AIDS/HIV
Women with HIV fight fear and stigma
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When Papua New Guinea’s Maura Elaripe was diagnosed with HIV she thought it was a death sentence, but 10 years later she is still fighting the disease and the fear and stigma associated with it in her homeland.
The 31-year-old former nurse said many afflicted with the disease are left untreated to die in Papua New Guinea, a developing nation where black magic still rules many people’s lives.
Protecting HIV Patients from Hepatitis B Virus
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Since the transmission of HIV and Hepatitis B virus (HBV) are so similar, individuals infected with one of these viruses are at a significantly increased risk for contracting the other. As it is not quite clear how patients that don’t respond to the HBV vaccine should be managed, new research from the University of Alberta has evaluated the immune response of HBV vaccine given intradermally (into the skin) in HIV-infected individuals who failed to respond to two cycles of HBV vaccine given intramuscularly (into the muscle).
“Because those infected with HIV are at a greater risk for contracting HBV, it is crucial we promote HBV immunizations and continue to put our research efforts into why some HIV patients fail to respond to the vaccine,” said Dr. Stephen Shafran, Professor and Director, Division of Infectious Diseases, at the University of Alberta.
Malawi unveils mass HIV testing campaign: report
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Health officials in Malawi are preparing on Monday to launch a massive HIV testing program to identify tens of thousands of people unknowingly infected with the virus in the southern African nation.
Many of the estimated 14 percent of Malawian adults who are HIV-positive do not know they are infected, jeopardizing efforts to stop the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among sexually active teenagers and adults, the government has said.
Double protection doesn’t improve HIV prevention
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For prevention of HIV infection, there’s no advantage to using a diaphragm as well as a condom during sex, according to investigators hoping for an effective female-controlled method of avoiding AIDS.
Dr. Nancy S. Padian and her colleagues tested the theory that covering the cervix with a diaphragm and still using a condom would enhance protection against HIV, in a medical trial involving some 5000 sexually active women living in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Penn researchers develop new method for screening drug-resistant forms of HIV
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A growing number of drug-resistant strains of HIV are a threat to the effectiveness of current treatments despite anti-HIV drug cocktails decreasing the number of HIV-related deaths and improving the quality of life for HIV patients. Existing methods of detecting drug-resistant forms of HIV are expensive, time consuming, and often fail to identify small populations of drug-resistant HIV. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have developed a drug resistance screening method that analyzes multiple HIV variants at the same time, while also saving time and money.
By combining two genetic tests, Frederic D. Bushman, PhD, Professor of Microbiology, and colleagues, rapidly obtained gene sequences from multiple drug-resistant HIV samples at once. The study appeared online this month in Nucleic Acids Research.
FDA grants speedy review for new class of HIV drug
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U.S. regulators will review Isentress, an investigational drug for HIV infection, on a priority basis, and a decision is anticipated by mid-October, Merck & Co. said on Wednesday.
The oral drug is the first in an HIV drug class called integrase inhibitors. It is generically known as raltegravir, and formerly known as MK-0518. The drug blocks the insertion of HIV’s genetic material into human DNA and thereby prevents the virus from replicating. It should be taken twice daily, and can be taken with or without food.
One in Three HIV Positive Gay Men Report Unprotected Sex
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More than one in three HIV positive gay men say they have unprotected sex, reveals a community survey, published ahead of print in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.
And almost one in five HIV negative men said that they do the same, the figures show.
The findings are based on a survey of men at gay bars, clubs, and saunas in London, Manchester, and Brighton between 2003 and 2004.
Frequent Infections May be a Sign of Immunodeficiency
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Children who get frequent infections, such as ear infections, sinusitis or pneumonia, may have a more severe condition called immunodeficiency, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI).
Patients who have immunodeficiency have infections that usually do not go away without using antibiotics and often recur within one or two weeks after antibiotic treatment is completed. These patients frequently need many courses of antibiotics each year to stay healthy. There are several forms of immunodeficiency and while some are very severe and life-threatening, many are milder but still important enough to cause recurrent or severe infections.
Health-Care Workers Exposed to HIV on Job Need Preventive Treatment
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A review of existing research confirms that health-care workers should undergo a month of preventive drug treatment if they are exposed to HIV on the job.
Still, the reviewers say that there’s been little research into so-called occupational postexposure prophylaxis, and it’s still not clear what should be done when health-care workers are exposed to patients who are resistant to some drugs.
Italian doctors transplant HIV-infected organs
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Italian doctors mistakenly transplanted organs from an HIV-positive donor into three recipients, the head of a Florence hospital said on Tuesday.
Doctors at Careggi hospital told reporters that an infected woman’s liver and kidneys were transplanted after a laboratory biologist incorrectly wrote on her medical records that she had tested negative for HIV.
First large-scale HIV vaccine trial in South Africa opens
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A large-scale clinical trial of a candidate HIV vaccine - which previously showed promise in smaller studies in the United States and elsewhere - has now opened in South Africa. The study plans to enroll up to 3,000 HIV-negative men and women, making it the largest African HIV vaccine trial to date.
Conducted jointly by the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) and the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), the trial is supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study vaccine, provided by Merck & Co. Inc. (Whitehouse Station, NJ), contains copies of only three HIV genes, not the entire virus, so it is impossible for a trial volunteer to become infected from the vaccine.
India to create HIV “safe zones” for migrants
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India will map out high-risk migration corridors and create safe spaces in cities where migrant workers congregate to protect them from the HIV virus, the head of its anti-AIDS agency said on Thursday.
India has the world’s highest caseload with around 5.7 million people living with the virus, according to the United Nations, and migrants are considered a very high-risk group.
An estimated one-quarter of India’s 1.1-billion population, mostly the poor from its villages and towns, moves around the country in search of a livelihood every year.
Black men in focus in U.S. HIV drug trial
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Much of the early AIDS research in the United States focused on gay white men because they were the first group affected and subsequently developed an effective lobbying voice.
Now a clinical trial by the AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta is focusing on gay black men, who are not as well organized but who have a higher incidence of the disease.
The trial aims to determine whether an AIDS drug is safe for people who are negative for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. It has stirred debate among participants and researchers about gay sexuality within the black community and its attitude to safe sex.
HIV Treatments Improve Health, but Nutritional Issues Remain
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Despite the success of highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART), people with HIV may still be at higher risk for nutritional deficiencies and abnormalities. In two different studies, researchers at the Nutrition/Infection Unit in the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, and colleagues examined the incidence of metabolic syndrome and existing micronutrient deficiencies among participants in the Nutrition for Healthy Living (NFHL) study, a cohort with HIV. Both studies were published in the December 1st issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, reporting that a high percentage of people with HIV have the same two defining characteristics of metabolic syndrome, and that people with HIV may be at risk for zinc deficiency.
Metabolic syndrome is defined as having three or more of the following medical conditions; low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL or ‘good’) cholesterol, hypertension, abdominal obesity, high levels of serum glucose (blood sugar), and/or hypertriglyceridemia, which is an elevation of triglycerides (fatty compounds) in the blood. Metabolic syndrome is often associated with obesity and related diseases like diabetes, but characteristics of metabolic syndrome have been observed among patients with HIV both before and after the introduction of HAART.
A More Convenient HIV Treatment Is as Effective as More Complex Regimens
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Regimens to treat HIV infection that are based on a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) are at least as effective as treatment with a protease inhibitor but require patients to take fewer pills each day, according to a new study funded in part by HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The study, published in the October 28 online issue of the Lancet, found that disease progression was similar for both regimens, but NNRTI-based treatment appeared more effective at decreasing the amount of virus in the blood. The number of patients who stopped treatment because of adverse events was similar for both medications.
The new study is the first to review all published research that directly compares the two classes of antiretroviral drugs used in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). NNRTI-based regimens were found to be up to 60 percent more likely to suppress the amount of virus in patients’ blood than protease inhibitor-based regimens. The percentage of patients who died or experienced disease progression were similar between the two treatments, and the number of patients who stopped taking the medications because of side effects or adverse events was also similar.
