Comforted Creatures Video

posted: 14/04/2011

We produced this animation (with apologies to Ardman Animation’s Creature Comforts) as a serious but amusing presentation on some of our work, for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. You can view it on the new videos page of the HIV magazine Baseline.

We interviewed people with HIV who have benefited from our positive prevention work and residential weekends, funded by the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
 

Excellent Presentation

After presenting all our Positive Prevention work which they have funded, to the Foundation's panel, they told us:

"George House Trust were the first to present and I have to say set a standard that was not replicated. If there was ever a lesson on how to do an interesting presentation, that was it.

Lynda and Colin spoke with passion about the work, the achievements so far and the publication of initial outcomes (they had the BHIVA/NHIVNA poster displayed).

An individual talked very openly and honestly about how he had benefited from the programme and to top it all we were treated to an animated film with people’s real experiences of the support and help they had received.

A perfect presentation with something for everyone - excellent!"

CHAPS impressed

We also showed this at the recent CHAPS conference held in Manchester for organisations and people involved in HIV prevention work with men who have sex with men. Robbie Currie, a leading NHS HIV prevention commissioner in London was very impressed, asking number of questions and commenting how useful a resource it was, and his interested in having something similar.  

View Comforted Creatures here http://www.baseline-hiv.co.uk/latest-videos

Speak at Positive Prevention Conference?

posted: 12/04/2011

George House Trust, the Manchester based HIV support organisation, runs a Positive Prevention project, funded by the Elton John AIDS Foundation. We are holding a free national conference in Manchester on 1st July for staff and organisations doing positive prevention work, to share best practice, and to consider developing minimum standards for Positive Prevention work.

Speakers Wanted

We are inviting people who would like to speak at this conference about their experience in Positive Prevention work to contact us.

Positive Prevention means working to support people living with HIV, where one of the benefits is reducing onward HIV transmission. Positive Prevention at George House Trust includes

• one to one support
• group "peer support" spaces
• courses for people newly diagnosed with HIV and
• reflective residential weekends for people diagnosed with HIV for longer than 12 months.

Most of our weekends and courses have been for gay and bi men, and we have run others for people living with HIV.

Call for speakers
If you

• Are working in an organisation doing ‘positive prevention’ work with people living with HIV, or
• Want to share the positive prevention work you are doing, or
• Have any data from positive prevention work which shows changes in behaviour or knowledge (we want the conference to hear evidence both of what works, and what doesn’t seem to work), or
• Want to highlight aspects of positive prevention work, or
• Are a person with HIV who has taken part in a Positive Prevention project, or
• Want to suggest a speaker with relevant knowledge or experience of Positive Prevention
  we want to hear from you.
   

Presentations can be in any format and would be for the whole conference, of about 35 people.

Please Contact Chris

If you are interested in making a presentation, please email Chris Morley with your proposal by Monday 23rd May .

Interested in attending?
This conference is only for people and organisations already doing Positive Prevention. If you would like to come as a delegate to the Positive Prevention conference, please contact Chris.  
 

What some people with HIV have said about our residential weekends

• The weekend really helped me to identify where I am now - and to look clearly at what I need for the future
• I learned so much from the other men and really now feel focussed on making positive changes
• It helped me connect, and gave me support and direction
• The weekend has given me a real boost and I feel now like I can face some of my issues in a constructive way and really move forward
• Thanks for a great weekend which has helped me think about how I deal with some of my fears and anxieties about living with HIV
• The weekend gave me a sense of space and safety to be able to talk more confidently about living with HIV now and in the future.

HIV Prevention Conference Talks

posted: 11/04/2011

The presentations, from all the speakers at the national CHAPS gay and other men who have sex with men’s (MSM) HIV prevention conference, are now available online. This CHAPS conference was held in Manchester, in March.

The full programme here tells you who the speakers were and more about each talk  
 

Here’s what’s available - the presentations are PowerPoint files. 

If you need a programme to view PowerPoint presentations download the PowerPoint Viewer programme here 
 

Session 1

• Work with prisons
• Advice services for PLHIV
• Advice services for PLHIV 2
• HIV prevention with the over 50s
• Asian MSM
• Sexual health services in the community
• Online initiatives
• Online initiatives 2 - social media
   

Session 2 

• The role of fear in HIV prevention
• Re-engaging the community
• South London HIV Prevention (SLHP) model of HIV prevention 1
• SLHP model of HIV prevention 2
• SLHP model of HIV prevention 3
• SLHP model of HIV prevention 4
• SLHP model of HIV prevention 5
• SLHP model of HIV prevention 6
• European MSM Internet Sex Survey (EMIS)
• Treatment as prevention 1
• Treatment as prevention 2

 Session 3 

• Targeted working
• Transmen 1
• Transmen 2
• Sex workers 1
• Sex workers 2
• Blood donations
• Partner numbers and patterns

Session 4 

• Undiagnosed infection - partner notification
• Undiagnosed infection - MSM
• National LGB Drugs and Alcohol Database
• The role of fear in HIV prevention
• Sexual orientation monitoring
• European MSM Internet Sex Survey - Differences in STI testing
• The changing sexual behaviours of MSM

Session 5 

• Measuring outcomes 1
• Measuring outcomes 2
• Measuring outcomes 3
• Treatment as prevention 1
• Treatment as prevention 2
• Just gay men?
• Condom and lube distribution 1
• Condom and lube distribution 2
• Pornography and gay men's attitudes towards sex, risk and pleasure
• Telling partners about HIV status 1
• Telling partners about HIV status 2

Session 6 

• Re-engaging the community
• HIV and ageing
• Young people and homophobia
• Crystal Meth
• Testing times 1
• Testing times 2

Euro Gay HIV Prevention Conference

posted: 11/04/2011

The Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control is holding a European HIV Prevention for men who have sex with men conference. Men, Men Sex and HIV will be on Thursday 10th and Friday 11th November 2011, in Stockholm, Sweden.
The conference is for

• Government organisations (involved in healthcare, disease control and prevention)
• Other organisations targeting MSM
• Researchers

They want the conference to deal with the rise in HIV and the other sexually transmitted infections (STI) among MSM.

Fresh evidence-based methods of prevention are needed along with more activity to cut HIV and STI transmissions and to develop ‘Second Generation Surveillance’. [Second Generation Surveillance means regular, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of information for tracking and describing changes in the HIV epidemic over time. It includes gathering information on risk behaviours, and using these to warn about and explain changes in levels of HIV infection].
 

The conference will also help bridge the gap between Western and Eastern European HIV and STI prevention work, by sharing lessons, best practice and research.

They also want the conference to involve commercial and other businesses which can contribute to gay men’s prevention such as bars and clubs and profile websites.
 

Subjects and themes

• Understanding the epidemic
• Vulnerability and social determinants
• Response, Prevention, Intervention and Performance/Outcomes
• Positive Sex and Prevention
• European regional differences
• Co-operation between sectors (academic/governmental/civil society/private and commercial)
• Sustainability
• Empowerment - healthy choices
• Innovative approaches

Conference website

Hepatitis C Twice for HIV+ Gay Men

posted: 16/03/2011

Just over one-quarter of gay men with HIV cured of early stage hepatitis C in Amsterdam got it again within two years. The men got hepatitis C from different people the second time.
 

10 times more reinfection – better prevention needed
The hepatitis C reinfection rate among these Amsterdam HIV positive men is ten times higher than the rate they of first hepatitis C infection among men with HIV.
 

It is clear that much better health promotion work is needed if men are to avoid reinfection with hepatitis C.
 

Sexually transmission of hepatitis C among gay and bisexual men happens widely especially in cities like Manchester, Brighton, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, as well as in North America and Australia.
 

Sex risks and networks
Various explanations have been offered for the greater vulnerability of men with HIV infection, including chosing sexual partners who also have HIV (called sero-sorting), and networks of sexual partners where many of the men have HIV. However it is the sexual and drug-using practices which affects who gets hepatitis C.
 

Heptatitis C reinfection
Researchers from Amsterdam Academic Medical Centre and the Amsterdam Public Health Service reported HIV+ men reinfected after being successfully treated for hepatitis C.
Twenty-eight men were successfully treated. Two men relapsed and hepatitis C reappeared within two months of the end of their hepatitis C treatment. Of the remaining 26 men, 7 were reinfected within two years, an incidence of 19.6 per 100 person years of follow-up. The time to reinfection was typically one year but could be much sooner.
 

Different type of hepatitis C
In every man reinfected they had a different genetic version of hepatitis C - three who first had genotype 4 then got genotype 1, while two men who started with genotype 1 get genotype 4 the second time. One man got genotype 1 again but even this was from a different clade, a different subtype.
 

Better prevention
The researchers say that discussion about prevention measures needs to take place not only at the time of diagnosis, but during and after treatment.
In particular men need to understand all the possible sexual and drug sharing transmission routes, and must to feel free to have frank discussions with doctors about sexual practices, drug-using behaviour and other risk factors. Too many HIV positive men with hepatitis C feel unable to talk freely because they feel judged, shamed and blamed by their HIV clinic.
 

Keep testing
Regular HCV testing in previously-treated individuals is also essential. We reported recently that while around 8% of gay and bi men with HIV in the UK have hepatitis C, one quarter of positive gay men were not checked for this in 2008, when every person with HIV should be checked at least once a year.

A German study showed similar reinfection among HIV-positive men. 22% became reinfected within six years, despite the number of first hepatitis C infections in Germany falling. 

Treatment of acute hepatitis C infection with pegylated interferon and ribavirin prevents early HIV infection progressing to chronic infection, which is harder to treat in HIV-positive people.
European guidelines on treatment of acute hepatitis C infection note that HIV-positive patients have a good response rate to treatment begun within a year of infection.

Source  with reference