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2008 Activities
by Connecticut Microbicides Now!
New Haven Public Library and Microbicide Education
Through the month of January there was a microbicides display and information on microbicides available to view at the New Haven Public Library.
Intern Training
12 college interns from 10 schools began the year with training on global reproductive health and rights and microbicides. Laurie Sylla of CT Microbicides Now! joined them this year for the microbicides portion of training to educate the interns on what microbicides are, how they work, and what is going on with trials. She answered their questions and encouraged them to be advocates for the Microbicides Development Act. The training took place at Planned Parenthood in New Haven, CT.
CT Microbicides Now Presents to the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care
Clair Kaplan was asked to present "What Nurses Need to Know to Advocate and Prepare for New HIV Prevention Options for Women" at the national meeting of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC). The peer-reviewed abstract was accepted, and she presented the paper to over 60 enthusiastic audience members at the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care(ANAC), 20th Annual Conference, on November 8, 2007 in Orlando, Florida. This is the third time the Global Campaign for Microbicides has asked CT Microbicides Now! to present to this organization. As a result of a presentation by Laurie Sylla of CT Microbicides Now! at the ANAC clinical update a couple of years ago, ANAC adopted a policy statement encouraging their members to become involved with microbicide advocacy.
Clair has also been invited to submit her presentation as a formal paper to the Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, and will be getting that submission out this spring. Clair is member of Connecticut Microbicides Now!, and an assistant professor at the Yale School of Nursing with a focus in women's healthcare, family planning, and STD/HIV prevention. She is also co-Director of the Women's Healthcare Services at Cedarcrest Regional Hospital in Newington, Connecticut, and works per diem as a Nurse Practitioner at Planned Parenthood of Connecticut.
Student Interest in Microbicides
Microbicides: New Hope for Addressing Women's Global Risk of HIV/AIDS: Clair Kaplan and Laurie Sylla were invited to speak for the Yale University Women's Center, Reproductive Rights Action League. The event was titled, A solution to AIDS? Undergrad interns Jessica Hunter and Alice Buttrick were involved in organizing this event. The students in attendance expressed an interest in being part of a microbicides speaker’s bureau.
Laurie Sylla of CT Microbicides Now! gave a presentation on Microbicides at Quinebaug Valley Community College in Danielson, Connecticut. This is the first time the college has had a microbicide speaker. The audience was small but enthusiastic about what Laurie had to share.
Microbicide tabling events were held at SCSU and Connecticut College in November and over 300 signatures were collected.
Microbicides on the Conference Circuit
Clair Kaplan of CT Microbicides recently had an abstract, “HIV Prevention Developments that Enhance Women's Empowerment: Microbicides on the Horizon,” accepted for Transnational Feminism, Community Activism, and the Politics of Empowerment, 20th Annual Conference on Women and Gender, University of Connecticut. The conference is at the UCONN Storrs Campus and will be February 29, March 1, 2008.
Maryann Abbott and Laurie Sylla received scholarships to attend the Microbicides Conference in New Delhi, India this February. They both also had abstracts accepted.
For more information on this conference: http://www.microbicides2008.com/
Increasing Civil Society Involvement in Microbicide Development
As a follow up to the Microbicide Development Strategy (MDS) documented produced by the Alliance for Microbicide Development to help guide funders on microbicide development funding priorities, the Global Campaign for Microbicides developed a companion chapter on the role and enhanced benefit of including civil society throughout the entire process from pre-clinical development through distribution and access. Laurie Sylla, Coordinator of CT Microbicides Now! served as one of the members of the international Civil Society Working Group and co-authored the chapter. This work was also accepted as an oral abstract for the Microbicides 2008 conference and is being presented by Anna Forbes of the Global Campaign for Microbicides.
