May 19 is set aside each year to observe National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The annual observance was founded by the Banyan Tree Project, with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The goal of the project is to stop HIV/AIDS-related stigma in Asian and Pacific Islander communities. In the words of the Banyan Tree Project, “… this type of discrimination prevents A&PIs [Asians and Pacific Islanders] from getting tested for HIV and from getting health care and other services they need to stay healthy.”

Browse the links on our National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day webpage [en español] to learn more about the observance and find related information.

• June 12, 2013: Study Finds First Evidence That PrEP Can Reduce HIV Risk Among People Who Inject Drugs
  
  “A daily dose of a medication used to treat HIV infection reduced the risk of HIV acquisition among people who inject drugs by 49 percent. Those who took the medication most consistently had even higher levels of protection, according to a new study announced today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – in collaboration with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) and the Thailand Ministry of Public Health (MOPH).
  
  "This is the first evidence that pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) offers significant protection to individuals exposed to HIV through injection drug use. The findings were published online today in the Lancet.”
  
  Read the CDC press release, fact sheet, and interim guidance.
   
• June 5, 2013: New Guidance for Industry Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 Infection: Developing Antiretroviral Drugs for Treatment
  
  “The Food and Drug Administration recently published new Guidance for Industry Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 Infection:  Developing Antiretroviral Drugs for Treatment
  
  “The new guidance provides recommendations for the development of antiretroviral drugs regulated within the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1 or HIV) infection. Specifically, this guidance addresses the overall development program and clinical trial designs for antiretroviral drugs to support an indication for the treatment of HIV-1 infection.” 
  
  Read the FDA press release.

• June 5, 2013: NIH Scientists Discover How HIV Kills Immune Cells 
  
  “Untreated HIV infection destroys a person’s immune system by killing infection-fighting cells, but precisely when and how HIV wreaks this destruction has been a mystery until now. New research by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, reveals how HIV triggers a signal telling an infected immune cell to die. This finding has implications for preserving the immune systems of HIV-infected individuals.”
  
  Read the NIAID press release.

On June 8, AIDSinfo joins the nation in observing Caribbean-American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the adult HIV prevalence rate in the Caribbean is approximately 1%, which is higher than in any other region in the world outside of sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose of Caribbean-American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is to raise awareness of the heightened risk of HIV in Caribbean communities in the United States and its territories.

Visit our Caribbean-American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day webpage [en español] to learn more about this annual observance and to find information about the HIV epidemic in the Caribbean.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is pleased to announce the solicitation of quotations from organizations and libraries to design and conduct projects that will improve access to HIV/AIDS-related health information for patients, the affected community, and their caregivers.

Projects must involve one or more of the following information access categories:

• Information retrieval;
• Skills development;
• Resource development; and/or 
• Equipment acquisition.

Emphasis is placed upon the following types of organizations or arrangements for developing these programs: 

• Community-based organizations (CBOs) or patient advocacy groups currently providing HIV/AIDS-related services to the affected community;
• Public libraries serving communities in the provision of HIV/AIDS-related information and resources;
• Health departments or other local, municipal, or state agencies working to improve public health;
• Faith-based organizations currently providing HIV/AIDS-related services; and/or
• Multi-type consortia of the above-listed organizations that may be in existence or formed specifically for this project.

Awards are offered for up to $40,000.

Quotations are due to NLM on Thursday, July 18, 2013.

View the request for quotations (RFQ) for the HIV/AIDS Community Information Outreach Project 2013 on the Federal Business Opportunities website. Small businesses can apply to a specific set-aside. 

On June 17, 2013, corrections were made to the Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections in HIV-Infected Adults and Adolescents.

In the Introduction:

• The name of the HIV Medicine Association was corrected.
• Reference 16 was corrected.

The Recommendations for Preventing and Managing Cryptosporidiosis table in the Cryptosporidiosis section was corrected to match the text and Table 2. 

If you have any questions or comments, please send an e-mail to ContactUs@aidsinfo.nih.gov.

The latest additions to the AIDSinfo drug database provide health care providers and patients with even more information on HIV/AIDS-related drugs.
 
Recent improvements to the database include:

• Investigational HIV drug summaries for health professionals that include the most recent information on pharmacology, dosing, adverse events, and drug interactions. The drug summaries also feature drug compound details from ChemIDplus Advanced (United States National Library of Medicine) and the HIV Drugs in Development Database from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
• Updated HIV investigational drug summaries for patients that highlight the latest research on HIV-related drugs under investigation.
• Updated and new opportunistic infection drug summaries for health professionals and patients that reflect the latest information in the recently released (May 7, 2013) Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections in HIV-Infected Adults and Adolescents. The updated information includes new drug summaries for boceprevir (brand name: Victrelis), telaprevir (brand name: Incivek), and hepatitis A and hepatitis B (recombinant) vaccine (brand name: Twinrix). 

Future additions to the drug database will include more investigational HIV drug summaries for health professionals and patients, as well as Spanish versions of all updated and new patient drug summaries.
 
Please forward feedback on the AIDSinfo drug database to ContactUs@aidsinfo.nih.gov.