HIV 2014: Science, Community and Policy for Key Vulnerable Populations

Speakers

Organizers

Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, PA, USA

Chris Beyrer MD, MPH, is a professor of Epidemiology, International Health, and Health, Behavior, and Society at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is the founding Director of the University’s Center for Public Health and Human Rights. He also serves as Associate Director of the Johns Hopkins Centers for AIDS Research (CFAR) and as Associate Director for the JHU Center for Global Health. He serves as PI of the Johns Hopkins T 32 HIV Training Program in Epidemiology and Prevention Science. Dr. Beyrer is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Co-Chairs the U.S. National Institutes of Health Office of AIDS Research Planning Committee on Epidemiology and Natural History and serves on the Scientific Expert Panel of UNAIDS. In 2012, he became President- Elect of the International AIDS Society, and will serve as President of the IAS, the world’s largest body of HIV professionals, from 2014-16. Prof. Beyrer Co-Chairs the IAS Key Populations Working Group with Prof. Michel Kazatchkine. He is also serving as Co-Chair, with Prof Adeeba Kamarulzaman, of the WHO Consolidated Guidelines for HIV among Key Populations, due for release in 2014.

Prof. Beyrer is the author of more than 200 scientific papers, and author or editor of six books, including War in the Blood: Sex, Politics and AIDS in Southeast Asia, and Public Health and Human Rights: Evidence-Based Approaches. He has guest-edited a number of series and special issues, including a special of The Lancet on HIV and Substance Use in 2010, for The Lancet on MSM and HIV in 2012 and a current series in The Lancet on HIV and Sex Work, due for release at AIDS 2014. He has served as a consultant and adviser to numerous national and international institutions, including the National Institutes of Health, the World Bank, WHO, UNAIDS, the Open Society Foundations, the Walter Reed Army Institute for Research, amfAR The Foundation for AIDS Research, Physicians for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch. Dr. Beyrer received a BA in History from Hobart and Wm. Smith Colleges, his MD from SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, NY, and completed his residency in Preventive Medicine, public health training, an MPH and a Infectious Diseases Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He received an honorary Doctorate (PhD) in Health Sciences from Chiang Mai University in Thailand, in 2012, in recognition of his 20 years of HIV service in Thailand.

Peter Godfrey-Faussett, BA, MBBS, DTM&H, FRCP(UK)

UNAIDS, Geneva, Switzerland

Peter Godfrey-Faussett is a professor at the LSHTM and consultant physician at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases. After training in clinical infectious diseases and molecular genetics, he spent five years leading the Zambian AIDS-related TB (ZAMBART) project, an interdisciplinary collaborative research programme between the LSHTM, Lusaka Urban District Health Management Team and the University of Zambia. Thereafter he spent a year working with the Global Tuberculosis Programme of the World Health Organization, where he was responsible for developing strategies to address the combined epidemic of TB and HIV. Following his return to London he has maintained an interest in global policies around TB and HIV and served as chairman for the Technical Review Panel of the Global Fund against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. A regular member of WHO expert groups, his research interests remain focused on the impact that the HIV epidemic is having on TB control and on interventions to reduce both diseases.  He is currently seconded full-time to UNAIDS, where he is the Senior Science Adviser with a wide ranging portfolio including HIV cure, ARV-based HIV prevention, HIV vaccines and synergies between the HIV and the non-commnicable disease response.

Ani Shakarishvili, MD

UNAIDS, Washington DC, USA

Dr. Anna (Ani) Shakarishvili currently is Senior Technical Adviser at the UNAIDS Liaison Office in the US. She took up this position in January 2013 when she joined UNAIDS office in Washington DC from her assignment as the UNAIDS Country Director in Ukraine for almost eight years. Prior to joining UNAIDS in 2005, she held a number of senior positions including as the STD Team Lead at the Global AIDS Program, and Coordinator of CDC’s Health Education and Promotion, and STD-HIV research and programs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, GA.

Dr. Shakarishvili is a medical doctor with the specialization in reproductive health and endocrinology, and professional training in epidemiology, STDs and HIV public health research and program implementation. She received her clinical and public health trainings in her native country of Georgia, CDC and Emory University School of Medicine in the US.

Yegor Voronin, PhD

Senior Science Officer Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, New York, NY, USA

Yegor Voronin is a Senior Science Officer at the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise (the Enterprise). In this role, he is responsible for identifying, developing, and managing science-related initiatives and activities for the Enterprise. In particular, he oversees the Timely Topics in HIV Vaccines initiative. Prior to joining the Enterprise, Dr. Voronin completed his postdoctoral training with Dr. Michael Emerman and Dr. Julie Overbaugh at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) in Seattle, Washington, USA. Over the last fifteen years he studied HIV and other retroviruses on a variety of levels, from their potential use as gene therapy vectors at the West Virginia University, to molecular mechanisms of reverse transcription at the National Cancer Institute, to HIV and SIV evolution and population genetics at the FHCRC. Dr. Voronin holds a master's degree in Molecular Biology from the Novosibirsk State University in Russia and a PhD in Biochemistry from the West Virginia University.

Jennifer Henry PhD

The New York Academy of Sciences

Speakers

Fareed Abdullah, MD

South African National AIDS Council, Pretoria, South Africa

Dr. Fareed Abdullah is Chief Executive Officer of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), a position he has held since February 2012. 

Previously, Dr Abdullah was the Africa Unit Director for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and served as Director of Technical Support for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.  From 1994 to 2006, he worked in the Western Cape Provincial Department of Health as Deputy Director-General and Head of the AIDS program.

Dr Abdullah received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cape Town, where he trained as a specialist in public health medicine, for his role in the successful scale-up of a province-wide antiretroviral treatment program.

Frederick Altice, MD

Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

Frederick L. Altice, MD, is a professor of medicine and professor, epidemiology and public health at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut where he also serves as the director of clinical and community research. He is board-certified in both infectious diseases and addiction medicine.

Dr Altice’s research interests are focused on the interface between infectious diseases, including HIV, tuberculosis, and viral hepatitis, and substance use disorders. Specifically, he is interested in prevention, treatment, and behavioral intervention research activities. As a clinical epidemiologist and intervention researcher, he has created novel programs for the treatment of HIV, viral hepatitis, tuberculosis, and substance use disorders in vulnerable populations, including injection drug users, criminal justice populations, and men who have sex with men. In addition to developing and testing evidence-based interventions to improve adherence, including directly administer antiretroviral therapy among HIV-infected drug users and released prisoners, Dr Altice has been at the forefront of integrating medication-assisted therapies such as methadone, buprenorphine, and extended-release naltrexone into treatments for individuals with HIV, HCV, tuberculosis, and mental illness.

Dr Altice is currently the principal investigator on numerous clinical investigations funded by the National Institutes of Health and several other federal agencies and served as a leading member of the World Health Organization’s Policy Guidelines for Collaborative Tuberculosis and HIV Services for Injecting and Other Drug Users: An Integrated Approach. He is also a member of the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care’s Guidelines Committee for Improving Entry Into and Retention in Care and Antiretroviral Adherence for Persons With HIV. Dr Altice is currently leading studies in Ukraine, Russia, Central Asia, Malaysia, Peru, and the United States. In addition to publishing his research in peer-reviewed journals, Dr Altice has authored several significant books and book chapters. He lectures nationally and internationally on the subjects of infectious diseases, addiction medicine and the delivery and organization of healthcare services, including integrated healthcare.

Joe Amon, PhD

Human Rights Watch, New York, NY, USA

Joe Amon is the Director of the Health and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. His work focuses on human rights and the political determinants of health. Since joining Human Rights Watch in 2005, Joe has worked on a wide range of issues including access to medicines; the impact of discrimination on access to prevention and treatment; censorship and the denial of health information; arbitrary detention; and the role of civil society in the response to infectious disease outbreaks and environmental health threats. Between January 2009 and June 2013 he oversaw Human Rights Watch's work on disability rights.

Chasity Andrews, PhD

Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, New York, NY, USA

Dr. Chasity Andrews received her PhD from the University of Michigan in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2010. Her graduate research focused on vaccine adjuvant delivery systems. In particular, she engineered liposomal delivery systems to target antigens and adjuvants to specific subcellular compartments. Following the completion of her graduate studies, Dr. Andrews joined the laboratory of Dr. David Ho at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, affiliate of The Rockefeller University, as a postdoctoral fellow. In Dr. Ho’s laboratory, her research focuses on the evaluation of long-acting agents, including small molecules and antibodies, for pre-exposure prophylaxis.

Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, PA, USA

Frances Cowan, FRCP, FRCPE, MSc, MD

Centre for Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Research Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe

Dr Cowan is a Reader in the Department of Infection and Population Health at University College London. She is a clinical epidemiologist who has been living and working full time in Zimbabwe since 1999. She leads a large portfolio of HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health research including several clinical trials and impact evaluations of national programs. The group works closely with the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care and the National AIDS Council to undertake research to facilitate intervention scale up and inform the evidence base for their HIV prevention and care policies and programming. She oversees implementation of Zimbabwe’s National Sex Work Programme ‘Sisters with a Voice’ now operating in 36 sites across Zimbabwe. Her research group employs around 100 researchers. In 2012, the research group was registered as a not for profit Trust (CeSHHAR Zimbabwe). Dr Cowan is co-chair of HPTN’s Adolescent Science Committee and is co-principal investigator on a number of research capacity strengthening grants with the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences She is also a member of several WHO expert review panels.

Anna-Louise Crago

University of Toronto, Canada

Anna-Louise Crago has been part of the sex workers’ rights movement for close to two decades. She is the former clinical coordinator at Stella, the center by and for sex workers in Montréal and has worked for SWAN, the Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network of Central Eastern Europe and Central Asia since 2006. She is the author of numerous human rights reports including: Our Lives Matter: Sex Workers Unite for Health and Rights: 8 Country Case Studies; Rights Not Rescue: A Report on Female, Male, and Transgender Sex Workers' Human Rights in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa (with Jayne Arnott); and Arrest the Violence: Human Rights Abuses Against Sex Workers in Central Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Anna-Louise is currently a Trudeau Scholar pursuing a PhD in social and medical anthropology at the University of Toronto where her research focuses on sex workers’ living and working conditions in contexts of armed conflict. She is also one of the guest-editors of the upcoming special issue of the Lancet on HIV and Sex Workers.

Steven Deeks, MD

University of California - San Francisco, CA, USA

Steven G. Deeks, MD, is a Professor of Medicine in Residence at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and a faculty member in the Positive Health Program (AIDS Program) at San Francisco General Hospital. Dr. Deeks has been engaged in HIV research and clinical care since 1993. He is a recognized expert on HIV-associated inflammation. His research has several linked objectives, including: (1) to determine the mechanisms that contribute to persistent inflammation during therapy, (2) to determine association between HIV persistence and inflammation during effective antiretroviral therapy, (3) to characterize the impact of persistent inflammation on end-organ disease and function, and (4) to develop novel therapeutic interventions that reduce chronic inflammation and/or the size of the latent reservoir.

Dr. Deeks has published over 300 peer-review articles, editorials and invited reviews on these and related topics. He has been the recipient of several NIH grants. He is the principle investigator of an NIH-funded international collaboratory aimed at developing therapeutic interventions to cure HIV infection (DARE). He is the co-chair of the “Towards an HIV Cure” International Working Group and a member of the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council (ORAC). He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). In addition to his clinical and translational investigation, Dr. Deeks maintains a primary care clinic for HIV infected patients, and is a member of the Department on Health and Human Services Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents.

Jerome Kim, MD

Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Bethesda, MD, USA

COL Jerome H. Kim, M.D., is currently Principal Deputy, US Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) and the chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Pathogenesis, MHRP, at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.  MHRP is a multidimensional, international research program encompassing vaccine research and development, HIV prevention research, and clinical research. As the head of the HIV Vaccines Project Office, US Army Medical Materiel Development Activity, he runs the Army's HIV vaccine advanced development program. Dr. Kim’s current research interests include HIV molecular epidemiology, host genetics, and HIV vaccine development. He is a Professor, Department of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

Luiz Loures, MD, MPH

UNAIDS, Geneva, Switzerland

Luiz Loures is the deputy executive director of programme of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and assistant secretary-general of the United Nations. Loures leads UNAIDS efforts to support countries in meeting the 2015 global AIDS targets and establishing a sustainable response to AIDS. Loures is a medical doctor with nearly 30 years of experience in the AIDS response. His work ranges from providing medical care to people living with HIV in the early days of the epidemic to helping to develop a global policy framework. Loures received his MD at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, specializing in critical care. He also holds an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley.

Kristen Marks, MD

Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA

Kristen Marks, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Medicine and ID Fellowship Program Director.  Dr. Marks received Internal Medicine residency and Infectious Diseases fellowship training at New York-Presbyterian Hospital (Cornell), where she focused her clinical training and research on HIV and hepatitis virus infections, and she completed Weill Cornell's Master's Degree in Clinical Investigation.  Her current research focuses on improving treatment outcomes in patients with HIV and hepatitis virus co-infections and includes studies of acute HCV as well as new treatment strategies for chronic HCV.  She was the vice chair of an AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) multi-center study, currently serves on 3 other ACTG hepatitis protocol teams, and is a member of the ACTG Hepatitis Transformative Science Group.  She is co-investigator in the Cornell HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Unit and Center for Study of Hepatitis C, where she is the site PI for 5 treatment studies and 2 other protocols related to HCV.  She also sits on IDSA, AASLD, and IAS-USA’s joint guidelines panel for “Recommendations for testing, managing and treating hepatitis C”.

Daniel Raymond

Harm Reduction Coalition, New York, NY, USA

Daniel Raymond is the Policy Director of the Harm Reduction Coalition, based in New York City, where he leads national, state and local advocacy efforts to advance strategies addressing the intersection of substance use and health. His current work focuses on hepatitis C, opioid overdose prevention, syringe access and HIV prevention for people who inject drugs, and coverage of harm reduction and addiction treatment and recovery services.

He currently serves on the AASLD/IDSA Hepatitis C Guidance Panel and the FDA Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee. He is a Steering Committee member and former Chair of the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, and a member of the Board of Trustees for the Washington Heights CORNER Project. He has worked in the fields of syringe exchange and harm reduction for over two decades.

Pavlo Smyrnov, MD, MPH

International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine, Ukraine

Pavlo Smyrnov is Deputy Executive Director of International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine. He is involved in development and implementation of large HIV/AIDS response program focused on most at risk populations, such as people who inject drugs, commercial sex workers, and men having sex with men funded by Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He is member of technical writing group for development of country proposal to the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria and was also involved in developing of country proposals in Round 1, Round 6 and Round 10 of Global Fund. Pavlo is participating in many research projects in the field of substance use, high-risk behavior, HIV prevention and network epidemiology. He is Ukraine principal investigator for socially-integrated transdisciplinary prevention project TRIP (transmission reduction intervention project) which develops new ways of HIV prevention in the risk networks of recently infected individuals. Pavlo has MPH degree from Boston University School of Public Health, is a senior lecturer and PhD fellow at School of Public Health of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Pavlo is Edmund Muskie Fellow and Returning Scholar of Academic Fellowship Program of Open Society Foundation.

Panelists

Mark Harrington

Treatment Action Group

Mark Harrington joined the seminal AIDS activist group, ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in 1988, five years after receiving his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University. As a member of ACT UP’s Treatment and Data Committee, Mark helped plan and execute ACT UP’s “Seize Control of the FDA” demonstration in 1988 and its “Storm the NIH” demonstration in 1990. The events helped initiate a fundamental shift in regard to how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies addressed HIV community health priorities.

Arne Näveke, PhD

International AIDS Vaccine Initiative

Arne Näveke is Executive Director of Advocacy, Policy and Communications for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, which he joined in May 2013. Based at IAVI’s headquarters in New York, he oversees global advocacy, policy and communications aimed at ensuring that research and development of a preventive AIDS vaccine remains high on policy agendas.

Previously, Dr. Näveke held executive positions in Communications, Public Affairs, and Policy with GSK Vaccines in Brussels, Sanofi Pasteur MSD in Lyon, and Aventis in Frankfurt, covering most available vaccines and the infectious diseases they help prevent. Among other achievements, he planned and oversaw implementation of the internal and external communications strategies for European launch of the world’s first human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil®. Prior to joining industry, Dr. Näveke was a journalist for scientific and general print and broadcast media. He holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission and the University of Munich, and a Master of Science in chemistry from the University of Hamburg.

Ani Shakarishvili, MD

UNAIDS

Mitchell Warren

AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC)

Mitchell Warren is the Executive Director of AVAC, an international non-governmental organization that uses education, policy analysis, advocacy and a network of global collaborations to accelerate the ethical development and global delivery of AIDS vaccines, male circumcision, microbicides, PrEP and other emerging HIV prevention options as part of a comprehensive response to the pandemic. Before this, he was the Senior Director for Vaccine Preparedness at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) where he directed efforts to increase community understanding and national involvement in AIDS vaccine clinical trials. Warren previously spent four years as Vice President and Director of International Affairs for The Female Health Company (FHC), the manufacturer of the female condom, where directed efforts to design and implement reproductive health programs that integrate the female condom, and he led global advocacy efforts for expanded commitment to female-initiated prevention methods. Warren also spent six years at Population Services International (PSI) designing and implementing social marketing, communications and health promotion activities in Africa, Asia and Europe, including five years running PSI’s project in South Africa. Warren is a member of the Global HIV Prevention Working Group; the board of directors of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise; the WHO-UNAIDS HIV Vaccine Advisory Committee; the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH); and the AIDS Research Advisory Committee of the US NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Warren has degrees in English and History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and studied health policy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Moderator

Peter Godfrey-Faussett, BA, MBBS, DTM&H, FRCP(UK)

UNAIDS, Geneva, Switzerland

Peter Godfrey-Faussett is a professor at the LSHTM and consultant physician at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases. After training in clinical infectious diseases and molecular genetics, he spent five years leading the Zambian AIDS-related TB (ZAMBART) project, an interdisciplinary collaborative research programme between the LSHTM, Lusaka Urban District Health Management Team and the University of Zambia. Thereafter he spent a year working with the Global Tuberculosis Programme of the World Health Organization, where he was responsible for developing strategies to address the combined epidemic of TB and HIV. Following his return to London he has maintained an interest in global policies around TB and HIV and served as chairman for the Technical Review Panel of the Global Fund against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. A regular member of WHO expert groups, his research interests remain focused on the impact that the HIV epidemic is having on TB control and on interventions to reduce both diseases.  He is currently seconded full-time to UNAIDS, where he is the Senior Science Adviser with a wide ranging portfolio including HIV cure, ARV-based HIV prevention, HIV vaccines and synergies between the HIV and the non-commnicable disease response.