In this issue:
Case Report: Bilateral Renal Aspergillosis in a Patient with AIDS: A Case Report and Review of Reported Cases
A.W. Oosten, H.G. Sprenger, J.T.M. van Leeuwen, N.E.L. Meessen, S. van Assen
pp. 1-6.
Abstract
Viro-Immunologic Response to Ritonavir-Boosted or Unboosted Atazanavir in a Large Cohort of Multiply Treated Patients: The CARe Study
Maria Mercedes Santoro, Ada Bertoli, Patrizia Lorenzini, Adriano Lazzarin, Roberto Esposito, Giampiero Carosi, Giovanni Di Perri, Gaetano Filice, Mauro Moroni, Giuliano Rizzardini, Pietro Caramello, Renato Maserati, Pasquale Narciso, Antonietta Cargnel, Andrea Antinori, Carlo Federico Perno, the CARe Study Group
pp. 7-16.
Abstract
Concurrent HIV/AIDS Diagnosis Increases the Risk of Short-Term HIV-Related Death among Persons Newly Diagnosed with AIDS, 2002–2005
David B. Hanna, Melissa R. Pfeiffer, Lucia V. Torian, Judith E. Sackoff
pp. 17-28.
Abstract
Prior Illicit Drug Use and Missed Prenatal Vitamins Predict Nonadherence to Antiretroviral Therapy in Pregnancy: Adherence Analysis A5084
Susan E. Cohn, Triin Umbleja, Joseph Mrus, Arlene D. Bardeguez, Janet W. Andersen, Margaret A. Chesney
pp. 29-40.
Abstract
Predictors of the Initiation of HIV Postexposure Prophylaxis in Rhode Island Emergency Departments
Roland C. Merchant, Kenneth H. Mayer, Bruce M. Becker, Allison K. Delong, Joseph W. Hogan
pp. 41-52.
Abstract
A Qualitative Study Among Injection Drug Using Women in Rhode Island: Attitudes Toward Testing, Treatment, and Vaccination for Hepatitis and HIV
Michelle A. Lally, Sydney A. Montstream-Quas, Sara Tanaka, Sara K. Tedeschi, Kathleen M. Morrow
pp. 53-64.
Abstract
Vaccination in Brazilian HIV-Infected Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study
Yeh Li Ho, Thatiana Enohata, Marta Heloisa Lopes, Sigrid De Sousa Dos Santos
pp. 65-70.
Abstract
Self-Reported Adherence to Antiretroviral Treatment among HIV-Infected People in Central China
Honghong Wang, Gouping He, Xianhong Li, Aiyun Yang, Xi Chen, Kristopher P. Fennie, Ann Bartley Williams
pp. 71-80.
Abstract
Letter to the Editor: Medical Care of HIV-Infected Individuals in Poland: Impact of Stigmatization by Health Care Workers
Dorota Rogowska-Szadkowska, Alicja Małgorzata Ołtarzewska, Jolanta Sawicka-Powierza, Sławomir Chlabicz
pp. 81-84.
Contact the library to request copies of articles.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
New approach stops HIV at earliest stage of infection
Source: Science Daily
ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2008) — Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have developed a new two-punch strategy against HIV and they have already successfully tested aspects of it in the laboratory.
Their study, which appears in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may re-energize attempts to create a preventive/therapeutic vaccine against HIV, say the authors. To date, more than a dozen candidate vaccines, which have attempted to raise immunity against the spiky proteins on the viral envelope, have all failed in clinical testing.
The investigators have created devices they call glycodendrons that are designed to do two things at once: inhibit the transport of HIV from where it traditionally enters the body, preventing it from moving deeper inside where it can infect immune cells; and set up an immune antibody response to a unique carbohydrate structure on the surface of the virus.
"This paper is about a new direction in HIV vaccine design," said the study's lead investigator, Scripps Research Chemistry Professor Chi-Huey Wong. "Results we have so far are very promising."
To date, he says the devices have been able to stimulate the immune system of mice to induce antibodies against HIV surface glycoprotein, and, in laboratory studies, have been able to block the virus from infecting immune cells. (...)
Click here to read the complete article.
ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2008) — Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have developed a new two-punch strategy against HIV and they have already successfully tested aspects of it in the laboratory.
Their study, which appears in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may re-energize attempts to create a preventive/therapeutic vaccine against HIV, say the authors. To date, more than a dozen candidate vaccines, which have attempted to raise immunity against the spiky proteins on the viral envelope, have all failed in clinical testing.
The investigators have created devices they call glycodendrons that are designed to do two things at once: inhibit the transport of HIV from where it traditionally enters the body, preventing it from moving deeper inside where it can infect immune cells; and set up an immune antibody response to a unique carbohydrate structure on the surface of the virus.
"This paper is about a new direction in HIV vaccine design," said the study's lead investigator, Scripps Research Chemistry Professor Chi-Huey Wong. "Results we have so far are very promising."
To date, he says the devices have been able to stimulate the immune system of mice to induce antibodies against HIV surface glycoprotein, and, in laboratory studies, have been able to block the virus from infecting immune cells. (...)
Click here to read the complete article.
Monday, February 25, 2008
B.C. study shows 40 per cent of HIV sufferers died without getting treatment
Source: The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER - Forty per cent of the people who died of HIV-AIDS in British Columbia never accessed life-saving treatment even though it was free, according to a new study released Friday.
The study by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS looked into more than 1,400 HIV-related deaths in the province between 1997 and 2005.
In that period of time, a total of 567 people died without ever receiving the highly effective antiretroviral treatment.
"We have a problem," said Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the centre. "The treatments are available for free but something is wrong because the people that most need the treatment, they're not always accessing the treatment."
Low income was strongly associated with the delay in starting therapy and the ensuing high mortality rate.
Residence in a poor neighbourhood was associated with an increased risk of mortality among HIV patients, Montaner said.
"Factors such as a lack of housing or transportation, mental illness, illegal activity and language barriers play a role in an individual's ability to access treatment," he said.
Twenty-five per cent of those infected with HIV in Canada are not aware of their infection, according to the centre.
The centre distributes the cocktail of antiretroviral medications to all eligible British Columbians, free of charge, through the provincewide Drug Treatment Program, funded by Pharmacare.
Yet ensuring access to the treatment remains an elusive goal, he said.
"We have found that over the last several years there is a persistent number of people dying with HIV in our midst, where treatment and health care is supposed to be readily available," Montaner said.
Typical examples are single mothers who don't have the resources to get a babysitter or a homeless, mentally ill drug addict who lives on the Downtown Eastside and doesn't even know he's HIV-positive, he said.
And it's not just Vancouver, Montaner said. It's a problem right across the country and the percentage could even be worse in smaller communities where fewer resources are available.
Ann Livingston, spokeswoman for the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, called the study shocking.
Four in 10 people in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside live outside and many among them are sick with AIDS, she said.
Some live in substandard hotels that are often infested with cockroaches and unsafe but people stay there because welfare payments don't provide enough money for decent housing for those who are too ill to work, Livingston said.
"And they have no general practitioner. That's another nightmare," she said.
Ken Buchanan, of the British Columbia Persons with AIDS Society, said the long-term solution is to bring some stability to the lives of HIV-AIDS sufferers.
"For a person who is homeless, taking medications, even free medications, is pretty low in their priorities," he said.
Buchanan warned that access to medication isn't enough. A person who begins treatment and doesn't maintain the proper dose regime will build up a resistance to the drugs and end up more likely to die.
"You can't take them for a few days and then stop for a few days," he said. "If your life is chaotic ... you don't have the ability or the need or the desire to take your meds."
The centre has a proposal before the provincial government to form outreach teams that would take rapid-response testing to the most vulnerable and offer treatment.
But "free health care is not necessarily enough to address this problem," he said.
"We need to bring the treatments to the people and we need to create the programs that are going to help these individuals to take the treatment," he said.
It is not only the ethical and human thing to do, he said, it's also better for society at large because it reduces HIV-related illnesses that drain the health care system.
"By treating these people we're doing what is right for them, we're doing what is right for the system and we're also going to decrease HIV transmission," Montaner said.
"This is the right thing to do both in an ethical sense and also in a business sense."
Previous research by the centre and by researchers in Taiwan showed a 50 per cent reduction in new HIV cases that they felt was due to access to the highly active antiretroviral therapy.
The treatment consists of three or more antiretroviral drugs on a daily basis for life and it requires a very high level of adherence in order to be fully effective.
It has been the standard of care for the treatment of HIV-AIDS since 1996.
VANCOUVER - Forty per cent of the people who died of HIV-AIDS in British Columbia never accessed life-saving treatment even though it was free, according to a new study released Friday.
The study by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS looked into more than 1,400 HIV-related deaths in the province between 1997 and 2005.
In that period of time, a total of 567 people died without ever receiving the highly effective antiretroviral treatment.
"We have a problem," said Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the centre. "The treatments are available for free but something is wrong because the people that most need the treatment, they're not always accessing the treatment."
Low income was strongly associated with the delay in starting therapy and the ensuing high mortality rate.
Residence in a poor neighbourhood was associated with an increased risk of mortality among HIV patients, Montaner said.
"Factors such as a lack of housing or transportation, mental illness, illegal activity and language barriers play a role in an individual's ability to access treatment," he said.
Twenty-five per cent of those infected with HIV in Canada are not aware of their infection, according to the centre.
The centre distributes the cocktail of antiretroviral medications to all eligible British Columbians, free of charge, through the provincewide Drug Treatment Program, funded by Pharmacare.
Yet ensuring access to the treatment remains an elusive goal, he said.
"We have found that over the last several years there is a persistent number of people dying with HIV in our midst, where treatment and health care is supposed to be readily available," Montaner said.
Typical examples are single mothers who don't have the resources to get a babysitter or a homeless, mentally ill drug addict who lives on the Downtown Eastside and doesn't even know he's HIV-positive, he said.
And it's not just Vancouver, Montaner said. It's a problem right across the country and the percentage could even be worse in smaller communities where fewer resources are available.
Ann Livingston, spokeswoman for the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, called the study shocking.
Four in 10 people in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside live outside and many among them are sick with AIDS, she said.
Some live in substandard hotels that are often infested with cockroaches and unsafe but people stay there because welfare payments don't provide enough money for decent housing for those who are too ill to work, Livingston said.
"And they have no general practitioner. That's another nightmare," she said.
Ken Buchanan, of the British Columbia Persons with AIDS Society, said the long-term solution is to bring some stability to the lives of HIV-AIDS sufferers.
"For a person who is homeless, taking medications, even free medications, is pretty low in their priorities," he said.
Buchanan warned that access to medication isn't enough. A person who begins treatment and doesn't maintain the proper dose regime will build up a resistance to the drugs and end up more likely to die.
"You can't take them for a few days and then stop for a few days," he said. "If your life is chaotic ... you don't have the ability or the need or the desire to take your meds."
The centre has a proposal before the provincial government to form outreach teams that would take rapid-response testing to the most vulnerable and offer treatment.
But "free health care is not necessarily enough to address this problem," he said.
"We need to bring the treatments to the people and we need to create the programs that are going to help these individuals to take the treatment," he said.
It is not only the ethical and human thing to do, he said, it's also better for society at large because it reduces HIV-related illnesses that drain the health care system.
"By treating these people we're doing what is right for them, we're doing what is right for the system and we're also going to decrease HIV transmission," Montaner said.
"This is the right thing to do both in an ethical sense and also in a business sense."
Previous research by the centre and by researchers in Taiwan showed a 50 per cent reduction in new HIV cases that they felt was due to access to the highly active antiretroviral therapy.
The treatment consists of three or more antiretroviral drugs on a daily basis for life and it requires a very high level of adherence in order to be fully effective.
It has been the standard of care for the treatment of HIV-AIDS since 1996.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Study: Gel Fails to Stop HIV Infection
Source: The Associated Press
The first anti-AIDS vaginal gel to make it through late-stage testing failed to stop HIV infection in a study of 6,000 South African women, disappointed researchers announced Monday.
The study was marred by low use of the gel, which could have undermined results, they said. Women used it less than half the number of times they had sex, and only 10 percent said they used it every time as directed.
Scientists are still analyzing the results to see if this made a difference. They also plan more tests on a revamped gel containing an AIDS drug that they hope will work better.
The gel used in the current study did prove safe, however, and researchers called that a watershed event.
But for now, the effort is the latest disappointment in two decades of trying to develop a microbicide — a cream or gel women could use to lower their risk of getting HIV through sex. A female-controlled method is especially needed in poor countries where women often can't persuade men to use condoms.
A year ago, scientists stopped two late-stage tests of a different gel after early results suggested it might raise the risk of HIV infection instead of lowering it. (...)
Click here to read the complete article.
The first anti-AIDS vaginal gel to make it through late-stage testing failed to stop HIV infection in a study of 6,000 South African women, disappointed researchers announced Monday.
The study was marred by low use of the gel, which could have undermined results, they said. Women used it less than half the number of times they had sex, and only 10 percent said they used it every time as directed.
Scientists are still analyzing the results to see if this made a difference. They also plan more tests on a revamped gel containing an AIDS drug that they hope will work better.
The gel used in the current study did prove safe, however, and researchers called that a watershed event.
But for now, the effort is the latest disappointment in two decades of trying to develop a microbicide — a cream or gel women could use to lower their risk of getting HIV through sex. A female-controlled method is especially needed in poor countries where women often can't persuade men to use condoms.
A year ago, scientists stopped two late-stage tests of a different gel after early results suggested it might raise the risk of HIV infection instead of lowering it. (...)
Click here to read the complete article.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Test Detects Sensitivity to HIV Drug
Source: US News & World Report
Test Detects Sensitivity to HIV Drug Could be first step toward personalized medicine, experts say
By Randy Dotinga
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 6 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that an expensive blood test could help a small minority of HIV patients discover whether they should avoid a common AIDS drug that can sometimes cause serious side effects.
The test detects sensitivity to the medication abacavir by checking to see if a patient's genetic makeup is linked to poor reactions to the medicine.
"This is very important news in relation to the great hopes from the work with the Human Genome Project," said Magnus Ingelman-Sundberg, a professor at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, who wrote a commentary about the research. The genome project aims to analyze the genetic blueprint of humans.
At issue is the AIDS drug abacavir, also known by the brand name Ziagen, which is found in compound drugs known as Trizivir and Epzicom. The drug is known as a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor and works by preventing the AIDS virus from going through the motions of multiplying.
About 8 percent of patients suffer from hypersensitivity to the drug, said study author Simon Mallal, a researcher at Murdoch University & Royal Perth Hospital in Australia. His report on the results is published in the Feb. 7 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The problems typically occur within the first six weeks that patients use the drug, he added.
According to the study, the side effects include fever, rash, gastrointestinal symptoms and other problems.
By testing patients for a genetic trait that was found in 5.6 percent of 1,956 female and male patients, the researchers found they could spot potential cases of sensitivity to abacavir.
The test's use could allow doctors to do a better job of personalizing drugs for individual patients, Mallal noted. (...)
Click here to read the complete article
Test Detects Sensitivity to HIV Drug Could be first step toward personalized medicine, experts say
By Randy Dotinga
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 6 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that an expensive blood test could help a small minority of HIV patients discover whether they should avoid a common AIDS drug that can sometimes cause serious side effects.
The test detects sensitivity to the medication abacavir by checking to see if a patient's genetic makeup is linked to poor reactions to the medicine.
"This is very important news in relation to the great hopes from the work with the Human Genome Project," said Magnus Ingelman-Sundberg, a professor at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, who wrote a commentary about the research. The genome project aims to analyze the genetic blueprint of humans.
At issue is the AIDS drug abacavir, also known by the brand name Ziagen, which is found in compound drugs known as Trizivir and Epzicom. The drug is known as a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor and works by preventing the AIDS virus from going through the motions of multiplying.
About 8 percent of patients suffer from hypersensitivity to the drug, said study author Simon Mallal, a researcher at Murdoch University & Royal Perth Hospital in Australia. His report on the results is published in the Feb. 7 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The problems typically occur within the first six weeks that patients use the drug, he added.
According to the study, the side effects include fever, rash, gastrointestinal symptoms and other problems.
By testing patients for a genetic trait that was found in 5.6 percent of 1,956 female and male patients, the researchers found they could spot potential cases of sensitivity to abacavir.
The test's use could allow doctors to do a better job of personalizing drugs for individual patients, Mallal noted. (...)
Click here to read the complete article
Drug Helps Prevent Breast-Feeding Moms From Passing on HIV
Source: US News and World Report
6 weeks of nevirapine greatly reduced infant infections in Africa, India, study found
Posted 2/6/08
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 6 (HealthDay News) -- The antiretroviral drug nevirapine greatly reduces the risk that HIV-infected mothers will pass the virus to their babies during breast-feeding, according to a study conducted in Africa and India.
Nevirapine is already in widespread use in developing countries to prevent HIV-positive women from infecting their newborns during childbirth, note researchers at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore.
In this study, the Hopkins team and colleagues in Ethiopia, India and Uganda gave daily doses of the drug to breast-feeding infants when they were 8 to 42 days old.
By the time they reached 6 weeks of age, the rate of HIV infection among infants who received the drug daily was about half that of infants who received a single dose of nevirapine at birth, which is the current standard of care.
After six months, the infants who'd received the six-week drug treatment were almost a third less likely to suffer HIV infection or death than those given the single dose at birth.
The study included about 2,000 infants and was conducted from 2001 to 2007. It's one of the first randomized controlled trials to show that a drug can prevent HIV transmission in infants being breast-fed by HIV-infected mothers.
The findings were presented Monday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, in Boston.
Breast-feeding is a major cause of HIV infection in the developing world. Each year, about 150,000 infants are infected with HIV through breast-feeding, according to the World Health Organization.
6 weeks of nevirapine greatly reduced infant infections in Africa, India, study found
Posted 2/6/08
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 6 (HealthDay News) -- The antiretroviral drug nevirapine greatly reduces the risk that HIV-infected mothers will pass the virus to their babies during breast-feeding, according to a study conducted in Africa and India.
Nevirapine is already in widespread use in developing countries to prevent HIV-positive women from infecting their newborns during childbirth, note researchers at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore.
In this study, the Hopkins team and colleagues in Ethiopia, India and Uganda gave daily doses of the drug to breast-feeding infants when they were 8 to 42 days old.
By the time they reached 6 weeks of age, the rate of HIV infection among infants who received the drug daily was about half that of infants who received a single dose of nevirapine at birth, which is the current standard of care.
After six months, the infants who'd received the six-week drug treatment were almost a third less likely to suffer HIV infection or death than those given the single dose at birth.
The study included about 2,000 infants and was conducted from 2001 to 2007. It's one of the first randomized controlled trials to show that a drug can prevent HIV transmission in infants being breast-fed by HIV-infected mothers.
The findings were presented Monday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, in Boston.
Breast-feeding is a major cause of HIV infection in the developing world. Each year, about 150,000 infants are infected with HIV through breast-feeding, according to the World Health Organization.
Moms Pre-Chewing Food Gave HIV to Kids
Source: The Associated Press
By MIKE STOBBE
ATLANTA (AP) — For the first time, health officials report that the AIDS virus can be spread by a mother pre-chewing her infant's food, a practice mainly seen in poor, developing countries.
Three such cases were reported in the United States from 1993-2004, government scientists said Wednesday in a presentation in Boston at a scientific conference.
It's blood, not saliva, that carried the virus because in at least two of the cases the infected mothers had bleeding gums or mouth sores, according to investigators at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC officials say more study is needed. But they are asking parents and caregivers with HIV not to pre-chew infants' food, and are trying to educate doctors about this kind of transmission.
Health officials believe chewed-food transmission is rare in the United States, where such behavior is considered unusual. In some countries, mothers do it because they have no access to baby food or a means of pulverizing food for toothless infants.
"But even one case is too many," said the CDC's Dr. Ken Dominguez, who helped investigate the U.S. cases. (...)
Click here to read the complete article.
By MIKE STOBBE
ATLANTA (AP) — For the first time, health officials report that the AIDS virus can be spread by a mother pre-chewing her infant's food, a practice mainly seen in poor, developing countries.
Three such cases were reported in the United States from 1993-2004, government scientists said Wednesday in a presentation in Boston at a scientific conference.
It's blood, not saliva, that carried the virus because in at least two of the cases the infected mothers had bleeding gums or mouth sores, according to investigators at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC officials say more study is needed. But they are asking parents and caregivers with HIV not to pre-chew infants' food, and are trying to educate doctors about this kind of transmission.
Health officials believe chewed-food transmission is rare in the United States, where such behavior is considered unusual. In some countries, mothers do it because they have no access to baby food or a means of pulverizing food for toothless infants.
"But even one case is too many," said the CDC's Dr. Ken Dominguez, who helped investigate the U.S. cases. (...)
Click here to read the complete article.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Circumcising HIV positive men may increase HIV infections in female partners, but fewer STIs seen
Source: AIDSMAP - 15th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Boston USA - February 2008
There was a trend towards higher HIV incidence in the wives of HIV positive men who were circumcised compared with wives of men left uncircumcised, in the latest prevention study conducted in Rakai province, Uganda, investigators revealed at a press conference on the opening day of the Fifteenth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston.
In 2006, a randomised trial of circumcision in Rakai reported that circumcision led to an almost 50% reduction in a man’s risk of acquiring HIV through heterosexual sex. The impact of male circumcision on transmission of HIV to the female partner remains unknown, and the study reported today set out to examine the effects.
In the Gates Foundation-funded study, 1015 HIV positive men were randomised either to immediate circumcision or circumcision delayed by two years. Of these 770 were married and were asked to invite their wives into the study; 566 wives enrolled of whom 245 (43%) were HIV-negative and therefore in a serodiscordant relationship.
The annual HIV incidence rate in the wives of the men who were circumcised was 14.4% over two years of follow-up compared with 9.1% in women whose partners remained uncircumcised. This result may be due to chance as it was not statistically significant, but was described as “unexpected and somewhat disappointing” by lead investigator Maria Wawer of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. It was not due to behavioural disinhibition; condom use was the same in both arms.
Wawer said that these results were an additional challenge to the rolling-out of mass circumcision programmes in Africa, which are expected following the positive results from three randomised controlled trials of circumcision in HIV negative men, one of them conducted within the Rakai community.
She said: “It is inevitable that some HIV positive men will seek circumcision. It is the only HIV prevention modality that leaves a mark, and no one wants to be the only guy in the village who is uncircumcised if it becomes regarded as a mark of HIV.” (...)
Click here to read the rest of the article.
There was a trend towards higher HIV incidence in the wives of HIV positive men who were circumcised compared with wives of men left uncircumcised, in the latest prevention study conducted in Rakai province, Uganda, investigators revealed at a press conference on the opening day of the Fifteenth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston.
In 2006, a randomised trial of circumcision in Rakai reported that circumcision led to an almost 50% reduction in a man’s risk of acquiring HIV through heterosexual sex. The impact of male circumcision on transmission of HIV to the female partner remains unknown, and the study reported today set out to examine the effects.
In the Gates Foundation-funded study, 1015 HIV positive men were randomised either to immediate circumcision or circumcision delayed by two years. Of these 770 were married and were asked to invite their wives into the study; 566 wives enrolled of whom 245 (43%) were HIV-negative and therefore in a serodiscordant relationship.
The annual HIV incidence rate in the wives of the men who were circumcised was 14.4% over two years of follow-up compared with 9.1% in women whose partners remained uncircumcised. This result may be due to chance as it was not statistically significant, but was described as “unexpected and somewhat disappointing” by lead investigator Maria Wawer of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. It was not due to behavioural disinhibition; condom use was the same in both arms.
Wawer said that these results were an additional challenge to the rolling-out of mass circumcision programmes in Africa, which are expected following the positive results from three randomised controlled trials of circumcision in HIV negative men, one of them conducted within the Rakai community.
She said: “It is inevitable that some HIV positive men will seek circumcision. It is the only HIV prevention modality that leaves a mark, and no one wants to be the only guy in the village who is uncircumcised if it becomes regarded as a mark of HIV.” (...)
Click here to read the rest of the article.
New Issue of JANAC received: Vol. 19, no 1, Jan/Feb 2008
The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care covers the spectrum of nursing issues in HIV/AIDS: education, treatment, prevention, research, practice, clinical issues, awareness, policies and program development. This peer-reviewed journal is a forum for nurses and other health care professionals whose focus is the care and treatment of individuals infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care offers the latest information in the areas of health care delivery, program implementation and research analysis and application.
In this issue:
Editorial
Women and HIV Infection
Lucy Bradley-Springer
pages 1-2
Features
Low-Income HIV-Infected Women and the Process of Engaging in Healthy Behavior
Tracy A. Riley, Brenda M. Lewis, Mary Pat Lewis, Joseph L. Fava
pages 3-15
Abstract
Adaptation of an HIV Prevention Curriculum for Use With Older African American Women
Judith B. Cornelius, Linda Moneyham, Sara LeGrand
pages 16-27
Abstract
African American Women's Experience of Infection With HIV in the Rural Southeastern United States
Caroline Mallory
pages 28-36
Abstract
Health Concerns of Mature Women Living With HIV in the Midwestern United States
Maithe Enriquez, Nancy Lackey, Jacki Witt
pages 37-46
Abstract
Women's Voices: The Lived Experience of Pregnancy and Motherhood After Diagnosis With HIV
Lorraine B. Sanders
pages 47-57
Abstract
Improving Women's Adjustment to HIV Infection: Results of the Positive Life Skills Workshop Project
Carol Bova, Tobey Nestor Burwick, Maritza Quinones
pages 58-65
Abstract
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Revised Recommendations for HIV Testing: Reactions of Women Attending Community Health Clinics
Joe W. Burrage, Gregory D. Zimet, Dena S. Cox, Anthony D. Cox, Rose M. Mays, Rose S. Fife, Kenneth H. Fife
pages 66-74
Abstract
Promoting Adaptive Coping by Persons With HIV Disease: Evaluation of a Patient/Partner Intervention Model
Betsy L. Fife, Linda L. Scott, Naomi S. Fineberg, Beth E. Zwickl
pages 75-84
Abstract
Contact the library to request copies of articles.
Friday, February 01, 2008
Judge’s ignorance of AIDS draws fire
Source: The Toronto Star
Witness with HIV forced to wear a mask in court, groups complain
An Ontario judge is at the centre of a misconduct investigation after insisting a witness who is HIV-positive and has Hepatitis C don a mask while testifying in his courtroom.
Three groups have complained to the Ontario Judicial Council about the conduct of Barrie judge Justice Jon-Jo Douglas, who later moved the case to a bigger courtroom in order to create more distance between the witness and the bench. The judge refused to accept Crown counsel Karen McCleave's entreaties there was no need for such measures.
"The HIV virus will live in a dried state for year after year after year and only needs moisture to reactivate itself," Douglas insisted, according to a transcript of the Nov. 23 trial proceedings.
"This is outlandish," Bluma Brenner, an assistant professor at the McGill AIDS Clinic at McGill University in Montreal, said yesterday. A drop of human immunodeficiency virus drying on the floor "would be inactivated within 20 minutes," Brenner said in an interview.
But Douglas, a former Crown attorney appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice 10 years ago, was not prepared to continue the trial until he was satisfied "the safety and integrity of this courtroom" was protected.
"I mean, he speaks within two feet of me with two serious infectious diseases," Douglas told McCleave. "Either you mask your witness and/or move us to another courtroom or we do not proceed." (...)
Click here to read the article.
Witness with HIV forced to wear a mask in court, groups complain
An Ontario judge is at the centre of a misconduct investigation after insisting a witness who is HIV-positive and has Hepatitis C don a mask while testifying in his courtroom.
Three groups have complained to the Ontario Judicial Council about the conduct of Barrie judge Justice Jon-Jo Douglas, who later moved the case to a bigger courtroom in order to create more distance between the witness and the bench. The judge refused to accept Crown counsel Karen McCleave's entreaties there was no need for such measures.
"The HIV virus will live in a dried state for year after year after year and only needs moisture to reactivate itself," Douglas insisted, according to a transcript of the Nov. 23 trial proceedings.
"This is outlandish," Bluma Brenner, an assistant professor at the McGill AIDS Clinic at McGill University in Montreal, said yesterday. A drop of human immunodeficiency virus drying on the floor "would be inactivated within 20 minutes," Brenner said in an interview.
But Douglas, a former Crown attorney appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice 10 years ago, was not prepared to continue the trial until he was satisfied "the safety and integrity of this courtroom" was protected.
"I mean, he speaks within two feet of me with two serious infectious diseases," Douglas told McCleave. "Either you mask your witness and/or move us to another courtroom or we do not proceed." (...)
Click here to read the article.
HIV rate soars among Vancouver's native drug users
Source: The Globe & Mail
Startling new research reveals that aboriginal drug users living in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside are contracting HIV-AIDS at twice the rate of non-aboriginal users.
Over the four-year study, 18.5 per cent of aboriginal men and women who injected such drugs as cocaine and heroin became HIV-positive, compared with 9.5 per cent of non-aboriginal intravenous drug users.
"This is a tragedy," Evan Wood, a research scientist at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, said in an interview. "Many people in the aboriginal community are reaching out for care and the care isn't there."
Dr. Wood, the lead author of the research, said the higher rates of infection among natives are not due to biological factors but rather to patterns of social networking: The fact that aboriginal people interact principally with other aboriginals heightens their exposure and speeds the spread of HIV-AIDS.
Better social programs tailored to aboriginals could help alleviate that situation, he said.
In fact, even before researchers started tracking new infections, they found that the proportion of aboriginal drug users with HIV-AIDS was already higher - 25.1 per cent versus 16 per cent for non-aboriginals. (...)
The entire article is available here.
Click here for an abstract of the research article.
Startling new research reveals that aboriginal drug users living in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside are contracting HIV-AIDS at twice the rate of non-aboriginal users.
Over the four-year study, 18.5 per cent of aboriginal men and women who injected such drugs as cocaine and heroin became HIV-positive, compared with 9.5 per cent of non-aboriginal intravenous drug users.
"This is a tragedy," Evan Wood, a research scientist at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, said in an interview. "Many people in the aboriginal community are reaching out for care and the care isn't there."
Dr. Wood, the lead author of the research, said the higher rates of infection among natives are not due to biological factors but rather to patterns of social networking: The fact that aboriginal people interact principally with other aboriginals heightens their exposure and speeds the spread of HIV-AIDS.
Better social programs tailored to aboriginals could help alleviate that situation, he said.
In fact, even before researchers started tracking new infections, they found that the proportion of aboriginal drug users with HIV-AIDS was already higher - 25.1 per cent versus 16 per cent for non-aboriginals. (...)
The entire article is available here.
Click here for an abstract of the research article.
Briton sentenced to 14 years in prison for infecting women with HIV in Sweden
Source: The Canadian Press
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A British man was sentenced Friday to 14 years in prison for infecting two young women with HIV and putting 13 more at risk of infection.
News agency TT reports that thirty-two-year-old Christer Aggett, also convicted of six counts of having sex with minors, was ordered to pay more than $428,000 in damages. The two HIV-infected women will receive the equivalent of about $134,000 - each. Aggett was charged in October with two counts of aggravated assault for allegedly infecting two girls during sex without telling them he was HIV-positive.
Solna District Court in November had found Aggett guilty of the charges but him to undergo psychiatric examination before sentencing. He also was charged with aggravated assault, or "exposing others to danger," by having unprotected sex with more than a dozen other women between 2001 and 2006 - six of them under the age of 15. They were not infected with HIV.
He confessed to most of the charges, but not to having had sex with underage girls, saying he was unaware they were so young. Aggett's lawyer, Jonas Granfelt, said his client is likely to appeal the ruling. Police suspect that Aggett had been in contact during the five-year period with at least 130 women he met via Internet chat rooms.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A British man was sentenced Friday to 14 years in prison for infecting two young women with HIV and putting 13 more at risk of infection.
News agency TT reports that thirty-two-year-old Christer Aggett, also convicted of six counts of having sex with minors, was ordered to pay more than $428,000 in damages. The two HIV-infected women will receive the equivalent of about $134,000 - each. Aggett was charged in October with two counts of aggravated assault for allegedly infecting two girls during sex without telling them he was HIV-positive.
Solna District Court in November had found Aggett guilty of the charges but him to undergo psychiatric examination before sentencing. He also was charged with aggravated assault, or "exposing others to danger," by having unprotected sex with more than a dozen other women between 2001 and 2006 - six of them under the age of 15. They were not infected with HIV.
He confessed to most of the charges, but not to having had sex with underage girls, saying he was unaware they were so young. Aggett's lawyer, Jonas Granfelt, said his client is likely to appeal the ruling. Police suspect that Aggett had been in contact during the five-year period with at least 130 women he met via Internet chat rooms.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
UK patients to get new HIV drug
Source: BBC News
The first in a new class of HIV drugs has become available in the UK.
It means doctors will have a further treatment option for patients who have built up resistance to existing drugs. Raltegravir is an integrase inhibitor, which works by blocking an enzyme essential for HIV to be able to replicate itself.
An estimated 73,000 people live with HIV in the UK. Raltegravir will be reserved for those who have stopped responding to other treatment.
Resistance to HIV medication is becoming increasingly common - more than one in 10 UK patients with HIV has some level of resistance to at least one drug before they have even begun therapy, research has shown.
A clinical trial of Raltegravir published last year found it to be effective in patients who had been taking regular antiretroviral HIV drugs for about 10 years.
Treatment for HIV is helping people to live longer but, in the UK, one of the biggest challenges is the threat of resistance.
Integrase is one of three HIV enzymes the virus uses to multiply.
It inserts viral genes into the DNA of the host cell, effectively making it a "factory" for producing more of the virus. Without this, the virus cannot multiply and infect other cells as easily, reducing the amount of virus present in the blood.
The complete article is available on BBC's Website
The first in a new class of HIV drugs has become available in the UK.
It means doctors will have a further treatment option for patients who have built up resistance to existing drugs. Raltegravir is an integrase inhibitor, which works by blocking an enzyme essential for HIV to be able to replicate itself.
An estimated 73,000 people live with HIV in the UK. Raltegravir will be reserved for those who have stopped responding to other treatment.
Resistance to HIV medication is becoming increasingly common - more than one in 10 UK patients with HIV has some level of resistance to at least one drug before they have even begun therapy, research has shown.
A clinical trial of Raltegravir published last year found it to be effective in patients who had been taking regular antiretroviral HIV drugs for about 10 years.
Treatment for HIV is helping people to live longer but, in the UK, one of the biggest challenges is the threat of resistance.
Integrase is one of three HIV enzymes the virus uses to multiply.
It inserts viral genes into the DNA of the host cell, effectively making it a "factory" for producing more of the virus. Without this, the virus cannot multiply and infect other cells as easily, reducing the amount of virus present in the blood.
The complete article is available on BBC's Website
Sexually transmitted diseases soar in the Outaouais
Source: CBC News
Cases of sexually transmitted diseases increased sharply in Quebec's Outaouais region between 1996 and 2006, alarming public health officials.
Provincial statistics for the western Quebec region that includes Gatineau show that over 10 years, chlamydia infections more than doubled, from 275 cases in 1996 to 590 cases in 2006 (about 170 cases per 100,000). Gonorrhea infections are also on the rise and syphilis, which had almost disappeared from the region, is making a comeback. There was only one case of syphilis in 2001, but around a dozen in 2006. In the case of hepatitis C, there were 95 cases in 2006, up from 49 in 1996, but down from a high of 118 in 2003.
The growth in sexually transmitted diseases was particularly large among 15- to 35-year-olds, said Denis Carrier, a spokesman for the Outaouais public health agency. He blames the growth on young people failing to use protection such as condoms.
"Because there's some new pills or new treatments, people consider there's no big risk anymore," he said.
However, he warned that unprotected sex can have serious health consequences, and he said the health agency is launching a campaign to send home that message.
According to Health Canada's website, even chlamydia and gonorrhea, which can be treated with antibiotics, can potentially have serious effects such as pelvic inflammatory disease in women, which can cause internal abscesses and long-lasting pain. They can also lead to infertility among both men and women, and in some cases, a type of arthritis that affects joints throughout the body.
Sores associated with syphilis greatly increase the chance of contracting HIV. And if left untreated, syphilis can cause a wide range of symptoms ranging from fever to joint pain to hair loss, Health Canada said.
The agency also warns that AIDS is still incurable and fatal, and hepatitis C, which is also incurable, can lead to serious liver damage or liver cancer.
Cases of sexually transmitted diseases increased sharply in Quebec's Outaouais region between 1996 and 2006, alarming public health officials.
Provincial statistics for the western Quebec region that includes Gatineau show that over 10 years, chlamydia infections more than doubled, from 275 cases in 1996 to 590 cases in 2006 (about 170 cases per 100,000). Gonorrhea infections are also on the rise and syphilis, which had almost disappeared from the region, is making a comeback. There was only one case of syphilis in 2001, but around a dozen in 2006. In the case of hepatitis C, there were 95 cases in 2006, up from 49 in 1996, but down from a high of 118 in 2003.
The growth in sexually transmitted diseases was particularly large among 15- to 35-year-olds, said Denis Carrier, a spokesman for the Outaouais public health agency. He blames the growth on young people failing to use protection such as condoms.
"Because there's some new pills or new treatments, people consider there's no big risk anymore," he said.
However, he warned that unprotected sex can have serious health consequences, and he said the health agency is launching a campaign to send home that message.
According to Health Canada's website, even chlamydia and gonorrhea, which can be treated with antibiotics, can potentially have serious effects such as pelvic inflammatory disease in women, which can cause internal abscesses and long-lasting pain. They can also lead to infertility among both men and women, and in some cases, a type of arthritis that affects joints throughout the body.
Sores associated with syphilis greatly increase the chance of contracting HIV. And if left untreated, syphilis can cause a wide range of symptoms ranging from fever to joint pain to hair loss, Health Canada said.
The agency also warns that AIDS is still incurable and fatal, and hepatitis C, which is also incurable, can lead to serious liver damage or liver cancer.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Immunologists find better way to boost the immune system
Source: Science daily
Immunologists have discovered how to manipulate the immune system to increase its power and protect the body from successive viral infections.
Published in Viral Immunology, these findings may point the way toward developing new and more effective vaccines against diseases like influenza or HIV and enhance new developments in immunology.
The study suggests that scientists can boost the body’s resistance and fend off successive viral infections by taking components of the virus and indirectly activating specific populations of killer T cells – the body’s virus-killing cells. The virus components are introduced through a process known as “cross priming” whereby virus molecules are engulfed by immune cells to activate killer T cells.
“With this mechanism in mind, we can develop better tools to make more successful and effective vaccines,” says Sam Basta, Queen’s professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and the principal investigator of the study. The other members of the research team are master’s students Attiya Alatery and Erin Dunbar.
The researchers hope to build on their findings by next studying which immune cells do a better job of protecting the body while using this mechanism.
“The answer to this question is like having the Holy Grail of immunotherapy and vaccine design within our grasp,” says Dr. Basta.
Dr. Basta suggests that by fully understanding this new mechanism, researchers should be able to shuttle the appropriate viral components to the right immune cells.
The study was funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Franklin Bracken Fellowship program.
Adapted from materials provided by Queen's University.
Immunologists have discovered how to manipulate the immune system to increase its power and protect the body from successive viral infections.
Published in Viral Immunology, these findings may point the way toward developing new and more effective vaccines against diseases like influenza or HIV and enhance new developments in immunology.
The study suggests that scientists can boost the body’s resistance and fend off successive viral infections by taking components of the virus and indirectly activating specific populations of killer T cells – the body’s virus-killing cells. The virus components are introduced through a process known as “cross priming” whereby virus molecules are engulfed by immune cells to activate killer T cells.
“With this mechanism in mind, we can develop better tools to make more successful and effective vaccines,” says Sam Basta, Queen’s professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and the principal investigator of the study. The other members of the research team are master’s students Attiya Alatery and Erin Dunbar.
The researchers hope to build on their findings by next studying which immune cells do a better job of protecting the body while using this mechanism.
“The answer to this question is like having the Holy Grail of immunotherapy and vaccine design within our grasp,” says Dr. Basta.
Dr. Basta suggests that by fully understanding this new mechanism, researchers should be able to shuttle the appropriate viral components to the right immune cells.
The study was funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Franklin Bracken Fellowship program.
Adapted from materials provided by Queen's University.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Study of teen sex finds more education needed on transmitted diseases
Source: The Canadian Press
TORONTO - Most teens are responsible when it comes to sexuality, but lack of knowledge about sexually transmitted infections and their consequences is a concern, says a new study.
The research, published in the January issue of Pediatrics and Child Health [abstract], found that 27 per cent of teens were sexually active at a mean age of 15 years. The last time that they had sex, 76 per cent had used a condom, according to the findings.
"They don't know about many of the STIs that are common and they don't know about the consequences of the STIs," author Dr. Jean-Yves Frappier, head of the Adolescent Medicine Division at Sainte-Justine University Health Centre, said Monday in an interview from Montreal.
Five per cent of the sexually active teens said they had been diagnosed with an STI.
The teens surveyed overestimated the prevalence of HIV compared to other sexually transmitted infections, Frappier said.
"They don't know about chlamydia, which is much much more common," he said.
"Very few teens will be HIV positive but a certain percentage will be chlamydia positive in their teens. And that, they don't mention it."
Sixty-nine per cent of teens surveyed could not find information they were looking for about sex, and 62 per cent reported obstacles in getting information.
Online interviews were conducted in October 2005 by Ipsos Reid with 1,171 Canadian teenagers aged 14 to 17. As well, 1,139 mothers of teenagers were interviewed, but these weren't the mothers of the teens who were surveyed. The results are considered accurate to within 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Click here to read the complete article.
TORONTO - Most teens are responsible when it comes to sexuality, but lack of knowledge about sexually transmitted infections and their consequences is a concern, says a new study.
The research, published in the January issue of Pediatrics and Child Health [abstract], found that 27 per cent of teens were sexually active at a mean age of 15 years. The last time that they had sex, 76 per cent had used a condom, according to the findings.
"They don't know about many of the STIs that are common and they don't know about the consequences of the STIs," author Dr. Jean-Yves Frappier, head of the Adolescent Medicine Division at Sainte-Justine University Health Centre, said Monday in an interview from Montreal.
Five per cent of the sexually active teens said they had been diagnosed with an STI.
The teens surveyed overestimated the prevalence of HIV compared to other sexually transmitted infections, Frappier said.
"They don't know about chlamydia, which is much much more common," he said.
"Very few teens will be HIV positive but a certain percentage will be chlamydia positive in their teens. And that, they don't mention it."
Sixty-nine per cent of teens surveyed could not find information they were looking for about sex, and 62 per cent reported obstacles in getting information.
Online interviews were conducted in October 2005 by Ipsos Reid with 1,171 Canadian teenagers aged 14 to 17. As well, 1,139 mothers of teenagers were interviewed, but these weren't the mothers of the teens who were surveyed. The results are considered accurate to within 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Click here to read the complete article.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Charges dropped in Canada HIV tainted-blood scandal
Source: AFP
MONTREAL (AFP) — Canadian prosecutors on Friday dropped all charges against a former director of the Canadian Red Cross who had been implicated in the distribution of HIV-contaminated blood. Crown prosecutors told a court in Hamilton it would be virtually impossible to prove the case against Dr Roger Perrault which dates back to the 1980s and was Canada's worst health scandal.
"We have concluded that there no longer remains a reasonable prospect of conviction in this case," prosecutor John Pearson told the court.
Perrault had already been acquitted by the Ontario Superior Court in Toronto in October that ruled he was not criminally negligent in a separate case involving the contamination of seven children suffering from hemophilia, a bleeding disorder.
Two other Canadian doctors, an executive of Armour Pharmaceuticals, and the US firm itself were also acquitted in that case. It was the first criminal trial in the scandal in which more than 20,000 people contracted human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C in the 1980s and 1990s. At least 3,000 people died, including 800 from AIDS. In the second trial, Perrault had faced six charges of negligence for failing to take the necessary measures to protect patients from contracting HIV and to inform the public about the dangers of blood products.
Perrault has not made any comment on the case. But his lawyer Eddie Greenspan said his client may sue the Canadian government for damages.
"Not every tragedy requires a scapegoat. Dr Perrault should have never been named for the tainted blood crisis," he said.
MONTREAL (AFP) — Canadian prosecutors on Friday dropped all charges against a former director of the Canadian Red Cross who had been implicated in the distribution of HIV-contaminated blood. Crown prosecutors told a court in Hamilton it would be virtually impossible to prove the case against Dr Roger Perrault which dates back to the 1980s and was Canada's worst health scandal.
"We have concluded that there no longer remains a reasonable prospect of conviction in this case," prosecutor John Pearson told the court.
Perrault had already been acquitted by the Ontario Superior Court in Toronto in October that ruled he was not criminally negligent in a separate case involving the contamination of seven children suffering from hemophilia, a bleeding disorder.
Two other Canadian doctors, an executive of Armour Pharmaceuticals, and the US firm itself were also acquitted in that case. It was the first criminal trial in the scandal in which more than 20,000 people contracted human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C in the 1980s and 1990s. At least 3,000 people died, including 800 from AIDS. In the second trial, Perrault had faced six charges of negligence for failing to take the necessary measures to protect patients from contracting HIV and to inform the public about the dangers of blood products.
Perrault has not made any comment on the case. But his lawyer Eddie Greenspan said his client may sue the Canadian government for damages.
"Not every tragedy requires a scapegoat. Dr Perrault should have never been named for the tainted blood crisis," he said.
New HIV drug sanctioned when others fail
Source: US News
Blocks enzyme that virus needs to multiply
MONDAY, Jan. 21 (HealthDay News) -- The anti-HIV medication entravirine has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for adults who have failed treatment with other antiretrovirals.
Sold under the trade name Intelence, entravirine is a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, which helps block an enzyme that the AIDS-causing virus needs to multiply, the FDA said in a statement. This is aimed at reducing the amount of HIV in the blood and boosting infection-fighting white blood cells.
In clinical testing, 599 adults who received entravirine and additional antiviral therapy had greater reductions in blood HIV levels than adults who received a non-medicinal placebo and the same additional therapy. The most common side effects reported were rash and nausea.
The long-term effects of entravirine haven't been studied, nor have the drug's effects in pregnant women or among people age 16 or younger, the agency said.
Entravirine is distributed by Tibotec Therapeutics, whose parent firm -- Ortho Biotech Products -- is based in New Jersey.
More information on FDA's Website.
Blocks enzyme that virus needs to multiply
MONDAY, Jan. 21 (HealthDay News) -- The anti-HIV medication entravirine has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for adults who have failed treatment with other antiretrovirals.
Sold under the trade name Intelence, entravirine is a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, which helps block an enzyme that the AIDS-causing virus needs to multiply, the FDA said in a statement. This is aimed at reducing the amount of HIV in the blood and boosting infection-fighting white blood cells.
In clinical testing, 599 adults who received entravirine and additional antiviral therapy had greater reductions in blood HIV levels than adults who received a non-medicinal placebo and the same additional therapy. The most common side effects reported were rash and nausea.
The long-term effects of entravirine haven't been studied, nor have the drug's effects in pregnant women or among people age 16 or younger, the agency said.
Entravirine is distributed by Tibotec Therapeutics, whose parent firm -- Ortho Biotech Products -- is based in New Jersey.
More information on FDA's Website.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Aging Baby Boomers and seniors are at risk for HIV
Source: The Chicago Tribune
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Jane Fowler thinks it's about time college students had "the talk" with their grandparents. She doesn't mean grandmothers and grandfathers explaining the facts of life. She wants kids to explain safe sex to their elders.
It's part of a broader message the 72-year-old has advocated for more than a decade. Ever since she contracted HIV when she was in her 50s, Fowler has made it her mission to help aging Baby Boomers and members of her generation avoid her mistakes.
"Once people get past their own embarrassment and understand grandparents today are still sexually active, they realize I'm right," said Fowler, who spoke at a recent safe-sex event at Kansas State University. "Their grandparents face the same risks of sexually transmitted diseases as they do."
The over-50 crowd is a relatively small segment of the nation's at-risk group for sexually transmitted diseases. Approximately four times as many HIV diagnoses occurred in people ages 25 to 44 as in those 50 and older, according to a 2005 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Still, medical experts agree that older Americans often are among the most overlooked and, therefore, one of the more vulnerable populations.
Click here to read the article.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Jane Fowler thinks it's about time college students had "the talk" with their grandparents. She doesn't mean grandmothers and grandfathers explaining the facts of life. She wants kids to explain safe sex to their elders.
It's part of a broader message the 72-year-old has advocated for more than a decade. Ever since she contracted HIV when she was in her 50s, Fowler has made it her mission to help aging Baby Boomers and members of her generation avoid her mistakes.
"Once people get past their own embarrassment and understand grandparents today are still sexually active, they realize I'm right," said Fowler, who spoke at a recent safe-sex event at Kansas State University. "Their grandparents face the same risks of sexually transmitted diseases as they do."
The over-50 crowd is a relatively small segment of the nation's at-risk group for sexually transmitted diseases. Approximately four times as many HIV diagnoses occurred in people ages 25 to 44 as in those 50 and older, according to a 2005 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Still, medical experts agree that older Americans often are among the most overlooked and, therefore, one of the more vulnerable populations.
Click here to read the article.
Antiretroviral drugs may prevent vaginal transmission of HIV
Source: US News and World Report
Mouse study shows they could protect against spread of disease
Antiretroviral drugs used to treat people with HIV might also prevent vaginal transmission of the virus, claims a study by researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
The vast majority of new HIV infections worldwide, which total about 6,800 new transmissions daily, occur through unprotected vaginal sex with an infected partner.
For this study, the researchers used special mice with fully developed human immune systems that produced the infection-fighting cells specifically targeted by HIV in people. The Texas team found that daily doses of antiretroviral drugs before and after exposure to HIV can prevent vaginal transmission of the virus.
HIV was introduced vaginally into the mice. None of the mice that received the antiretroviral drugs emtricitabine (FTC) and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) showed any evidence of infection, while 90 percent of mice that didn't receive the drugs became infected by HIV.
The study was published in the Jan. 14 online issue of PLoS Medicine.
Click here to read the article
The study published in PLoS Medicine, Antiretroviral Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Prevents Vaginal Transmission of HIV-1 in Humanized BLT Mice, is available here.
Mouse study shows they could protect against spread of disease
Antiretroviral drugs used to treat people with HIV might also prevent vaginal transmission of the virus, claims a study by researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
The vast majority of new HIV infections worldwide, which total about 6,800 new transmissions daily, occur through unprotected vaginal sex with an infected partner.
For this study, the researchers used special mice with fully developed human immune systems that produced the infection-fighting cells specifically targeted by HIV in people. The Texas team found that daily doses of antiretroviral drugs before and after exposure to HIV can prevent vaginal transmission of the virus.
HIV was introduced vaginally into the mice. None of the mice that received the antiretroviral drugs emtricitabine (FTC) and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) showed any evidence of infection, while 90 percent of mice that didn't receive the drugs became infected by HIV.
The study was published in the Jan. 14 online issue of PLoS Medicine.
Click here to read the article
The study published in PLoS Medicine, Antiretroviral Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Prevents Vaginal Transmission of HIV-1 in Humanized BLT Mice, is available here.
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