September 10, 2010

Dear Advocates,

This update is an announcement about an upcoming workshop, Preparing for PrEP, sponsored by AVAC and the iPrEx trial team. The workshop will take place on Tuesday, September 14 as part of the United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) in Orlando, Florida (September 12-15).

Results from the iPrEx trial, which is evaluating the safety and effectiveness of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) for HIV prevention in gay men and other men who have sex with men will be available within the next six months. Additional data from other ARV-based prevention trials will also be available in the coming year.

Are our communities ready for results of a trial that may show evidence that PrEP could be an effective HIV prevention strategy? Is there a clear understanding of what the current trials will and won’t tell us—and of what it might take to introduce PrEP, should it prove effective?

Join AVAC and representatives from iPrEx to discuss these and many other questions at our workshop:

Preparing for PrEP
Tuesday, September 14, Session 3
9:30–11:30 am
Sarasota Room, Ground Level
Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek, Orlando, FL

The iPrEx initiative is a Phase III trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of once-daily dosing with the antiretroviral tenofovir/emtricitabine (TDF/FTC) to reduce the risk of HIV infection in HIV-negative men. Trial results from this multi-country study, taking place in Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, South Africa, Thailand and the US, are expected in the coming months. For more on PrEP and other ongoing trials, please check out the range of PrEP resources available on the AVAC website at www.avac.org/prep.

The mission of the USCA, organized by the National Minority AIDS Council, is to increase the strength and diversity of the community-based response to the AIDS epidemic through education, training, new partnerships, collaboration and networking. It is the largest AIDS-related gathering in the US, bringing together over 2,500 workers from all fronts of the HIV/AIDS epidemic—from case managers and physicians, to public health workers and advocates, to people living with HIV/AIDS and policy makers.

We hope those of you attending the conference will join the PrEP workshop, an excellent opportunity to voice your views on PrEP as well as hear first-hand about the ongoing PrEP research and its implications in our communities. For those advocates unable to attend USCA, stay tuned for upcoming coverage of iPrEx and check out AVAC’s document series, A Cascade of Hope and Questions including Anticipating the results of ARV-based prevention trials. And definitely stay tuned for continuing coverage of PrEP and ARV-based prevention here on the Advocates’ Network.

As always, questions or comments are most welcome—email us!

Best,
AVAC