September 1, 2011

Welcome to the inaugural issue of P-Values, AVAC’s new bulletin highlighting advocacy work by our partners and many other stakeholders around the world. “P-value” is a statistical term for the probability that a trial result is a real finding and not the result of chance. As the world faces new challenges and opportunities in prevention research, the global advocacy community isn’t leaving anything to chance. P-Values tracks HIV work on country- and community-level engagement in trials, preparing for results and implementation of new findings. Each issue will be short, sharp and to the point. Here’s what you need to know now.

AVAC Welcomes New Members to PxROAR Program
In August, five additional members joined AVAC’s US domestic advocacy leadership program, PxROAR (Prevention Research, Outreach, Advocacy and Representation)—Ilanito Cerna-Turoff, Fulbright Program; Steve Houldsworth, Saint Louis Effort for AIDS; Julie Patterson, AIDS Taskforce for Greater Cleveland; Carlos Pavão, Consultant; and Charles Stephens, AID Atlanta. The PxROAR program offers training for US advocates in biomedical HIV prevention research education and advocacy through mentorship, peer support, networking opportunities, and technical and financial support. The inaugural PxROAR class focused on individual projects ranging from a literature review of best practices for informed consent, to building a cadre of HIV-positive women prevention research advocates. This group of seven will work with the new members on a common campaign about which we’ll provide updates in future issues.

WHiPT Report Contributes to Greater Civil Society Involvement in MMC Implementation
Carol Odada, coordinator of Kenya’s Women’s HIV Prevention Tracking Project (WHiPT) team, presented the WHiPT report, Making Medical Male Circumcision Work for Women, at the recent meeting of Kenya’s National Male Circumcision Task Force. As a result of her presentation, which highlighted a range of concerns including the fear that medical male circumcision (MMC) will be conflated with female genital mutilation, Carol was invited to join the committee coordinating MMC roll out in Kuria, a Kenyan district where female genital mutilation is still practiced. “We will be able to document practices both good and bad,” Odada says, noting that after the presentation other MMC implementers also asked for guidance from the WHiPT team on addressing women’s concerns during rollout.

A New Tool for Laypeople Serving on Institutional Review Boards
The New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society (NHVMAS), a partner in AVAC’s work on Good participatory practice for biomedical prevention research, recently published two new training manuals: one for training laypersons serving on ethics committees on how to read and give feedback on protocols, and one on the basics of research ethics. The training manuals and a PowerPoint presentation for training laypersons serving on ethics committees are available for download here. If you have trouble downloading the files or require printed copies, contact us at avac@avac.org.

Epicentro, IRMA and AVAC work to expand the HIV prevention research advocacy community in Latin America
International Rectal Microbicide Advocates (IRMA) and AVAC have partnered with Epicentro gay men's community center in Lima, Peru to bolster HIV prevention education and advocacy in Latin America. Epicentro is adapting advocacy materials on PrEP and rectal microbicides, conducting community surveys on awareness of recent developments in HIV prevention research and gay men’s concerns and priorities. They held their first advocacy call with their new network, La Red, on August 25. You can follow their work on the IRMA-ALC blog and an active Facebook page. For AVAC materials translated into Spanish, visit www.avac.org/espanol.