Highlights from the National HIV Prevention Conference

The annual National HIV Prevention Conference, organized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) -- is taking place this week (August 14-17) in Atlanta.

The meeting brings together more than 3000 public health officials, medical providers, and HIV/AIDS community leaders and advocates to share the latest research in the field of prevention and to discuss strategies for reducing the number of new HIV infections in the U.S.

This year's conference features news of recent breakthroughs in the area of biomedical prevention, including the HPTN 052 trial showing that early HIV treatment also prevents transmission, and studies demonstrating that pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) works for heterosexual couples as well as men who have sex with men (MSM).

A recent report showed that while new HIV infections have held steady overall at around 50,000 per year, the incidence rate has increased among young gay men and young African-American men, and nearly doubled for young black MSM.

To address this disparity, the CDC is focusing on what it calls "high impact prevention" (HIP), an effort to target prevention resources to the areas and populations that need them most.

"While significant challenges remain, this has been a banner year for HIV prevention research," said Kevin Fenton, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, in a press release issued by the agency. "After 30 years of HIV, there are more prevention tools to help combat the epidemic than ever before, which gives us hope that we can further drive down HIV infections in this country."

Ronald Valdiserri, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, is covering the conference for the AIDS.gov blog.

Reports from Day 1 and Day 2 are currently online, with further reports to follow.

Among the presentations highlighted by Valdiserri:

• Reflections on the first year of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy by White House Office of National AIDS Policy director Jeffrey Crowley.
• An opening session address, also discussing the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, by Kevin Fenton.
• An overview of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic and the concept of high impact prevention by Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention.
• Paul Kawata, Executive Director of the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC), discussing implementation of treatment-as-prevention findings from HPTN 052.
• An overview by David Holtgrave of the Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health of how modeling can help determine the best combination of HIV prevention interventions.
• San Francisco Department of Public Health Director of HIV Prevention Moupali Das speaking about intensifying prevention in communities with a heavy concentration of HIV cases, including a discussion of community viral load and San Francisco's early treatment policy.
• Judy Auerbach and colleagues from the San Francisco AIDS Foundation discussing how to align agency programs with new city and national prevention priorities.
• Representatives from the Office on Women’s Health speaking on addressing the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV infection, with a preview of the forthcoming Gender Toolkit for health departments and community-based organizations.

The conference program and other information is available at http://www.2011nhpc.org.

The full conference abstract book is available free for download at http://www.2011nhpc.org/archivepdf/2011%20NHPC%20Final%20Abstract%20Book.pdf.

8/16/11

Sources

R Valdiserri. National HIV Prevention Conference -- Highlights of Day 1. Aids.gov blog. August 15, 2011.

R Valdiserri. National HIV Prevention Conference -- Highlights of Day 2. Aids.gov blog. August 16, 2011.

CDC. HIV Prevention Conference to Focus on High-Impact Prevention. Press release. August 12, 2011.