Diane Havlir: SEARCHing for the End of AIDS

UC San Diego’s Last Gift study aims to identify where HIV hides in the body of individuals who are terminally ill from a disease other than HIV, like cancer, ALS, or heart disease. Karine Dubé, DrPH, MPhil, Sarah Gianella Weibel, MD, Andy Kaytes, and Susanna Concha-Garcia discuss the ethical implications of the study, the experiences of the participants, the study components, and what can be learned. Series: "Exploring Ethics" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 37319]

Dr. Susan Cassels, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at UC Santa Barbara, and a research associate with the Broom Center for Demography discusses the latest thinking on HIV interventions. Her research focuses on the study of topics related to health geography, demography, and infectious disease epidemiology. Series: "GRIT Talks" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 37873]

UC San Diego professor of biology Justin Meyer, who specializes in infectious disease research presents his course The Evolution of Infectious Diseases with special attention to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the COVID-19 disease and its pandemic spread throughout the world. In this lecture - an overview of the emergence, life-cycle, and evolution of HIV. Series: "The Evolution of Infectious Diseases with Justin Meyer" [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Show ID: 35833]

The Last Gift study aims to understand where and how HIV hides in the human body when a person with HIV is taking HIV medications. The Last Gift study tackles these aims by studying people with HIV who are terminally ill from a disease other than HIV, like cancer, ALS, or heart disease. The study follows these volunteers with regular blood draws before the person dies and then examines multiple tissues throughout their bodies after death. From these samples, investigators hope to understand how HIV remains hidden from both the person’s immune system and from current HIV therapy. Results from these studies are designed to help develop ways to clear these reservoirs with future therapies. Dr. Davey Smith, Professor of Medicine and Chief of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at UCSD discusses the study and its medical and ethical implications. Series: "Exploring Ethics" [Health and Medicine] [Humanities] [Show ID: 32991]

The California HIV/AIDS Research Program (CHRP) is funding the largest demonstration project of its kind in the US, to determine the acceptability, utilization, adherence, and pharmacokinetics of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication among transgender persons to promote their health and protect their lives. As researchers, participants and healthcare providers explain here, the three CHRP-supported studies across the state use different techniques, such as providing PrEP and hormonal therapy together at a single clinic visit, offering in-depth pharmacokinetic analyses on how the two treatments interact, or creating a custom text messaging app to communicate with providers and offer peer support. Information on how to enroll in the University of California-affiliated studies is included. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Public Affairs] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 33176]

Dr. Paul Volberding, professor of medicine at UCSF, was perhaps the leading clinician in the United States in the early days of the HIV epidemic. As a young oncologist finishing his training in the early 1980's, Volberding recalls seeing a young gay man with a previously rare tumor: Kaposi's sarcoma. Little did he know that the underlying immunodeficiency that led to KS would come to define his career. Volberding went on to become the founding chief of the AIDS division at San Francisco General Hospital, where he established the first inpatient AIDS wards and outpatient AIDS clinic. In this interview with Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of UCSF's Department of Medicine, Volberding recalls the early days, including the impact of activism and the fear that he and other clinicians would contract the illness. He also discusses the remarkable progress in turning HIV into a manageable chronic disease and the possibility of finding a cure for AIDS.  Series: "A Life in Medicine: People Shaping Healthcare Today" [Health and Medicine] [Business] [Show ID: 32873]

UCSF Professor Emeritus Dr. Mark Jacobson is interviewed by Dr. Susa Coffey about his novel "Sensing Light." The book focuses on the HIV/AIDS outbreak from the perspective of the medical professionals who found themselves on the front lines trying to treat this horrific new disease. From the first encounter through the decades of hard work that followed, medical science attempted to identify ways to contain and treat the illness. Series: "Mini Medical School for the Public" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 32345]

Igor Grant, MD, FRCP(C) pursues research that addresses real world behavioral problems. Studying the intersection of drugs of abuse (primarily methamphetamine) and infection, his work sheds light on the basic mechanisms of injury for people with HIV. He examines inflammation in the context of neurological disorders and measures the impact of chronic stress on Alzheimer's disease caregivers. Dr. Grant joins William Mobley, MD, PhD to discuss his life in science and his fascinating work. Series: "Brain Channel" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 32221]

A profile of Diane Havlir, MD and her work in ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic, from co-founding the much admired Getting to Zero consortium in San Francisco to her Sustainable East African Research on Community Health (SEARCH) study in a fishing village in Kenya. Both efforts include the three pillars that are central to stopping the epidemic – preventing HIV infection with PrEP, testing and treating people immediately upon diagnosis of HIV, and retaining people in HIV care. [Public Affairs] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 30496]

Sir Richard Branson joins UC San Diego’s Steffanie Strathdee, Patricia Gonzalez-Zuniga, MD, and author Jon Cohen for a discussion on the costs of criminalizing drug use on marginalized communities in Tijuana and elsewhere. Series: "HIV/SIDA: The Epidemic in Tijuana" [Public Affairs] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 30862]