HIV

Patients with gaps between HIV primary care visits of 6 months up until 9 months did not have a significant difference in viral suppression loads. However, with gaps of 12 months or more, 23% of patients became unsuppressed.

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School will test the safety and tolerability of a vaccine that may have the potential to prevent HIV infection.

Between 2000 and 2015, $562.6 billion was spent on HIV/AIDS, with most spending occurring in high-income and upper-income countries and out-of-pocket spending accounting for less than 10%, according to the first long-term, comprehensive analysis of funding for the disease.

At the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy's Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy Annual Meeting, held April 23-26, in Boston, Massachusetts, an overflow capacity crowd gathered for one of the meeting’s yearly highlights­: Specialty Pharmaceuticals in Development. Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD, a senior clinical consultant in Emerging Therapeutics for Express Scripts, talked about the key trends in the specialty drug market, including cancer drugs, new competition, and orphan drugs.

A panel of experts in infectious disease and managed care to discuss management of HIV, including the need for individualized care and the role for newer treatments options.

AIDSinfo, a portal from the National Institutes of Health, has outlined recent changes that have been made to the adult, adolescent, and perinatal HIV guidelines, including the incorporation of people-first language.

The increased risk of cancer in patients with HIV has been well defined, and some studies have suggested that patients with HIV have not only a higher risk of lung cancer, but also an increased risk of mortality from their cancer than patients without HIV.

Emergency departments can play a critical role in the identification of undiagnosed HIV in low-resource areas, according to a study published in PLOS ONE.

This week, the top managed care stories included President Donald Trump signing an executive order requiring the poor to get jobs or lose food and healthcare benefits; a CMS report found ethnic, racial, and gender disparities in Medicare Advantage plans; CDC highlighted the impact of HIV on America's youth.

As April 10 marks National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day, CDC and other organizations are highlighting the impact of HIV/AIDS on individuals aged 13 to 24, as they accounted for nearly one-fourth of all new HIV diagnoses in the United States in 2015.

Christie’s Place, a nonprofit social service organization, puts a large focus on social determinants of health to help their clients not only keep up with their medical care, but also improve their quality of life.

Coverage of our peer-reviewed research and news reporting in the healthcare and mainstream press.

As the opioid epidemic persists as a public health crisis in the United States, there has been growing concern the injection drug use will affect infectious disease, as it increases the risk of infections, such as HIV. A graphic series from Kaiser Family Foundation took a look at the interaction between the nation's HIV and opioid epidemics. Here are 5 take aways.

Every week, The American Journal of Managed Care® recaps the top managed care news of the week, and you can now listen to it on our podcast, Managed Care Cast.

This week, the top managed care stories included another insurer announcing it would pass on drug rebates to consumers; FDA approved a new continuous glucose monitor and created a new medical device class; new guidelines address how to treat people with both HIV and cancer.

The #AskTheHIVDoc series, launched by Greater Than AIDS in 2015, tackles frequently asked questions that patients at risk for or living with HIV want to know, should know, or are nervous to ask their doctors about. The series has also found usefulness among physicians and health groups.

“HIV status alone should not be used for cancer treatment decision making,” said Gita Suneja, MD, Duke Cancer Institute.

New CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, replaces the acting director, who led the agency through the severe flu season after Brenda Fitzgerald, MD, resigned at the end of January.

While years of efforts to combat the HIV epidemic have resulted in major successes, progress in reducing infection among men who have sex with men has lagged as they remain the most affected population, according to a study in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The National Institutes of Health is investigating whether there were any improprieties committed with the recently begun study into health effects of moderate alcohol consumption; concerns over HIV research from 20 years ago brought up against CDC director pick; new Idaho law requires women seeking abortions be told they can halt the drug-induced procedure halfway.

While rates of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) usage among Americans have significantly increased year over year since PrEP gained approval for HIV prevention in 2012, significant gaps exist among African Americans and Latinos, according to analyses from AIDSVu and the CDC.

An updated cost sharing reduction (CSR) subsidy bill would cut premiums while making programmatic changes to insurance; hospitals are facing shortages of opioids for patients; there's low usage of HIV prevention medicine among minorities, according to new data.

A year has passed since Amy Lansky stepped down as director of the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP), and the position continues to remain open, worrying HIV/AIDS advocates.

Use of an HIV-prevention pill is increasing across the country, but has lagged among blacks and Latinos; Wyoming House fails to pass Medicaid work requirement bill that sailed through the state Senate; Los Angeles County is overhauling the healthcare in its jails in order to better equip inmates to manage their health.