In This Issue

We are excited to announce that the Black AIDS Institute is among the 90 community-based organizations—including 67 organizations serving Black Americans—awarded a portion of the $216 million the CDC will disburse for them to implement high-impact prevention over the next five years. Stay tuned over the coming weeks to learn about the Institute's forthcoming involvement in this area.

Last week, the Obama Administration unveiled the National HIV/AIDS Strategy: Updated to 2020, the first comprehensive update to the strategy since it was first rolled out in 2010. Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, summarizes the changes.

Research from the START study, presented last month at the 8th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Vancouver, yielded the surprising results that starting ARVs earlier not only prevents serious AIDS-related diseases, but also the onset of cancer, heart disease and other non-AIDS related diseases.

Our friend Carl Dieffenbach summarizes the results of the START study and also reports on several PrEP studies presented in Vancouver about how MSM and transgender women who took it did in real world conditions.

Finally, the Black Treatment Advocates Network opened a chapter in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Yours in the struggle,

Phill