In this issue, you will find our coverage of the XVIII International AIDS Conference, 18-23 July 2010, Vienna, Austria. As usual, we take a look at the main areas of latest scientific research and development that are of particular relevance to HIV and IDUs.

We have also published the section on treatment of HIV in IDUs from the just-issued US DHHS guidelines. We hope that this important document will help both doctors and advocates in their work to improve the treatment and quality of life of HIV-positive IDUs.

We are happy also to welcome two new writers to our pages—Anastasia Solovyeva and Denis Godlevskiy. Anastasiya reports on hepatitis D (HDV), an often-neglected infection, but of huge importance when it comes to treatment of IDUs. In this issue we include coverage from the specialised HDV conference organised by the European Association of the Study of the Liver, held on 25-26 September in Istanbul, Turkey. Denis analyses the specific problems of access to treatment for IDUs in the Russian Federation in connection with the interruptions of supplies of ARVs in different regions of the Federation.

We always like to encourage new writers and reviewers who would like to contribute to future issues. This can include research reports and overview articles. If you would like to contribute to future issues or have news to include, please email:
ARV4IDUs@i-Base.org.uk
To subscribe, please register online at:
http://www.i-Base.info
http://i-base.info/idu/about/subscribe

ARV4IDUs is produced in English and Russian and is distributed by email and published on the i-Base website.
ARV4IDUs is produced as a supplement to the i-Base HIV Treatment Bulletin (HTB) and has been supported by a grant from the International Harm Reduction Development Program of the Open Society Institute:
http://www.soros.org

As usual, we take a look at the main areas of latest scientific research and thinking that are of particular relevance to HIV and IDUs. This has been done by reviewing five conferences held since the last issue of this bulletin. Some of the articles here look at specific effect of HIV treatment on injecting drug use. Others, though not specific to IDU have a particular relevance to IDU and HIV treatment (e.g liver disease including hepatitis coinfection).

We always like to encourage new writers and reviewers who would like to contribute to future issues. This can include research reports and overview articles. If you would like to contribute to future issues or have news to include, please email:

ARV4IDUs@i-Base.org.uk

To subscribe, please register online at:

http://www.i-base.info/forms/esub.php

ARV4IDUs is produced in English and Russian and is distributed by email and published on the i-Base website.

ARV4IDUs is produced as a supplement to the i-Base HIV Treatment Bulletin (HTB) and has been supported by a grant from the International Harm Reduction Development Program of the Open Society Institute (www.soros.org).

A warm welcome to our renewed edition of ARV4IDUs.

We would like to apologise for the gap from the last issue, which is related to a combination of both personal and organisational issues. We hope this issue is still useful as an overview from much of 2009 and we will now aim to return to our previous quarterly schedule. We would like to thank Open Society Institute for their decision to renew funding and their patience with our timeline.

Even if the information and studies on this particularly difficult, politically and legally challenging topic is still underrepresented in the majority of conferences, there were several studies worth taking a look at since the beginning of the year.

In this issue, you will find a coverage of three major conferences: The Conference of Retrovirus and Opportunistic Infections in Montreal, Canada (February 2009), The International Harm Reduction Conference in Bangkok (April 2009) and The IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Cape Town (July 2009).

In our next issue, we intend to cover the sessions of the EECAAC conference in Moscow (October 2009) and the European AIDS Clinical Society Conference in Cologne (November 2009).

We always like to encourage new writers and reviewers who would like to contribute to future issues. This can include research reports and overview articles.

If you would like to contribute to future issues or have news to include, please email: arv4idus@i-base.org.uk.

ARV4IDUs is produced in English and Russian and is distributed by email and published on the i-Base website.

ARV4IDUs is produced as a supplement to the i-Base HIV Treatment Bulletin (HTB) and has been supported by a grant from the International Harm Reduction Development Programme of the Open Society Institute (www.soros.org).

Thank you for reading!

The editorial team

Although we haven’t got this in place yet, we are interested to hear from people you may be interested in this post to develop this project. If so, please send your CV to:

ARV4IDUs@i-Base.org.uk

We’d also like to encourage new writers who would like to contribute to future issues. This can include research reports and overview articles. If you would like to contribute to future issues or have news to include, please email:

ARV4IDUs@i-Base.org.uk

ARV4IDUs is produced in English and Russian and is distributed by email and published on the i-Base website.

ARV4IDUs is produced as a supplement to the i-Base HIV Treatment Bulletin (HTB) and has been supported by a grant from the International Harm Reduction Development Program of the Open Society Institute (www.soros.org).

We’d also like to encourage new writers who would like to contribute to future issues. This can include research reports and overview articles. If you would like to contribute to future issues or have news to include, please email:

ARV4IDUs@i-Base.org.uk

To subscribe, please register online.

ARV4IDUs is produced in English and Russian and is distributed by email and published on the i-Base website.

ARV4IDUs is produced as a supplement to the i-Base HIV Treatment Bulletin (HTB) and has been supported by a grant from the International Harm Reduction Development Program of the Open Society Institute (www.soros.org).

We had a great response to Issue one, saying that it it was important and timely that at last a publication was focussed on the issues of antiretroviral treatment for injecting drug users.

For the second issue, along with coverage form the IAS meeting in Sydney, we’re fortunate to include three orginal articles.

Kora de Beck and Thomas Kerr look at the ARV treatment implication for IDUs in prison from a Canadian perspective.

Doug Bruce pulls together an important overview of the interactions between opiate withdrawal medication (methadone and buprenorphine) and ARVs.

Kon Lezhentsev and Larysa Badrieva write about the difficulties of HIV treatment in the Russian Federation, where there is no access to substitution treatment, and highlight an important project that is having success in this area.

We’d also like to encourage new writers who would like to contribute to future issues. This can include research reports and overview articles. If you would like to contribute to future issues or have news to include, please email:

ARV4IDUs@i-Base.org.uk

To subscribe, please register online.

ARV4IDUs is produced in English and Russian and is distributed by email and published on the i-Base website.

ARV4IDUs is produced as a supplement to the i-Base HIV Treatment Bulletin (HTB) and has been supported by a grant from the International Harm Reduction Development Program of the Open Society Institute (www.soros.org).

This research is rarely given a main priority at HIV meetings, and often when it is presented, includes little that is new (as highlighted in our reports from this year’s Conference on Retroviruses Opportunistic Infections). One of the most important focus is the need to improve access to treatment, and to improve the quality of care for IDUs and coinfected people.

Although a growing body of research shows that drug users are just as able to adhere to and benefit from ARV treatment as HIV-positive people without a history of injecting drug use, in practice a much smaller percentage of IDUs have access to treatment than any other HIV-positive group.

We hope that this publication increases both awareness and access to these issues.

We like to thank all the contributors and advisory board members who helped make this issue possible, particularly Tracy Swan, Adeeba Kamarulzaman and Mauro Guarinieri.

We’d also like to encourage new writers who would like to contribute to future issues. This can include research reports and overview articles. If you would like to contribute to future issues or have news to include, please email:

ARV4IDUs@i-Base.org.uk

To subscribe, please register online.

ARV4IDUs is produced in English and Russian and is distributed by email and published on the i-Base website.

This project will initially run for four issues and will also include a slide set as a training resource.

ARV4IDUs is produced as a supplement to the i-Base HIV Treatment Bulletin (HTB) and has been supported by a grant from the International Harm Reduction Development Program of the Open Society Institute (www.soros.org).

ARV4IDU as a term was launched by the International Harm Reduction Development programme (IHRD) and Central Eastern European Harm Reduction Network (CEEHRN) for a satellite meeting organised at the World AIDS conference in Bangkok in 2004.