A cross-section of articles we've read this week about HIV/AIDS, STIs and a wide cross-section of structural and systemic factors impacting HIV/AIDS in Black communities.

MSM

Intimacy a Strong Motivator for PrEP HIV Prevention 

Men in steady same-sex relationships where both partners are HIV negative will often forgo condoms out of a desire to preserve intimacy, even if they also have sex outside the relationship. But the risk of HIV still lurks. In a new study of gay and bisexual men who reported at least one instance of condomless anal sex in the last 30 days, researchers found that the same desire for intimacy is also a strong predictor of whether men would be willing to take antiretroviral medications to prevent HIV, an emerging practice known as pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP.

Prevention

 Risk of Invasive Pneumococcal Disease Remains High for People Living with HIV 

People who inject drugs have especially high risk.

Science

Drugs That Flush out HIV May Impair Killer T Cells, Possibly Hindering HIV Eradication 

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors have shown promise in "flushing out" HIV from latently infected cells, potentially exposing the reservoirs available for elimination by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), also called killer T cells. However, findings published on August 14th in PLOS Pathogens now suggest that treatment with HDAC inhibitors might suppress CTL activity and therefore compromise the "kill" part of a two-pronged "flush-and-kill" HIV eradication strategy.

Miscellaneous

Even When Police Do Wear Cameras, Don't Count on Seeing the Footage 

Police officers in San Diego have started wearing body cameras, but the department routinely denies requests for the video.

 Hack of Community Health Systems Affects 4.5 Million Patients 

Community Health Systems, a publicly traded hospital operator based in Franklin, Tenn., said that personal data, including names, Social Security numbers and addresses, for 4.5 million patients had been compromised in a Chinese cyberattack on its systems from April to June.

 HIV Coalition Claims U.S. in Violation of U.N. Racial Convention 

Led by the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance (HIV PJA), a U.S. coalition of advocacy groups has submitted a report to the United Nations claiming the United States is in violation of the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), according to a statement by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC). HIV PJA is a project of AFC. Both groups are part of the coalition.

 Relief Official Urges Groups to Step Up Ebola Efforts 

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is "a complete disaster," and health agencies do not yet grasp its scope, the president of the relief group Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday.

Researchers who looked at the impact of discrimination, poverty and stigma on the mental health and relationship quality of transgender women and their male romantic partners found that social and economic marginalization not only takes a psychological toll on each person individually but also appears to undermine them as a couple.

There is Only One Real Way to Prevent Future Fergusons: End the War on Drugs 

At times like this, with the raging protest in Ferguson, an implication hangs in the air that these events are leading somewhere, that things are about change.