25 July 2024 (Munich, Germany) – The Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS) launched a supplement, titled “The HIV epidemic in eastern Europe and central Asia: challenges and opportunities”, at AIDS 2024, the 25th International AIDS Conference.
The content of the supplement was guided by Guest Editors Miłosz Parczewski (Pomeranian Medical University Szczecin, Poland), Deniz Gökengin (Ege University, Turkiye) and Andriy Klepikov (Alliance for Public Health, Ukraine).
Over the past 10 years, the eastern European and central Asian (EECA) region faced the fastest-growing HIV epidemic in the world, with an overall 48% increase in the number of new HIV acquisitions and a 32% rise in AIDS-related deaths. Moreover, the number of late diagnoses remains high and rates of virologic suppression among people living with HIV are much lower than the UNAIDS 95-95-95 target. Access to opioid agonist therapy, needle and syringe programmes, and combination prevention interventions are often limited or unavailable due to financial, social or structural barriers. The Russian invasion and war in Ukraine have added to the challenging situation in the region by causing internal and external displacement of people and disruption of HIV programmes. This supplement describes these challenges and underscores the demand for evidence-based novel interventions that address the needs of key populations and communities affected by HIV.
The articles in this supplement highlight these take-home messages:
- Settings of mass trauma, such as wars, can have a profound impact on the personal and healthcare-related well-being of people living with HIV.
- Non-governmental organizations play a crucial role during crisis situations, as they possess the experience and resilience needed to adapt services to the evolving needs of their communities.
- Despite the negative effects of the war in the region, stigma against people living with HIV has significantly decreased. However, disparities in discrimination and human rights violations persist across different countries. Interventions tailored to the needs of specific groups and inclusion of peers can be effective even in populations that services are not reaching.
Access the supplement here: https://bit.ly/4bR0UYn
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JIAS publishes a supplement on implementation research and the HIV response
25 July 2024 (Munich, Germany) – The Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS) launched a special issue, titled “Implementation research and the HIV response: Taking stock and charting the way forward”, at AIDS 2024, the 25th International AIDS Conference.
The content of the supplement was guided by Guest Editors Elvin H Geng (Washington University, United States), Eleanor Magongo Namusoke (Ministry of Health, Uganda) and Bohdan Nosyk (Simon Fraser University, Canada) with funding from ViiV Healthcare.
Global progress over the past 20 years has turned the tide on the HIV pandemic through development of highly efficacious interventions. Many countries are close to or have reached the UNAIDS 95-95-95 goals, but progress in some places has fallen short. In 2023, over 1.3 million people acquired HIV – against UNAIDS 2020 targets of 500,000 – and 630,000 people died of AIDS-related causes. Addressing these disparities requires a unified approach, one that is tailored to the evolving health needs, preferences and circumstances of individuals living with HIV and able to reach diverse populations and contexts outside mainstream healthcare. The promise of implementation science is to guide these efforts by providing valid, rigorous and generalizable insights about how to use interventions with greater reach, equity, sustainability and efficiency.
This supplement showcases how implementation science can advance the HIV response by providing an array of insights and strategies that can be used to: (1) achieve greater and more equitable reach of HIV services; and (2) sustain those services in a changing economic and policy environment.
Taken together, the collection of articles highlights the fact that innovative strategies that extend the reach and efficiency of HIV testing are critically needed to close remaining gaps in the public health response to HIV. This supplement also offers key insights about the processes that are required to establish and take up interventions in practice to optimize efficient and successful implementation and avoid common pitfalls.
Access the supplement here: https://bit.ly/3KvrKJu
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JIAS publishes a new supplement on programme science to improve population-level impact of HIV and STI interventions
25 July 2024 (Munich, Germany) – The Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS) launched a supplement, titled “Re-shaping landscapes to support embedded, Programme Science to improve population level impact for HIV and sexually transmitted infections programming: A call for transformative action”, at AIDS 2024, the 25th International AIDS Conference.
The content of the supplement was guided by Guest Editors Marissa Becker, (University of Manitoba, Canada), Maryam Shahmanesh (University College London, UK) and Sevgi Aral (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, USA).
The HIV response has seen significant progress in the past years, with a decline in HIV acquisition and increased treatment coverage for people living with HIV. However, challenges remain in achieving these gains equitably and for all. Ensuring maximal and equitable population-level impact calls for transdisciplinary approaches involving science that is embedded in programmes, which can then generate new knowledge that can be applied by programmes.
The articles in this supplement highlight these take-home messages:
- Programme science is an approach to public health programming and research that aims to improve the design, implementation and monitoring of public health programmes through the systematic application of theoretical and empirical scientific knowledge that is generated through programme-embedded research and learning process.
- The systematic approach to the use of routine programme data can generate important evidence on programme gaps and highlight heterogeneity in epidemics, to ultimately inform critical, responsive and nuanced decisions for refinement to programme strategy and implementation.
- It is imperative that researchers are held accountable to the communities in which they work, and that they centre community voices and work towards the co-creation of knowledge.
Access the supplement here: https://bit.ly/4e8g0dC
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About the Journal of the International AIDS Society
The Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS) is the official peer-reviewed journal of the IAS. Founded in 2004, it is an open-access, PubMed- and Medline-indexed journal. JIAS articles are published online on an article-by-article basis. The journal’s primary purpose is to provide an open-access platform for the generation and dissemination of evidence from a wide range of HIV-related disciplines, encouraging research from low- and middle-income countries. In addition, JIAS aims to strengthen capacity and empower less-experienced researchers from resource-limited countries.
For more information, visit www.jiasociety.org.