How many times have you started to have a conversation with someone about Hepatitis C only to have it blow up in your face? Have you ever heard someone say something about Hep C that didn't seem quite right to you? You were probably right something was amiss. A discussion about Hepatitis C can...
As per Wikipedia, the definition of a stigma is as follows: "Stigma is a word that originally means a "sign", "point", or "branding mark"." Wikipedia goes on to call stigma "A badge of shame, a physical mark of infamy or disgrace." Damn that w...
Recently, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) issued a statement that all Baby Boomers should be tested for Hepatitis C. The question often comes up as to why this particular segment of people is so vulnerable. What does being born between 1945 and 1965 have to do with Hepatitis C? What was di...
Buyer Beware! There are several snake oil salesmen out there who are claiming to have cured their own Hepatitis C with herbs, supplements and parking lot gravel. Okay, maybe not the parking lot gravel but it might as well be. What you need to remember is that there are two different types of...
Most every adult woman (and an occasional man) has enjoyed a manicure and a pedicure at a nail salon or spa. That 30 minute pedicure can be so relaxing but are you aware of the danger lurking in that nail salon? Although few individuals recognize the medical risks associated with this common pr...

CCM oversight, sub-recipient management and the work of local fund agents are three areas that the Office of the Inspector General says need to be strengthened. The comments are included in the OIG's Progress Report for November 2011-March 2012.
Progress report more subdued than past reports.
CCM oversight, sub-recipient management and the role of local fund agents all require greater attention, according to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). These comments are included in the OIG's Progress Report for November 2011-March 2012, which was presented to the Global Fund Board at its meeting in May in Geneva. The OIG has offered to work with the Secretariat to address all three areas.
The OIG said that risks associated with governance and oversight at the country level, particularly through CCMs, were identified in the majority of audits the OIG has undertaken. The OIG also said that the LFA function requires "extensive reinvention" if LFAs are going to fulfil their role of ensuring that grant implementation is sound.
The OIG said that it has a number of audit reports in the pipeline, all of which include findings covering all grants in a given country. However, the OIG said, all audits and diagnostic reviews initiated after November 2011 will be restricted to grants starting from Round 6.
The OIG issued four reports at the end of April (three audits and one diagnostic review). The language of those reports, as well as this progress report, was more subdued than the language of previous reports from the OIG. In the progress report, the OIG said that it is paying greater attention to "the tone and style" of its communications. The OIG said that it expects to issue another five or six reports on audits and diagnostic reviews "several weeks" after the Board meeting. It added that "a number" of investigation reports will be issued in the second and third quarters of 2012.
The OIG said that, in future, reports on internal reviews (i.e., audits of programmes at the Secretariat) will be shared with the General Manager, and will be summarised for the Audit and Ethics Committee, but will no longer be posted on the Global Fund's website.
In its report, the OIG said that its Investigation Unit had planned to return to Mali to continue its investigation of Global Fund grants to that country, but that the plans were interrupted by the recent coup. The OIG said that its team will return when the domestic situation settles and it is safe and productive to continue the in-country work.
In its report, the OIG said that "given the evolution of the caseload," the focus of the Investigations Unit is slowly turning from Africa to Asia.
The OIG said that a co-operation agreement covering the OIG's investigatory activities has now been finalised with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The OIG said that it recognises that its relationship with the UNDP "needs to be built on mutual trust." It added that it has shared information with the UNDP on certain investigative efforts, shared drafts of reports in countries with the UNDP for their input, exchanged information on the respective audit plans and schedules of the two entities, and benefitted from reading the UNDP's audit reports through a new remote access agreement. The OIG added that it is currently exploring options for having UNDP auditors join its team for audits and reviews of sub-recipients.
Please sign the ATC Salvage Therapy Petition Join us in asking Congressman Alcee Hastings and Congresswomen Maxine Waters to send a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter to Anthony Fauci, Director of NIAID, asking for the federal facilitation of apricitabine (ATC). ATC is a phase III nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) that has been shown to be safe and effective in treating people with HIV. It works against viruses that are resistant to several other nukes and could ...
Researchers from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the University of Massachusetts Medical School announced today at CROI2013 the discovery of the first infant functionally cured of HIV. The baby, a female now two and a half years old, received 3 HIV medications when brought to the hospital at 30 hours old. Viral load tests were performed during the first few weeks that showed a rapidly decreasing viral load which reached ...
At the 19th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington D.C., the CDC reported that only 1 out of 4 HIV patients in the U.S. have HIV under control, which is defined as complete viral suppression. Warning bells should be ringing in the scientific and HIV advocacy communities. While much progress has been made in the last three decades in the treatment of HIV, tens of thousands of people living with HIV (PLWH) are currently struggling to construct viable treat...
Paige Rawl is 17 and HIV positive, but while her life has been shaped by HIV it isn't ruled by it. When Paige Rawl starts her senior year at Indianapolis’s Herron High School next month, she'll be cheer captain and a member of the student government and prom committee. This summer, the 17-year-old held down a part-time job at Hollister, hawking the popular Southern California-inspired clothing brand. The all-American girl — who happens to be HIV positive. Paige was in...
The HIV community has been abuzz with the August FDA approval of what had been termed “the Quad”, the second one-pill-once-a-day combination antiretroviral drug. Marketed by Gilead under the name Stribild, the drug contains two NRTIs (tenofovir and emtricitabine), an integrase inhibitor (elvitegravir) and an integrase booster (cobicistat) and is approved for use in treatment naïve patients with either drug resistant or wild type virus. In comparison to Atripla, the first...

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) for SUSTIVA® (efavirenz), including dosing recommendations for...

California and other states would be pressured to amend or repeal criminal laws that single out HIV-positive people under a bipartisan bill co-authored and introduced this week by Rep. Barbara...
Mission Statement
At HIV Haven we wish to provide our readers with vital cutting edge information to help expand HIV knowledge and promote activism, particularly that which works towards an end to the HIV pandemic. It is our desire to bring to you the scientific, medical and social advances that given the appropriate attention and support, could change the course of the HIV pandemic, lessen the devastating effects of HIV and AIDS, better the quality and quantity of life for people living with HIV and even yield an eventual end to the HIV pandemic. We also provide the basics of HIV transmission and treatment.
We will focus on issues such as innovative drug development, strategic activist campaigns, HIV relationships and novel HIV and HIV cure research. We also will bring you advances in Hepatitis C (HCV), a common HIV co-infection. Whether you are living with HIV/AIDS, HIV and HCV, love someone who is, are an activist, advocate, researcher, physician or just an interested party, we hope here at HIV Haven we can help you find what you are looking for.