North West ‘Treatment as Prevention’ seminar

posted: 18/05/2012

George House Trust will be holding a day seminar on ‘Treatment as Prevention’ to be held at George House Trust in Manchester on Friday June 22nd from 10 am to 3pm (with registration open from 9.30am). Lunch will be provided.

The concept of ‘treatment as prevention’ is one which is currently the focus of much discussion amongst HIV organisations and people living with HIV.

The seminar will provide an opportunity for representatives from HIV organisations across the North and North West to discuss some of the aspects of the ‘treatment as prevention’ concept and the implications for people living with HIV.

It will provide a space for discussion about how - and if - the ‘treatment as prevention’ concept might change the way in which organisations work with, advise, and support people living with HIV.

We are delighted to announce that Gus Cairns, HIV activist and editor of NAM’s ‘HIV Treatment Update’ will be joining us to give a keynote address and lead some of the discussions.

We are inviting people to reserve a place on this seminar by emailing colin@ght.org.uk - please provide the names and job titles of people from your organisation who would like to attend.
Places will be strictly limited and so you are advised to reserve your place as soon as possible.

There will a nominal registration fee of £5 per person attending – however, we will only request this payment from you, and provide you with details of how to pay – once your place or places are confirmed.

We look forward to welcoming you to what we are sure will be an interesting and stimulating day.

Launch of African Men's Calabash Space

posted: 13/10/2011

George House Trust has received funding to develop it's work with African men with African Men's Adviser Mike Mpofu leading on this exciting work.

Mike would like to invite Positive African men who are known to GHT to a group meeting on Saturday 19th November at George House Trust - the meeting is from 12.30 pm until 3 p.m. There'll be African food and music.

It is really important that for positive African Men to come along, so that they can let Mike know what you want from services at George House Trust.

For further details, contact mike@ght.org.uk or ring him on 0161 274 5662.

Food will be served and we will reimburse your travelling expenses

Positive Prevention Conference

posted: 23/05/2011

We are delighted to invite people and organisations already involved in 'Positive Prevention' activities to our free Positive Prevention Conference, in Manchester, Friday 1st July, 10.30 - 4.30pm

The booking form can be downloaded if you Read More below.

Positive Prevention means meeting the support and sexual health needs of people diagnosed with HIV and so reduce the risk of onward HIV transmission.

This conference is only for people and organisations already doing Positive Prevention activities. This might include campaigns against HIV stigma and discrimination.

George House Trust's positive prevention work, for example, provides one to one support, group 'peer support' spaces, five-session courses for newly diagnosed people, and reflective facilitated residential weekends for people who have been diagnosed longer than 12 months. This work and this conference is funded by the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

Share Best Practice and discuss Minimum Standards

This Conference is to share the experience and best practice of organisations and individuals already providing Positive Prevention support to gay men, women, and Africans, and to consider developing minimum standards for Positive Prevention.

Positive Prevention Conference
Friday 1st July 2011, at Ardwick Green North, Manchester M12 6FZ: 5 - 10 minutes walk from Manchester Piccadilly Rail
 

Programme

10.00 Registration & coffee
10.30 Welcomes and Introduction
 

10.45 Involving people living with HIV in positive prevention

• Presentations describing various ways people living with HIV are involved
• Discussion: enabling people living with HIV to challenge providers and commissioners about meeting sexual health needs when people are living with HIV and improving involvement

11.30 Tea & Coffee break
 

11.45 Recipes for positive prevention – what’s needed?
Presentations providing an overview and meeting the specific needs of 3 groups – gay men, women and Africans

• Small Group discussions on the needs of people living with HIV and how best these can be met
• Debate the key elements and the minimum provision of positive prevention that HIV+ people should expect

1pm LUNCH and networking : lunch provided
 

1.45pm Workshops - How do you do it?

• Small groups identify the critical ingredients for effective positive prevention for the three groups - gay men, women and Africans

2.45pm Tea & Coffee break
 

3pm Evidencing & Measuring

Gathering evidence and measuring effectiveness of Positive Prevention activities
 

3.30pm Panel Discussion: Agreeing Minimum Standards and Next Step Recommendations
 

4.20 Closing words
Close at 4.30

Please complete and return this booking form to Colin

Please send all Bookings and Enquiries to Colin

 The Elton John AIDS Foundation has funded this conference

Treatment Protects Partners

posted: 13/05/2011

There’s been a lot of publicity in the last day or so about HIV treatment helping stop the spread of HIV. 96% of HIV transmissions among couples are blocked by early treatment of the partner with HIV, was the headline result from a multinational study.

The results were so striking that the study was stopped three years early and everyone with HIV who was not already on HIV treatment was immediately offered HIV treatment.

The results show that treating people living with HIV is at least as good as using condoms to prevent HIV transmission.
 

Universal access to treatment goal
This treatment for prevention success offers an extra reason for pushing the world to achieve the internationally agreed World Health Organisation goal of universal access to HIV treatment, prevention and care. The goal was to reach universal access by 2010, but better late than never. Millennium Development Goal 6 includes halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.
 

Gay men too?
The study included hardly any gay couples (only 3% were gay), so the results don’t prove a 96% reduction in transmission in gay couples. Other evidence already strongly suggests gay men living with HIV on successful treatment are also much less likely to transmit HIV, but probably not by the same amount. (Anal sex is riskier than vaginal sex for passing on HIV, gay men tend to have more partners than heterosexual couples, and other sexually transmitted infections also raise the risks).
 

What they found
The study began in 2005 of 1763 couples where one partner has HIV and the other did not (97% were heterosexual couples). They wanted to find out whether HIV treatment prevented the uninfected partner from getting HIV. It was an international study at 13 sites in Botswana, Brazil, India, Kenya, Malawi, S Africa, Thailand, USA (only one couple were from the USA), and Zimbabwe.
 

They split the couples in half randomly and half the partners with HIV immediately started HIV treatment (with CD4 counts higher than normal for starting treatment at between 350 and 550). The other half of positive partners only started treatment when their CD4 count fell to 250 or less, or they developed an AIDS defining illness.
 

• 39 (2.2%) of the negative partners out of 1763 got HIV
• Up to 11 of the 39 got HIV from someone else, not their partner in the study
• 28 (1.5%) got HIV from their partner in the study, and all but one of those were infected by positive partners who were in the delayed treatment half of the study.

That result was so stark they stopped the study and offered immediate treatment to everyone with HIV not already on treatment because the prevention effect of early treatment was so clear. Early treatment also prevented partners from getting tuberculosis (TB) with only 3 of the people treated early getting TB, compared with 17 of those treated after their CD4 count fell below 250. There were slightly more deaths among the deferred treatment group, but the difference was not statistically significant.
 

You can read the report from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases here  and their Q&A page about the study here
 

Aidsmap’s report

Search HIV Conference Papers

posted: 18/04/2011

The Global Forum on Men who have Sex with Men and HIV (MSMGF) have produced a useful searchable online catalogue of all the papers presented at the last International AIDS Conference, held in Vienna - AIDS 2010 - concerning men who have sex with men (MSM) including transgender people.
 

Searchable catalogue of conference abstracts - you can search by global region, sub-populations (groups affected), and themes.
Here’s the list of search categories to make it easier to find what is available.
 

Sub-population (affected groups)
• Bisexual / MSMW
• Ethnic Minorities
• Incarcerated Individuals
• LGBT
• Migrant, Immigrant
• MSM
• Older Sexual Minorities
• People Living with HIV
• People Who Use Drugs
• Rural Populations
• Sex Workers
• Transgender
• Youth
HIV issues
• Access to Services
• Care & Treatment
• Condom Use
• Education
• Epidemiology
• Government AIDS Programs
• HIV & AIDS
• Prevention Interventions (ARV-Based)
• Prevention Interventions (Behavioural)
• Prevention Interventions (General)
• Resilience
• Risk Factors
• Testing
Cross-Cutting Themes / Issues
• Advocacy
• Capacity-Building Assistance
• Civil Society
• Funding
• Gender
• Health (Non-HIV)
• Human Rights
• Mental Health
• Policy and Legislation
• Recreational Drugs
• Religion
• Research
• Self-Identification
• Sexuality
• Sexually Transmitted Infections
• Stigma / Discrimination
• Structural Interventions
• Tools & Trainings
• Violence
 

Searchable catalogue of conference abstracts