NMAC (formerly called the National Minority AIDS Council) held its 10th annual Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit, The Syndemic Approach – Strengthening the HIV and Public Health Workforce, April 8-10 at the Chicago Marriot Downtown Magnificent Mile, 540 N. Michigan Ave.
The summit began in 2016 to further PrEP access for the most vulnerable communities who have been the hardest hit by HIV.
Out gay and HIV positive NMAC CEO Harold Phillips, who is a native Chicagoan and was most recently the Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy under former President Joe Biden, said the Summit is significant because prevention messages are “not reaching the communities that really need it the most. This conference is an opportunity for us to really engage the HIV workforce, the public health workforce and the community around what are the prevention options including treatment since we now know U equals U.”
Phillips said that the conference had expanded its focus to address the situation around HIV/AIDS as a syndemic, which he explained as “multiple epidemics that all contribute to detrimental health outcomes.”
He also said that NMAC is committed to a “whole person approach to HIV prevention, care and treatment. It’s more than just about the medication; it’s really looking at the factors that contribute to HIV.”
He noted that sexually-transmitted infections, substance use, mental health and the social determinants like unstable housing also contribute to HIV-positive diagnoses.
“This conference allows us to look at the intersection as well as the interplay of all of these factors that contribute to an individual’s health and wellness,” Phillips added.
The April 9 Luncheon Plenary presented by Gilead Sciences, “PrEP and the City: Navigating the Evolving Landscape of Prevention” featured remarks by Gilead Sciences U.S. Public Affairs Vice President Darius Kuras and amfAR: The Foundation for AIDS Research Public Policy Vice President and Director Greg Millett; multiple skits with performers whose portrayals focused on all things PrEP including the racial and gender disparities that exist in terms of who utilizes these HIV prevention drugs; a three-person “Brolesque” dance performance; and a signature dance by Chicago nightlife fixture, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars winner and actor/singer Shea Couleé, who wowed the crowd.
Millett said that spoke about the increased use of PrEP, which now includes about 600,000 people in the United States.
Millett said, “The science has moved forward, yet the access to PrEP hasn’t caught up.” He added that 91% of PrEP users are men; one in five new HIV positive diagnoses are women; southern states have half of the new diagnoses but have far fewer PrEP users; and Black and Latino communities and young people are also underrepresented among PrEP users.
“Innovation has to be paired with outreach, trust, access and engagement,” said Millett. “Otherwise, the people who need prevention the most are still the one’s least like to receive it … PrEP works when communities have access.”
A panel discussion also took place during the luncheon plenary moderated by Gilead Sciences Senior Community Liaison Trina Scott. Panelists included University of Vermont College of Nursing and Health Sciences Department of Biomedical and Health Sciences Associate Professor Brittany Williams; ONYX Medical Wellness Founder and Chief Health and Equity Officer Maya Green; and San Francisco Community Health Center Director of Strategic Innovations and Partnerships and Chief Strategy and Workforce Officer Tatyana Moaton-Santiago.
The panel focused on how PrEP fits into the lives as Black women and the ways in which that population has been left out of medical studies and conversation. They also discussed obstacles to PrEP access.
Scott said she had to fire three doctors who said PrEP wasn’t for her.
Williams noted that she didn’t see herself in the PrEP conversation due to her status as a cisgender woman.
Green spoke about her uncle who was impacted by HIV and how that drove the work she does today.
One of the April 9 workshops focused on “Count Us In: Advancing Transgender, Non-Binary, and Neurodivergent Inclusion in Biomedical Data, Policy, and Research.” The workshop’s panelists included Whitman Walker Staff Physician Assistant Max Doyle; TRANCE Consulting Founder and Consultancy Director Elle Halo; and Human Rights Campaign Strategic Outreach and Training Senior Manager Mila Hellfyre Hernandez with moderation by The Global Trans Equality Project Founder and CEO Elijah Nicholas.
Nicholas said the lack of transgender, gender nonconforming and neurodivergent communities inclusion in biomedical data, policy and research results in harmful legal and health care policy decisions. He added that a number of transgender and gender nonconforming people are also neurodivergent, which creates additional complexities in HIV prevention research.
Doyle spoke about the four FDA-approved medications for HIV prevention that currently exist. Not all of them have been tested in transgender and gender-nonconforming communities who are living with HIV. That has led to a lack of data at a molecular level in how the drugs work for people with different anatomies.
Doyle added that as of now oral Truvada is the only drug that has been tested on all populations. Doyle said there is new research down the pipeline that he’s looking forward to. Doyle further lamented that he could not find any studies that looked at HIV prevention in the neurodivergent community.
Halo said the “bottom line is money” in data collection and interpretation. She added that pharmaceutical companies and public health organizations come into the transgender, gender nonconforming and neurodivergent communities “asking us to be vulnerable and transparent in qualitative interviews and quantitative studies without the community ever benefitting from it and/or getting a follow-up from them to see what happened. The bottom line is that they aren’t doing anything with it and that’s why we can’t find that information.”
Halo said community organizations must assemble and interpret their own data and narratives so they are in control of them.
Hellfyre Hernandez spoke about the specific issues within the Spanish-speaking only Latiné community arising from language barriers, where medical information is often only available in English. She also emphasized the importance of making research and data accessible to the rest of the community, which means sharing medical journal articles with the public for free.
Doyle, Halo and Hellfyre Hernandez also spoke about the funding cuts that have happened during the second Trump administration, which have negatively impacted their work.
According to Phillips, this year’s summit achieved the third‑highest attendance on record, which reflected NMAC’s new leadership and “our renewed commitment to serve the HIV community with energy and vision.”
