AIDS/HIV
Don’t treat AIDS victims with disdain, Pope says
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Pope Benedict on Wednesday called for increased efforts to stop the spread of AIDS and said victims of the disease should not be treated with disdain.
“I am spiritually close to those who suffer from this terrible sickness as well as to their families, particularly if they have lost a loved one. I assure them all of my prayers,” he said ahead of this Saturday’s World AIDS Day.
HIV/AIDS discrimination widespread in China: U.N.
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China’s efforts to prevent HIV/AIDS-related discrimination have failed to stamp out “widespread” stigmatization of sufferers, United Nations officials said on Wednesday.
Subinay Nandy, China country director for the U.N. Development Programme, said China had done a “tremendous job” implementing anti-HIV/AIDS discrimination policies and legislation but enduring misconceptions were stopping sufferers from seeking treatment.
Routine HIV testing may benefit teenagers
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Early, routine HIV testing might help stem the spread of the infection among teenagers, according to researchers.
In a study of more than 1,200 sexually active 15- to 21-year-olds, the researchers found that key HIV risk factors—like having unprotected sex or having a high-risk partner—had no bearing on whether the study participants sought HIV testing over the next three months.
When mom has AIDS, kids’ mental health may suffer
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Uninfected children of HIV-infected mothers should be screened and followed up long-term for psychiatric problems, pediatricians from New York recommend, based on their experience.
Over 2 years, Dr. Laurie J. Bauman from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx measured the mental health of a group of 8- to 12-year-old children whose mothers had late-stage HIV/AIDS.
Catholic condom ban fueling HIV spread in Latam
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The rapid spread in Latin America of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is made worse by the Roman Catholic Church’s stand against using condoms, a U.N. official said on Monday.
Some 1.7 million people across Latin America have HIV infection or AIDS, and the epidemic is spreading swiftly with up to 410,000 new cases in 2006, up from as many as 320,000 new cases in 2004, according the UN AIDS program, UNAIDS.
Improvement still needed in HIV testing in high-risk groups
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Since 2000, the rates of HIV testing have remained relatively low and constant in the United States, with about one third of Americans ever having had an HIV test, and less than a quarter of the people considered at high risk for contracting the virus that causes AIDS report having been tested in the past year.
The Duke University researchers who conducted an analysis of testing rates argue that while national HIV testing efforts have been expanded to include lower risk populations, there is still untapped potential to increase testing rates among high-risk individuals.
High-Risk Individuals Less Likely to Follow Through on HIV Testing Plans
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One-fourth of individuals at high risk for contracting HIV report planning to be tested for the virus in the next year, but fewer appear to follow through on that intention than individuals who are at lower risk, according to a report in the October 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
About 1.1 million U.S. individuals are affected with the HIV virus, and 24 percent to 27 percent do not know they are infected, according to background information in the article. The HIV epidemic is increasingly affecting groups not perceived as being high-risk, including women, the poor and individuals living in rural areas. “Initiatives to increase the rates of HIV testing, particularly among groups not traditionally perceived as being at high risk, have been advanced as a primary strategy in the effort to combat the HIV epidemic,” the authors write.
A low prevalence of H pylori in HIV-positive patients
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Helicobacter pylori has been extensively studied and proven to be the main cause of chronic gastritis and peptic ulcer in the HIV-negative population. Patients with chronic active gastritis have evidence of H pylori infection in over 90% of cases and in 70-100% of those with peptic ulcer disease. However, the reason for low incidence of H pylori infection in HIV-positive patients was still not very clear. A study examining this issue was recently reported in the November 7 issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology because of its great significance for AIDS-related diseases.
The article describes 151 patients for gastrointestinal symptoms underwent endoscopic examination in Beijing Youбпan Hospital, Capital Medical University, the largest referral center for the management of HIV infection and HIV-related complications in China, from January 2003 to March 2006. The HIV-positive patients in the present study, mainly from HeNan province, were infected through illegal blood plasma collection.
Study sees differences in how U.S. Hispanics get HIV
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There are major differences among U.S. Hispanics in how they get infected with the AIDS virus depending on where they were born, officials said on Thursday, requiring more care in tailoring prevention efforts.
The trend was detailed in a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on HIV infection and AIDS among Hispanics, who make up 14 percent of America’s population.
Europe gives final approval to Pfizer HIV drug
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Pfizer Inc said on Monday the European Commission had approved its AIDS drug called Celsentri, or Selzentry in the United States, the first in a new class of oral HIV medicines.
The drug—which is known generically as maraviroc—is the first designed to keep HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from entering healthy immune cells. Older AIDS medicines attack the virus itself.
Tutu slams S. Africa’s efforts to fight HIV/AIDS
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu berated South Africa’s government on Friday over delays in introducing an HIV/AIDS drug treatment plan and said its leaders’ unorthodox views had led to unnecessary deaths.
Recalling fallen anti-apartheid heroes, the Nobel peace laureate said they would be shocked by the devastation caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which he said was killing 900 people every day in the country.
1/4 of HIV Patients Believe Their Doctors Stigmatize Them
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Physicians might want to be extra careful about how they treat HIV-infected patients —not just in the clinical sense but in the way they behave toward them.
Even the perception that physicians are stigmatizing patients for carrying the virus that causes AIDS can discourage these individuals from seeking proper medical care, according to a new UCLA study.
Asia must step up HIV/AIDS fight, experts say
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Asian countries must work hard to keep their HIV/AIDS prevalence rates low compared to that in Africa by tackling root causes like poverty, gender inequality and marginalization, experts said on Thursday.
Human trafficking into prostitution, intravenous drug use and conflict continue to spread HIV in Asia, experts warned as the eighth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific wrapped up in the Sri Lankan capital.
Sex-Trafficked Girls and Women From South Asia Have High Prevalence of HIV Infection
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Nearly 40 percent of repatriated Nepalese sex-trafficked girls and women tested were positive for HIV infection, with girls trafficked before age 15 having higher rates of infection, according to a study in the August 1 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on violence and human rights.
“Trafficking across or within national borders for purposes of sexual exploitation including forced prostitution, i.e., sex trafficking, is recognized as a major gender-based human rights violation with significant individual and public health consequences and is increasingly discussed as a potentially critical mechanism in the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) across developing nations,” the authors write.
America’s ‘anti-prostitution pledge’ is hindering global HIV control efforts
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In order to receive US funding for HIV prevention or control projects, recipient organizations must take a pledge that explicitly condemns prostitution. But such condemnation is not effective at helping to control the global HIV epidemic, say researchers in this week’s PLoS Medicine.
Nicole Franck Masenior and Chris Beyrer (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) reviewed the existing scientific evidence on strategies that effectively reduce rates of HIV among sex workers.
