Press releases

Large study of “Treat All” policies for HIV in sub-Saharan Africa finds major improvements in rapid uptake of treatment

Posted on June 10, 2019June 10, 2019 by ISPH CUNY

For immediate release June 10, 2019 A new study published in PLoS Medicine found that the adoption of the World Health Organization’s 2015 “Treat All” recommendation was followed by large increases in rapid initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in six sub-Saharan African countries. The study found significant increases in rapid ART initiation immediately after national introduction of Treat All policies in Burundi, Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda, with 12.5 to 34.5 percentage point increases in the percentage of patients who initiated ART within 30 days of enrolling into HIV care. ...

CUNY SPH team joins large consortium in major effort to reduce opioid overdose deaths in New York

Posted on May 14, 2019May 14, 2019 by ISPH CUNY

For immediate release: May 14, 2019. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has awarded $86 million to a consortium of researchers and implementers convened by Columbia University’s School of Social Work to address the epidemic of opioid overdose deaths in New York State. The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) is a key partner of the New York consortium which will focus on reducing opioid overdose mortality across 16 communities in New York State by 40 percent in the next four years. The project’s aims take a whole-community approach to foster systems ...

Immediate HIV treatment initiation has increased but is not yet universal in NYC

Posted on May 2, 2019May 7, 2019 by ISPH CUNY

May 2, 2019 A new study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases found that immediate treatment initiation for HIV infection has improved since local and federal guidelines began to recommend universal treatment for all persons diagnosed with HIV, regardless of their disease stage. Despite notable improvements, nearly 25 percent of New York City residents with a new HIV diagnosis in 2015 had not initiated treatment within six months of their diagnosis. Another key study finding was that only 35 percent of people diagnosed with HIV had less advanced HIV disease. The study’s autho...

How health care facility characteristics affect HIV viral suppression among NYC patients

Posted on April 2, 2019April 18, 2019 by ISPH CUNY

April 2, 2019 Health care facility characteristics such as the type of clinical setting, the travel distance from the patient’s home, the support services offered, and physician experience have been shown to influence health outcomes among persons with HIV, but few studies have explored how these factors influence HIV viral suppression among patients. To test the association of these characteristics with the achievement and maintenance of HIV suppression among newly-diagnosed New York City residents, CUNY SPH doctoral alumna Ellen Wiewel—now the director of research and evaluation at th...

Researchers explore PrEP adherence strategies

Posted on February 4, 2019February 6, 2019 by ISPH CUNY

February 4, 2019 Consistent daily use of pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, can reduce the risk of HIV infection by 92 percent, but the drug becomes much less effective when taken inconsistently. Adhering to a daily regimen of any medication can be a challenge, so to assist health care providers in treating patients at risk for contracting HIV, CUNY SPH Professor Christian Grov, DPH student Javier Lopez-Rios, and MPH student Alexa D’Angelo co-led a study into the strategies PrEP users can employ to remember to stay on track with their daily doses. The study was published in the journ...

IeDEA Consortium Publishes Consensus Statement Outlining Key Research Priorities to Inform National Implementation Efforts to “Treat All” Persons Living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa

Posted on February 1, 2019February 1, 2019 by ISPH CUNY

February 1, 2019 A group of researchers, led by the CUNY ISPH, published a consensus statement on research priorities to inform the implementation of universal HIV treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in the latest issue of the Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS). The article distills the outcomes of a research prioritization process involving over 200 researchers, implementation experts, policy/decision-makers, and HIV community representatives working in East, Central, Southern and West Africa who were convened by the IeDEA Consortium at a 2017 meeting in Kigali, Rw...

Promoting HIV self-testing via text message to truck drivers in Kenya

Posted on January 14, 2019May 7, 2019 by ISPH CUNY

January 14, 2019 Truck drivers in sub-Saharan Africa are especially vulnerable to infection with HIV due to contact with multiple sexual partners—often including sex workers—along their trucking routes. Accessing HIV testing can be a challenge for truckers due to their mobility and long working hours, as well as concerns about confidentiality and stigma. CUNY SPH researchers Dr. Elizabeth Kelvin, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and DPH candidate Matthew Romo are exploring HIV self-testing as a way to increase testing rates in this high-risk population. The researchers ...

Redefining colorectal cancer subtypes

Posted on November 19, 2018November 20, 2018 by ISPH CUNY

November 19, 2018 There is a long-standing belief that colorectal cancer (CRC), which causes some 50,000 deaths in the United States each year, can be categorized into distinct molecular subtypes. In a paper published recently in the journal Genome Biology, CUNY SPH Associate Professor and ISPH Investigator Levi Waldron and colleagues proposed an approach to scoring tumors that can help to better differentiate patients who may differ in their exposures, outcomes, and optimal treatments. In the study, the authors re-processed and standardized individual patient gene expression data for mo...

IeDEA Consortium publishes journal supplement on research priorities for achieving universal HIV treatment in sub-Saharan Africa

Posted on November 19, 2018May 7, 2019 by ISPH CUNY

Nearly all countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have adopted national polices for universal HIV treatment, regardless of CD4 cell count or clinical stage. Evidence to date from SSA suggests that, once linked to care, timely ART initiation with retention and viral suppression is the norm. However, ART initiation in SSA usually occurs late in the course of infection, driving up mortality and new infection rates. With 10.3 million people untreated and a projected 1.2M new infections per year in SSA, the universal treatment era presents strategic opportunities for health systems to substantially ...

Nondaily cigarette smoking up among those with mental health and substance use problems; daily smoking continues to decline overall.

Posted on November 8, 2018May 7, 2019 by ISPH CUNY

For immediate release: November 8, 2018 Study finds persistent discrepancies in cigarette smoking between those with mental health and substance use problems and those without Between 2005 and 2014, nondaily cigarette use increased among persons with common mental health and substance use problems (MHSUP), according to a new study in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry lead by Renee Goodwin, Deputy Director of the Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health. “Historically, non-daily or infrequent smoking was not considered a great concern, and attention was focused primarily on d...