On World AIDS Day, we celebrate the contribution of Queen Mary researchers to tackling health inequalities faced by people with HIV – through the clinical development and implementation of life-changing HIV treatments, and research methods that ensure inclusive clinical trials and equitable access to treatments.
It’s been over 40 years since the first cases of HIV were reported. In that time, we’ve made a great deal of progress in understanding the condition, developing treatments and tackling misinformation. Today, with an early diagnosis and the right treatment, people with HIV can live long, healthy lives.
However, this isn’t always the case. Much of the burden of the HIV epidemic falls on marginalised and minoritised communities who face multiple health inequities. This can impact timely access to a diagnosis and care. Our diverse East London communities face some of the worst health outcomes in the UK.
Stigma also remains very problematic for people living with HIV. It can have a negative impact on the mental health and quality of life of people living with HIV, but is also a major barrier to people getting tested, diagnosed, treated and remaining engaged in care.
A group of researchers and clinicians from Queen Mary and Barts Health NHS Trust, joined together to investigate and address the health inequalities faced by people living with HIV in our local community through the founding of a new research group, the SHARE Collaborative for Health Equity.
The SHARE Collaborative, based at Queen Mary, brings together clinical, biomedical, social science and lived-experience community expertise in infectious diseases to investigate the inequalities that lead to poor health outcomes in minoritised communities. SHARE research is delivered by researchers with a range of minoritised identities.
Developing treatments for people living with HIV
People living with HIV can take daily pills to keep them living well with HIV. However, for a variety of reasons, including stigma, some people struggle to take pills every day. There is now a long-acting injectable treatment for HIV called Cabotegravir and Rilpivirine that can be administered every two months, reducing therapy days from 365 to 12 per year.
SHARE researchers have made a major contribution to both clinical development and inclusive implementation of long-acting injectable HIV therapy, which we have highlighted in a timeline of developments.
They have shown that longer-acting injectable HIV treatments are not being equitably accessed by women, racially minoritised people and older adults in studies or in clinics. They developed the anti-sexist, anti-racist, anti-ageist ILANA study to explore this further.
They are now bringing their inclusive research approach to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), designing inclusive HIV prevention trials and studies to improve equitable access to PrEP.
SHARE have also created resources to help other researchers adopt their inclusive research approach, freely available on their website.
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