The AIDS 2012 conference organizers recently reminded us that many resources from the conference are now available online at the AIDS 2012 website . Whether you were able to in person in Washington, D.C. or not, you will find a wealth of information at your fingertips, including information from many of the sessions such as slides, links to abstracts, rapporteur reports, and even webcasts of the plenary sessions and several others. (To access these features, click on “More info” at the bottom of the session entry in the online Programme-at-a-Glance.)

We’d also like to remind readers interested in learning more about significant developments at the conference or who wish to refer back to or share some of that information that all of the AIDS.gov blog posts and videos from AIDS 2012 also are available. Our “Conversations from AIDS 2012” video series includes interviews conducted by both Dr. Howard Koh and Dr. Ron Valdiserri with federal leaders including NIH’s Dr. Tony Fauci who spoke about scientific advances that have lead to discussion of the end of AIDS, NIH’s Dr. Gina Brown on women’s HIV research , CDC’s Dr. Kevin Fenton on the HIV treatment cascade , and the White House’s Dr. Grant Colfax who spoke about the National HIV/AIDS Strategy progress report . Dr. Koh and Dr. Valdiserri also interviewed a number of non-federal partners, getting perspectives on information being shared at the conference from NASTAD’s Terrance Moore, AIDS Alabama’s Kathie Hiers, and Tiffany West of the DC Department of Health, among others.

Others colleagues have written blog posts and news stories on the conference, such as What I Learned at AIDS 2012 by David Ernesto Munar, CEO of AIDS Foundation Chicago, and the series of AIDS 2012 Updates from the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Beta blog . The Kaiser Family Foundation also released a video “look back” at the conference, featuring perspectives on the key lessons of the conference from an expert panel.

The Black AIDS Institute is also conducting a series of post-conference AIDS 2012 Updates in communities across the country so that people who were unable to attend the conference are able to hear the groundbreaking information shared there.

We hope these resources are helpful in informing your work in your community and encourage you to refer back to them often and share them with others who might find them useful.

When the XIX International AIDS Conference drew to a close, #AIDS2012 had been tweeted 85,608 times over the course of the six-day conference – a ten-fold increase over AIDS 2010. With free WiFi available throughout the convention center, the increasing role of new media in health communications, and conference delegates making ample use of smartphones and tablet computers, Twitter took off.

The number of daily tweets peaked at over 20,000 on Monday, the first full day of the conference, which featured many high-profile speakers and sessions. The subjects of the tweets spanned a wide range of topics, with many from institutional and organizational tweeters disseminating information about their activities, research, and perspectives.

The conference communications team first used Twitter in 2010, and it is now an important tool for the conference secretariat to disseminate information. In 2010, the conference communication team tweeted 411 times and had just over 2,400 followers. In 2012 the conference communications team sent 784 tweets and had 5,065 followers (50% signed on after the conference started as news and tweets picked up).

The communications team used Twitter to get word out about new resources, such as newsmaker interviews on the YouTube channel and live and recorded webcasts , important news stories, reminders about notable speakers and Global Village activities, logistical or programmatic updates and changes, and conference initiatives such as the Washington, D.C. Declaration and the Turning the Tide Together photo campaign . Because live tweeting of speeches is staff intensive, we limited it this year to the Opening and Closing Sessions and Secretary Clinton’s speech. The live tweeting had steady numbers of retweets and also resulted in many new followers.

The widespread use of mobile technology, as demonstrated by the popularity of the conference’s mobile app introduced for AIDS 2012, likely played an important role in the number of #AIDS2012 tweets. The app, featuring a regularly updated conference programme, interactive venue map, an #AIDS2012 Twitter feed and more, was downloaded 14,475 times. For those who really like numbers, there were 8,158 downloads on iPhones, 4,993 on iPads, and 1,324 on Androids.

If you tweeted or followed tweets during the conference, we would appreciate comments on how you used Twitter to gather and/or disseminate information before, during and after the conference.

Editor’s Note: We had opportunities to catch up with so many great partners while at AIDS 2012 last month, we have been sharing interviews over the past three weeks. This is our final interview in the series.  

In the final of my series of conversations from AIDS 2012, I had an opportunity to sit down with Ms. Tiffany West, Chief of the Strategic Information Bureau in the HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD, and TB Administration at the District of Columbia Department of Health. As discussed in another recent blog post, DC is among the jurisdictions most heavily impacted by HIV/AIDS in the United States.  Tiffany and I had a very interesting discussion about what she and her colleagues are doing to address HIV/AIDS in DC, including efforts to  bring HIV prevention and treatment closer together and how the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and DC’s participation in the 12 Cities Project have helped contribute to local health programs and goals.  We also discussed how DC is working to improve the HIV care continuum (or treatment cascade), including the innovative use of program and surveillance data collected by Tiffany’s office to re-engage people living with HIV in care, and the important roles that community-based and faith-based organizations can and are playing in the District’s response to HIV/AIDS.

Watch our brief conversation below. Then, use the Comments section below to let us know if any of the approaches we discuss might be useful to you in your community.

Editor’s Note: We had opportunities to catch up with so many great partners on so many important issues while at the XIX International Conference on AIDS (AIDS 2012) last month, we are continuing to bring you interviews this week.

During AIDS 2012 late last month, I had an opportunity to sit down with Ms. Kathie Hiers, CEO of AIDS Alabama . We had a very interesting discussion about the heavy burden of HIV  among the states in the Southern United States and the innovative approaches that Kathie and her colleagues  are taking to respond to this situation.

While anyone can become infected with HIV, the National HIV/AIDS Strategy acknowledges that some Americans are at greater risk than others. This includes, among others, people from communities with a higher prevalence of HIV infection. According to the CDC, in 2009, the number of adults and adolescents living with an AIDS diagnosis was highest in the South. In addition, at the end of 2010, the South accounted for 45% of the estimated 33,015 new AIDS diagnoses in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, followed by the Northeast (24%), the West (19%), and the Midwest (13%). As a result of the greater HIV risks experienced by some racial/ethnic minorities, people in certain risk groups, and those in higher prevalence communities, the Strategy directs us to focus our efforts where HIV is concentrated, so that we can have the biggest impact..

Watch our brief conversation below. Then, use the comments section below to let us know if your organization is working to address HIV/AIDS in the South.

Read more about the geographic distribution of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. in this new fact sheet from CDC.

Stay tuned for more posts featuring conversations from AIDS 2012 later this week and next.

At the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012 ) last week, CDC released important information that helps us look more closely at the HIV treatment cascade. Their national analysis is the first to examine the proportion of persons engaged in the stages of HIV care by race/ethnicity, gender, age, and risk factor. This information helps us determine where and how to focus our efforts to make necessary improvements at each stage of the cascade. (Last month, we shared a blog post about the HIV treatment cascade describing what it is and why it is important an important tool to support our work to achieve the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.)

According to the new CDC data (PDF 930KB), presented at the conference by CDC epidemiologist Irene Hall, Ph.D., we know that only 25 percent (down from an earlier estimate of 28 percent) of the more than 1 million individuals in the U.S. who are living with HIV/AIDS are making it all the way through the HIV treatment cascade and achieving viral suppression, which means that the virus is under control at a level that keeps people healthy and reduces the risk of transmitting the virus to others. The new analysis also indicates that African Americans and younger people are the least likely to be in ongoing care and have their virus under control.

I recently had the opportunity to discuss this important new analysis with Dr. Kevin Fenton, Director of CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention. We also discussed CDC’s new Let’s Stop AIDS Together campaign which raises awareness about HIV and its impact on the lives of all Americans, and fights stigma by showing that persons with HIV are real people—mothers, fathers, friends, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, partners, wives, husbands, and co-workers. Watch our brief conversation below:

The following resources provide additional information on this analysis:

• Read the abstract on the conference web site
• View CDC’s press release about the findings
• Download the CDC fact sheet HIV in the United States: The Stages of Care (PDF 930KB)

This week the White House released an update on federal efforts to implement the National HIV/AIDS Strategy in 2011 and 2012. The report provides an overview of the progress made on the implementation of the Strategy and an update on new activities taking place at the federal level. During the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) last week, I had a chance to discuss the report with Dr. Grant Colfax, Director of the White House Office on National AIDS Policy. View our brief conversation about highlights from the report below:

Find the report and other information about the NHAS at AIDS.gov.

It was very exciting to see the presence of a number of social media and mobile sessions at the XIX International Conference on AIDS (AIDS 2012 ) last week in Washington, DC. Patricia Mechael (@PattyMechael), one of the presenters at those sessions, noted that HIV/AIDS was one of the first areas to leverage mobile technology in the global health space; thus it is our duty to continue this and to influence others. In the session, Utilization of Social Media and Web 2.0 to Advance the Human Rights of Young People and Adolescents , Hugh Stephens (@hughstephens) reminded us that it is critical to keep abreast of emerging technologies as avenues for helping us reach our goal of an AIDS-free generation.

Crowd Out AIDS

Social and Crowd Sourced
There were many sessions that highlighted how social media and/or mobile technologies are instrumental in the response to HIV/AIDS in different settings. During the session Strengthening the Global HIV Response Through Social Media , Aram Barra (@arambarra) from Mexico talked about Crowd Out AIDS (@CrowdOutAIDS), an online social collaboration platform developed with UNAIDS that maximizes the potential for young people’s participation and leadership in the AIDS response and serves as the hub for all UNAIDS youth-related activities.The platform takes advantage of crowd sourcing which gathers information from the general public about current events, products and retail establishments. For example, if a natural disaster strikes an area, locals often capture and upload images before a professional news crew arrives. Crowd Out AIDS features include CrowdMap , a global geo-location database of youth activists and organizations, as well as a forum, a blog and a wiki all built around engaging youth. It was refreshing to see a collaborative platform designed specifically for young HIV/AIDS leaders.

An example demonstrating the use of crowd sourcing is Declaration for Change (#dec4change). Young people from around the world used a Codigital platform to develop a list of priorities and a declaration for change for the AIDS response aimed at achieving an AIDS-free generation. Youth contributed new ideas, proposed edits or revisions to each other’s suggestions, and voted on ideas of how young people will achieve an AIDS-free generation.

Text to Change

Easy Global Usage with Big Impact
“Simple in concept, powerful in results” is the description given by Uganda’s Eunice Gnay Namirembe, Program Manager of Text to Change (TTC), an easily scalable platform used to send out and receive text messages, multimedia messages, voice, and data to educate, engage, and empower people on health and well-being. Using mobile phones on a large scale for social purposes, TTC has been used to provide HIV-related information, such as personalized adherence reminders to improve treatment outcomes and interactive quizzes. The tool can also be used for data collection surveys. By focusing on the end-user through provision of local content and software, TTC has had great success. Ms. Namirembe also observed that despite the growing number of smartphones in the world, people in rural areas in developing countries can best be reached by text messaging, which is (and may remain for awhile) the most widely-used data application in the world. So, finding effective methods of working toward important health goals through mobile devices makes the most sense.

Innovative Approaches
Among the innovations I saw featured was the mobile microscope, which could soon be used to improve HIV care delivery in the developing world. Dr. Aydogan Ozcan, a recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and head of UCLA’s Ozcan Research Group , demonstrated LUCAS, an attachment for mobile phones that acts as a microscope, except without lenses. Using hardware that costs less than $10, these mobile microscopes are able to use the shadows of cells to detect illnesses. For the HIV community, Dr. Ozcan talked about their work on a mobile phone attachment that could be used for CD4 counting, logging the results in a database, and texting the results at a minimal cost. This could dramatically improve the availability of CD4 counts and other lab work in the developing world where access to labs and timely results can be a challenge, particularly in rural areas. It could also be used for digital diagnosis and rapid testing of Malaria and other diseases. Different versions of Ozcan’s mobile phone attachments could help diagnose patients and provide better opportunities for care.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also announced during an AIDS 2012 plenary session that HHS is working in partnership with the MAC AIDS Fund to pilot UCARE4LIFE. The pilot will use mobile phone texting to provide important tips and reminders about disease management to people living with HIV.

There were many other presentations about new media and mobile technology during the conference. The take-away here is that as we continue toward our goal of an AIDS-free generation, we need to remember to leverage all that the digital world now offers to help us efficiently and effectively act.

Editor’s Note: We had opportunities to catch up with so many great partners on so many important issues while at the XIX International Conference on AIDS (AIDS 2012) last week, we’ll continue bringing you interviews this week and next.

In this conversation from AIDS 2012, Dr. Ron Valdiserri, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, Infectious Diseases and Director of the Office of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, speaks with Mr. Terrance Moore, Director of Policy and Health Equity at the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD ). They discussed the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS among African American gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men and efforts underway at the national and state levels to address this disparity. They touch on efforts to increase HIV testing among this population, including CDC’s new Testing Makes Us Stronger campaign which Mr. Moore advised on, the importance of improving linkage to and retention in care among this population, and the domestic and global struggles to address and reduce stigma which undercuts these efforts.

Watch their brief conversation below. Then, in the Comments section below, share your ideas for improving HIV prevention, care and treatment for Black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men.

You can also read more on this important topic in our post AIDS 2012: HIV in Gay and Bisexual Men.

Stay tuned for more posts featuring conversations from AIDS 2012 later this week and next.

On Tuesday, Whitman Walker Health Center of Washington, DC, hosted “Return to Lisner: A Forum on HIV/AIDS” to discuss the current state of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The event marked the 29th anniversary of DC’s first HIV/AIDS forum at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium.

Jeanne White-Ginder, the mother of Ryan White, an Indiana teenager who died from AIDS in 1990 and for whom the Ryan White Care Act is named, delivered an impassioned keynote address. Mrs. White-Ginder reflected on the fear and uncertainty that characterized the early days of the epidemic and talked about her son’s ordeal and the stigma and discrimination he encountered.

A panel of medical, research, public policy, and education experts also discussed the state of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and expressed hope and optimism about finally reaching “the beginning of the end” of the HIV epidemic. Among the challenges the speakers highlighted were the need to increase testing, overcome barriers to engaging and maintaining individuals living with HIV in care, provide more comprehensive sex education to the American public, and train more culturally competent clinicians. Despite these challenges, panelists remained optimistic that advances such as treatment-as-prevention and pre-exposure prophylaxis have put the end of the HIV/AIDS epidemic within reach.

DC Partnership for HIV/AIDS Progress
On Wednesday, in the AIDS 2012 Global Village, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) also hosted a panel to give an update on the current state of the epidemic in Washington, DC. Specifically, speakers shared updates on the DC Partnership for HIV/AIDS Progress, a collaboration between NIH’s National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the NIH Clinical Center, and the DC Department of Health (DC-DOH).

Washington is one of the 12 cities in the United States with the highest HIV rates (2.7%). Before 2006, DC had very little community-based data available, which made it difficult to address the changing nature of the epidemic. NIH’s Carl Dieffenbach explained that, in 2006, DC only had eight HIV-related research grants, but now the city has 22.

The goals of the partnership include: 1) Performing research that develops effective measures to control HIV in DC; 2) Establishing a city-wide data system to measure the effectiveness of the programs; 3) Identifying at-risk populations; 4) Piloting the voluntary test-and-treat concept;  5) Augmenting HIV-related subspecialty care in DC; and 6) Providing access to promising research strategies.

The DC partnership has established a city-wide HIV database that links the electronic medical records of the 12 largest care providers, who cover 80% of the HIV-positive population. The partnership is coordinating that data system with the DC-DOH database.

Development Center for AIDS Research (D-CFAR)
The partnership also established the Developmental Center for AIDS Research (D-CFAR), which has $3.75M in funding over five years, 54 investigators, 16 awards (R-series), 16 new investigators, four scientific workgroups, five pilot research awards ($580K), and five administrative supplements ($2.5M).  The D-CFAR is a collaboration between American University, Children’s National Medical Center, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Howard University, and Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN)
Dr. Dieffenbach talked about the various HPTN studies that helped to identify the city’s at-risk populations and pilot test-and-treat protocols. HPTN 061 was designed to assess whether community-level interventions intended to prevent HIV infection would be used by the study population (i.e., black men who have sex with men). A separate study, HPTN 064, was designed to estimate HIV incidence among African American women from areas with high rates of HIV and poverty. The preliminary results of HPTN 064 show higher HIV incidence in the study cities than among black women overall in the United States.  Included in these studies are Community Advisory Boards that work with the researchers to include the voices of the DC community and people living with HIV in the research process.

DC HIV Behavioral Surveillance
Dr. Manya Magnus presented on the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (NHBS). The NHBS multisite study takes cross-sectional “snap shots” in time every year. The study assesses the prevalence of, and trends in, sexual-risk behaviors and HIV-testing behaviors. It examines the impact of prevention, gaps in prevention services, and missed opportunities
for community-researcher collaboration. Dr. Magnus mentioned that, in the absence of the prevention data, they could not make interventions that are culturally relevant.

Nearly 30 years have passed between the first Lisner forum and AIDS 2012. The DC epidemic has changed and the approach to the epidemic has changed.  With continued partnerships between the Federal government, researchers, and the community, Washington, DC will continue moving forward to create an AIDS-free generation.

At the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) , Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Howard Koh sat down with Dr. Kevin Fenton to discuss the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) new “high-impact prevention” approach to HIV. Dr. Fenton is Director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention.

Adopted as part of the CDC’s wide-ranging efforts to implement the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS), “high-impact prevention” is designed to bring the best implementation science to the expanding field of HIV prevention. “It’s about selecting the right interventions for the right populations, and implementing them with quality and impact,” said Dr. Fenton.

According to Dr. Fenton, “high-impact prevention” places greater emphasis on effectiveness and outcomes, thereby increasing accountability. Ultimately, the strategy also encourages grantees to begin local conversations about prioritization.

In the interview below, Dr. Fenton also discusses the important opportunity AIDS 2012 offered to highlight HIV-related inequalities, and to initiate a broader conversation about the social determinants of health. With regard to the continued disproportionate impact of HIV on people of color and gay and bisexual men of all races in the U.S., he noted: “We can and we must do better.”

Additional information on the U.S. government’s activities at AIDS 2012 is available at AIDS.gov/aids2012.