Celebrating Progress and Looking to Next Steps in HIV and STI Prevention with Dr. Connie Celum

We connected with Dr. Connie Celum, professor at the University of Washington Schools of Public Health and Medicine, to learn more about current challenges in HIV/STI prevention, and gain insight into the inspiration behind her doxycycline postexposure prophylaxis (doxy-PEP) research and thoughts on offering it to cis-gender women in the US at higher risk of STI acquisition.

Global Health Researchers Receive $122 Million to Study Monthly HIV Pill

Global health researchers at the University of Washington have received a $122 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to test the effectiveness of the candidate drug islatravir, a once-a-month oral pill to prevent HIV.

The five-year grant will support the implementation of a Phase 3, randomized trial of islatravir, among women, in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Islatravir is a nucleoside reverse transcriptase translocation inhibitor in development by Merck for the treatment and prevention of HIV-1 infection.

‘People Were Really Quite Stunned’: Dr. Caroline Ryan, Incoming CDC Country Director for Ethiopia, Shares Lessons from the Fight Against HIV, COVID-19 in Eswatini

When Dr. Caroline Ryan became the CDC Country Director for Eswatini in 2015, the small kingdom in Southern Africa (then known as Swaziland) had the highest rate of HIV in the world – 27% of the adult population. But there was reason to be optimistic.

The following year, a study showed that the number of new infections in the country had been nearly halved and the number of people who were on antiretrovirals that were virally suppressed had doubled.

Faculty Receives $3 Million to Test One-Stop Locale for Women's Reproductive Health, HIV Prevention

Kenneth Mugwanya, an assistant professor of global health at the University of Washington School of Public Health, and his research team have received a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to test the effectiveness of integrating methods of HIV prevention into sexual and reproductive health services for women in Kenya.

ICRC Fellow Treating Mind and Body - Jennifer Velloza, UW Magnuson Scholar.

Jennifer Velloza spent a year crisscrossing the grass-covered plains and sloping hills of rural Swaziland, dividing her time among ten medical clinics in this small southern African country. Here, nearly one in four people have HIV — and that rate is even higher among women.

As a study manager for Doctors Without Borders, Velloza saw many pregnant and postpartum women struggle to get the HIV testing and treatment they needed, because they were also suffering from sexual trauma, depression or anxiety.

New Test is First in U.S. to Help Detect New STD Threat

It is hard to get much of a reputation if nobody knows you’re around, and that has definitely been the case for mycoplasma genitalium, the tiny bacteria estimated to be more prevalent than the bug that causes gonorrhea but is almost completely off the public’s radar.

That’s because, until very recently, it has been difficult for front-line physicians to confirm that this particular microbe — the smallest bacteria ever detected — was present in specific patients.

What It Will Take for The World to Keep Getting Better

By Vanessa Bates Ramirez

Compared to life 100 years ago, life these days is pretty good by many measures. You’ve probably heard the statistics: poverty and infant mortality are down, life expectancy is up, and infectious diseases are being controlled, if not cured. In short, more humans than ever before are having their basic needs met, and it’s undeniable that the world is getting better.

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