - November 17 (Aussie time)

 

Heads up IRMA, you have little more than a week to submit abstracts and apply for scholarships for the Microbicides 2012 conference scheduled for April 15 - 18, 2012 in Sydney, Australia.

Please take special note of the time - as Nov 17 in Australia could very well be Nov 16 where you are.

Here is the website: http://microbicides2012.org/

Here are key dates:

Abstract Submission

Thursday 17 November 2011 (Authors should submit abstracts no later than 5pm AEST time on Thursday 17 November 2011. TAKE NOTE OF THIS TIME and figure out what it means in your time zone - it will likely be much earlier, or even the day before.)

Scholarship Application

Thursday 17 November 2011 (Scholarship applications must be submitted online no later than 5:00 p.m Australian Eastern Standard Time - again, TAKE NOTE OF THIS TIME and figure out what that means in your time zone).
Successful applicants will be informed by e-mail after 16 January 2012.

Early Bird Registration
Tuesday 31 January 2012

Late Breaker Abstracts
Sunday 13 February 2012

Accommodation Booking
Friday 9 March 2012

Standard Registration
Thursday 15 March 2012

Conference Registration
Friday 30 March 2012

Conference
15 - 18 April 2012



[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

2012 International Microbicides Conference (M2012) in Sydney, Australia

The next International Microbicides Conference will be held in Sydney, Australia from April 15-18th, 2012!

Registration
Registration is not yet open, but to submit an expression of interest, please click here. By submitting this, you will be contacted as soon as official registration opens!

Abstract Submission
The 2012 International Microbicides Conference (M2012) invites papers of high quality in the areas of HIV prevention, with a particular focus on microbicides, oral chemoprophylaxis, and their interface with other prevention strategies. The conference is interdisciplinary, and encourages the full involvement of communities and individuals affected by HIV. Abstract submissions will be reviewed by the Scientific Program Committee for content, presentation, timeliness, and current interest of the topic to M2012 participants. Abstracts are welcomed from researchers, program implementers, policy makers, advocates, and community members, and will be considered for inclusion provided they meet the guidelines below.

Please click here to view the abstract submission guidelines.  Authors should submit abstracts no later than 5pm AEST time on Thursday 17 November 2011. Click here for more information and details about uploading your abstract.

Scholarships
Scholarships are available to attend the 2012 International Microbicides Conference (M2012) in Sydney, Australia.

Scholarships will be offered in four categories that have distinct criteria:
1. Research
2. Community
3. Government Official/Public Health Policy
4. Media (Further details to come - Media scholarships will open 23 September)

Scholarship applications are due 5:00 pm AEST on Thursday 17 November 2011.  Click here for more details about scholarships and to apply.

For any other information about M2012 please go to microbicides2012.org.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

2012 International Microbicides Conference Scholarship Opportunity!

via International Microbicides Conference Secretariat

Do you need funding to attend M2012?

The M2012 organisers are pleased to announce that scholarships are available to attend the conference in Sydney, Australia. Scholarships will be offered in four categories that each have distinct criteria:

1. Research
2. Community
3. Government Official/ Public Health Policy
4. Media

Click here to find out how to apply for the scholarship.

For more information please visit the conference website http://www.microbicides2012.org/



[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

SAVE THE DATE: M2012 is coming to Sydney, April 2012

The M2012 International Microbicides Conference is fast approaching. The conference will be held at Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Sydney, Australia from Sunday 15 April to Wednesday 18 April 2012. It's time to make sure you mark these dates in your diary. 

Click here to learn more, including deadlines for early bird registration, abstract submissions and scholarship 

For more information or to register your interest please visit the website www.microbicides2012.org.

Also, please be aware that IRMA is working with other partners on a pre-conference - to be held Sunday April 15 before the full conference opening - and an Advocacy Corner. If you are interested, let us know.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]