In 2021, women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa accounted for three of five new HIV infections, and young women aged 15–24 years were three times as likely as young men in the same age group to be infected with HIV. Despite expanded access to oral PrEP, women are disproportionately affected by HIV experiencing considerable barriers … Continued

As we all desperately await a way to treat COVID-19, beyond prevention, the following publication has metrics that are incredible (following February publication, by December 2021 it had been accessed >107K times with a >1700 Altimetric).

A single dose of REGEN-COV, a combination monoclonal antibody therapy, reduced the risk of COVID-19 by 81.6% several months after a single dose. UNC School of Medicine’s Myron Cohen, MD, leads monoclonal antibody research efforts as part of the NIH-sponsored COVID Prevention Network. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced additional positive results from a phase 3 clinial … Continued

A major tool against malaria in Africa has been the use of rapid diagnostic tests, which have been part of the “test-treat-track” strategy in Ethiopia, the second most-populated country in Africa. But researchers studying blood samples from more than 12,000 individuals in Ethiopia now estimate these tests missed nearly 10% of malaria cases caused by … Continued

CRISPR-based diagnostics are a new class of highly sensitive and specific assays with multiple applications in infectious disease diagnosis. SHERLOCK, or Specific High-Sensitivity Enzymatic Reporter UnLOCKing, is one such CRISPR-based diagnostic that combines recombinase polymerase pre-amplification, CRISPR-RNA base-pairing, and LwCas13a activity for nucleic acid detection. Researchers from the division of infectious diseases recently developed SHERLOCK assays … Continued

Myron Cohen, MD, is the lead investigator of a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that shows bamlanivimab monotherapy reduced the incidence of infection in skilled nursing homes and assisted living facilities with high risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure. The randomized phase 3 clinical trial included 966 residents and staff … Continued

In an article titled, “Viruses, microscopy and fast radio bursts: 10 remarkable discoveries from 2020,” Nature featured an important HIV latency reversal discovery led by UNC School of Medicine researchers J. Victor Garcia, PhD, director of the International Center for the Advancement of Translational Science and professor of medicine and microbiology & immunology, and David Margolis, director … Continued

Physician-scientists are uniquely positioned to transfer clinical insights to research discoveries, to return a better understanding of human disease to the clinic. A new initiative led by Laura Loehr, MD, PhD, MS, associate professor in general medicine and clinical epidemiology, and Susan Hogan, PhD, MPH, associate professor in nephrology, will help junior faculty in the … Continued

(Republished from the UNC Health Care and UNC School of Medicine Newsroom.) The UNC School of Medicine has selected Joe Eron, MD, professor of medicine and vice chief for the division of infectious diseases, and Brian Kuhlman, PhD, professor of biochemistry and biophysics, as Oliver Smithies Investigators, an annual award to honor senior faculty members … Continued

Mina Hosseinipour Women compromised 59 percent of adults living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2014 according to the World Health Organization. Creating HIV prevention efforts that target women is critical to stopping new infections. Mina Hosseinipour, MD, MPH, is scientific director of UNC Project-Malawi in Lilongwe, Malawi, and a professor of medicine at UNC. … Continued

Mina Hosseinipour Women compromised 59 percent of adults living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2014 according to the World Health Organization. Creating HIV prevention efforts that target women is critical to stopping new infections. Mina Hosseinipour, MD, MPH, is scientific director of UNC Project-Malawi in Lilongwe, Malawi, and a professor of medicine at UNC. … Continued