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A pair of late-breaking abstracts presented during AIDS 2020, this year’s virtual meeting of the International AIDS Society, detailed the effects that the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has had on trends in at-risk sexual behaviors and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use, both in the United States and in Australia, due to shelter-in-place orders and social distancing.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic presents a new challenge: patients have severe flu-like symptoms, but the virus can also cause renal failure. Doctors and patients need analgesics that go easy on the liver and kidneys but are not addictive, and this week researchers at LSU Health New Orleans Neuroscience Center of Excellence announced they have discovered a new class of drugs that can do the job.

This week, the top managed care news included CMS planning to pay more for at-home dialysis equipment; ACR supports continued use of telemedicine after the COVID-19 pandemic passes; AJMC®’s coverage of AIDS 2020, the 23rd International AIDS Conference.

Twenty pharmaceutical companies created a $1 billion fund to aid financially strained antibiotic development start-ups; the World Health Organization (WHO) concedes that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can become airborne; the WHO will launch an independent review into the global pandemic response after the United States formally withdrew from the organization.

A recent analysis conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS found donor governments spent $7.8 billion for HIV in 2019, a decrease of $165 million from the previous year. This number is similar to that spent a decade ago, despite a 25% increase of individuals now living with HIV in regions receiving the aid.

With more states reporting record numbers of new infections of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the United States has surpassed 3 million confirmed cases; the Trump administration has notified the United Nations that it will be withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO); a new injectable given to patients every 2 months can protect against HIV better than the commonly used daily pill.