Top2Btm MSM Symposium 2013

Save this date for Anova's third annual Top2Btm MSM Symposium!

"Keeping Up: What's trending with MSM?"

23 April 2013 @ Crowne Plaza Hotel, Rosebank

Low CD4 despite viral suppression with HIV treatment and mortality risk

A low CD4 cell count is associated with increased mortality risk, even if people are taking virologically effective HIV therapy, an international team of investigators report in the online edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. People with incomplete CD4 count recovery – a count below 200 cells/mm3 – despite three years of treatment with virologic suppression had a more than two-fold increase in their mortality risk compared to people with more robust immune reconstitution.

Health-e article highlights key Issues raised at Top2Btm symposium

The Top2Btm Symposium, which is coordinated by Anova, is the subject of an article from the online health related news provider Health-e. The symposium which opened in Cape Town yesterday, focuses on various issues relating to MSM and HIV.

The article places the symposium in context through recalling the days when HIV was initially and erroneously labeled a ‘gay disease’ and consequently given the name GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency).

Call for more South African research into HIV prevalence and risk among men who have sex with men

Effectively responding to the high prevalence of HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM) in South Africa requires more research.

This was the call of numerous speakers at the second day of the Top2Btm symposium where researchers, medical professionals and policy makers met to discuss treatment, prevention and care of HIV for MSM. The symposium is based in Cape Town and hosted by the Anova Health Institute with support from PEPFAR.