Letermovir, an antiviral drug for cytomegalovirus (CMV), was associated with reduced inflammation, improved CD4/CD8 T-cell ratios and better physical function for people with HIV on effective antiretroviral treatment, according to a study presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2025) in San Francisco.

Two slides presented at last week’s Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2025) in San Francisco starkly illustrated the cost of the almost-complete defunding of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) provision via PEPFAR, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

While some countries have already shifted to less intensive monitoring requirements for PrEP users, a Dutch study has now provided evidence that it’s OK to test for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) every six months, to have clinic appointments at the same rhythm and for services to be delivered online. Simplified, less burdensome services had just as good outcomes as the standard of care. (In research terminology, they were ‘non-inferior’.)

Statin treatment may reduce cardiovascular risk in people with HIV not only by lowering cholesterol but also by reducing coronary plaque and inflammation, Professor Steven Grinspoon told the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2025) in San Francisco last week.

People with HIV in Uganda do not have a higher prevalence of coronary artery disease compared to people without HIV. Among both groups, the prevalence of coronary artery disease was low compared to populations in Europe and North America, a study presented last week at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2025) in San Francisco shows.

Two studies presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2025) in San Francisco last week found that so far relatively few people with HIV are taking doxyPEP (using the antibiotic doxycycline to prevent bacterial STIs), both in absolute terms and in the proportion of doxyPEP users who have HIV.

The day before the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2025) opened in San Francisco on Sunday, there was a community workshop on HIV cure science, at which Dr Michael Peluso, a local HIV physician and cure researcher, flagged up two studies to look out for.

Two more people appear to be free of HIV after stem cell transplants for cancer treatment, according to a pair of posters presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2025) this week in San Francisco. If the men remain in remission, they will be the eighth and ninth cases of a functional cure after the procedure.

News reporting by aidsmap will be restarting next week, under the new stewardship of Terrence Higgins Trust.

With deep regret the trustees of NAM Publications, publishers of aidsmap.com, decided in July 2024 that the charity was no longer financially sustainable. While honouring their commitment to staff, partners and service users, the trustees set about ensuring a longevity for the assets aidsmap had built up over four decades.

Aidsmap and NAM Publications has made the decision to transfer its assets to the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) and National AIDS Trust (NAT).  Our Legacy Since our inception in 1987, NAM has been dedicated to providing reliable and comprehensive information about HIV and AIDS.  Our flagship platform, aidsmap, has served as a vital resource for individuals, healthcare professionals, and communities worldwide.  We take immense pride in our contributions to HIV education and advocacy over the past 37 years.

A survey of over half a million people in low- and middle-income countries found that men and women with disabilities were 25% less likely to have comprehensive knowledge about HIV prevention compared to people without disabilities. They were also less likely to know a place to be tested for HIV. Additionally, women with disabilities were less likely to know how to prevent vertical transmission and to have ever been tested for HIV compared to women without disabilities.

A comprehensive national effort to improve the uptake of cervical screening among women living with HIV in Uganda resulted in more than 280,000 screening visits in the second year of the campaign, up from just 6500 visits in the first six months. The proportion of women with a positive result who received treatment increased from 12% to 84% during the same period, almost achieving the 90% target set by the World Health Organization for cervical cancer elimination by 2030.

The emergence of high-level dolutegravir resistance was extremely rare in people switched to first-line dolutegravir-based treatment in Zambia and Malawi, a large prospective study has found. But the risk of having unsuppressed HIV one and two years after switching was six to seven times higher in people who switched to dolutegravir with detectable HIV. The researchers say their findings emphasise the importance of viral load monitoring before switching. The study findings are reported in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Evidence for the effectiveness of the alternative formulation of oral PrEP in women was presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2025) in San Francisco last week.

Two new long-acting antiretroviral drugs, VH-184 and VH-499, have demonstrated similar potency to the best available antiretrovirals currently in use in phase 2a proof-of-concept trials, according to findings presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2025) in San Francisco this week.

N6LS, a broadly neutralising antibody from ViiV Healthcare, could potentially be a partner for cabotegravir (Vocabria) in a long-acting HIV treatment regimen, according to results from the EMBRACE study presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2025) in San Francisco.

Over the past week at The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2025) in San Francisco, we have been reminded that Latin America is one of the few global regions where new HIV cases have continued to rise since 2010, even though pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has been available for more than a decade.

As Gilead Sciences prepares to launch twice-yearly lenacapavir pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) later this year, the company is also developing once-yearly formulations that could make an even greater contribution to ending the HIV epidemic.

Most people with unsuppressed HIV in a large population study in Uganda were already diagnosed but not in clinical care, suggesting that re-engaging people with HIV and ensuring that they are receiving antiretroviral treatment could have a substantial impact on HIV transmission. The findings were presented last week at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2025) in San Francisco.