tagged w/ HIV prevention
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The HIV infection rate among the homeless transgender population is more than TWENTY-TWO percent! That’s huge.
The HIV infection rate in Sub-Saharan Africa is just 5% and world-wide, it’s .8%. However, for homeless transgender people, it’s OVER TWENTY-TWO PERCENT!The HIV infection rate among the homeless transgender population is more than... more
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What is it about prostitutes, in particular, that drive men crazy to the point of risking their careers and putting their families on the line? DJ Mona-Lisa discusses the life of couples whose husbands are having torrid affairs with strippers and street prostitutes. Unsuspecting wives who lie with cheating husbands-jeopardizing their health. The humanitarian talk show host also reports the prevention and treatment of multiple types of sexual transmitted diseases which she defines in full details: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/djmonalisa/2011/07/14/dj-mona-lisa-live-broadcastWhat is it about prostitutes, in particular, that drive men crazy to the point of... more
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In a finding that is being widely hailed as the first major prevention breakthrough in the AIDS era, researchers have shown that taking a single daily pill containing two HIV drugs can reduce risk of contracting the virus by an average of 44% — and by more than 70% if the subjects take most of their pills.
The study involved nearly 2,500 high-risk gay men, but experts hope that the results will be applicable to other populations considered at risk for contracting the virus. Several studies are already underway to determine if that is the case.
The findings, reported online Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, come only a few months after an African study showed that a microbicidal gel can help protect women from contracting the virus and a little more than a year after a vaccine trial suggested that it may eventually be possible to raise antibodies against the virus.
“To see all these prevention strategies come together, we can begin to see an end to the epidemic,” said A. Cornelius Baker of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. “The National AIDS Strategy introduced by the president in July called for reducing the U.S. epidemic by 25%. … If we can prove this works and get this strategy into the communities, we can reach that goal much quicker than we had anticipated and move even further to more goals.”
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which was the major sponsor of the study, cautioned, however, that “No single prevention strategy is going to be effective for everyone, and it is important to note that the new findings pertain only to … men who have sex with men.”
More: http://www.theblogismine.com/2010/11/24/aids-prevention-pill-cuts-hiv-infection-risk-up-to-70/In a finding that is being widely hailed as the first major prevention breakthrough in... more
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American scientists are touting a major stride toward a vaccine that can ward off HIV, after finding two key proteins that neutralize 91 percent of the virus' 190 strains.
The team of researchers with the National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Research Center hopes the antibody discovery can spur successful work toward a method of preventing HIV, which already afflicts an estimated 33 million people worldwide.
http://www.aolnews.com/health/article/discovery-helps-us-researchers-close-in-on-hiv-vaccine/19547029American scientists are touting a major stride toward a vaccine that can ward off HIV,... more
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By MARK SCHOOFS
U.S. government scientists have discovered three powerful antibodies, the strongest of which neutralizes 91% of HIV strains, more than any AIDS antibody yet discovered.
Looking closely at the strongest antibody, they have detailed exactly what part of the virus it targets and how it attacks that site. Together with recent research into how to make animals produce antibodies, the new findings constitute a significant step toward an AIDS vaccine.
The antibodies were discovered in the cells of a 60-year-old African-American gay man, known in the scientific literature as Donor 45, whose body made the antibodies naturally. Researchers screened 25 million of his cells to find 12 that produced the antibodies.
Now the trick will be for scientists to develop a vaccine or other methods to make anyone's body produce them.
That effort "will require work," said Gary Nabel, director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was a leader of the research. "We're going to be at this for a while" before any benefit is seen in the clinic, he said.
The research was published Thursday in two papers in the online edition of the journal Science, 10 days before the opening of the large International AIDS Conference in Vienna, where prevention science is expected to take center stage.
More than 33 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2008, and about 2.7 million contracted the virus that year, according to United Nations estimates. Vaccines, which are believed to work by activating the body's ability to produce antibodies, eliminated or curtailed smallpox, polio and other once-feared viral diseases, so they have been the holy grail of AIDS research.
The Quest for a Vaccine
See major developments in AIDS research.
Last year, following a trial in Thailand, results of the first HIV vaccine to show any efficacy were announced. But that vaccine reduced the chances of infection by only about 30%, and controversy erupted because in one common analysis the results were not statistically significant. The vaccine was not designed to elicit the new antibodies.
The new discovery is part of what Wayne Koff, head of research and development at the nonprofit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, calls a "renaissance" in HIV vaccine research.
Antibodies that are utterly ineffective, or that disable just one or two strains, are common. Until last year, only a handful of "broadly neutralizing antibodies," those that efficiently disable a large swath of HIV strains, had been discovered, and none of them neutralized more than about 40% of known HIV variants.
In the last year, thanks to efficient new detection methods, at least a half dozen broadly neutralizing antibodies, including the three latest ones, have been identified in peer-reviewed journals. Most of the new antibodies are also more potent, able to knock out HIV at far lower concentrations than their previously known counterparts.
Dennis Burton of the Scripps Institute in La Jolla, Calif., led a team that discovered two broadly neutralizing antibodies last year; he says his team has identified additional, unpublished ones.
Some of the new antibodies attack different points on the virus, raising hopes that they could work synergistically. In unpublished research, John Mascola, deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center, has shown that one of Dr. Burton's antibodies neutralizes virtually all the strains that are resistant to the strongest new antibody, called VRC01, and vice versa. Only one strain out of 95 tested was resistant to both antibodies, he said. Dr. Mascola is one of the authors of Thursday's papers.
In the latest research, the antibodies were found to attack a key site on a spike on the virus that attaches to cells the virus infects. Because this site has to attach to a specific molecule on the cell surface, it is one of the few parts of HIV that don't mutate much.
Scientists tested 32 patients to see which ones had sera—clear fluid in the blood—that neutralized HIV. The sera contained unknown antibodies. Donor 45 had promising sera, so they focused on him.
Researchers say they plan to test the new antibodies, likely blended together in a cocktail, in three broad ways.
First, they could be given to people in their raw form, somewhat like a drug, to prevent transmission of the virus. However, they would likely be expensive and persist in the body only for a limited time, perhaps weeks, making that method impractical for all but specialized cases, such as to prevent mother-to-child transmission during childbirth.
The antibody could also be tested in a "microbicide," a gel that women and receptive partners in gay male pairings could apply before sex to prevent infection.
The antibodies might even be tried as a treatment for people who are already infected. While the antibodies are unlikely to completely suppress HIV on their own, say scientists, they might boost the efficacy of current antiretroviral drugs.
Dr. Nabel said that the Vaccine Research Center has contracted with a company to produce an antibody suitable for use in humans so that testing in people could begin.
The second way to use the new research is to deploy classical vaccine approaches. Traditional vaccines work by using a weakened or dead virus, or a viral fragment, to train the immune system to recognize the invader and produce antibodies. Because the new HIV antibodies are extremely specific, attaching tightly to particular parts of the virus, scientists have to show the immune system an exact replica of the parts of the virus that the antibodies attack.
That's a tall order—for example, it can be hard for such a replica to hold the correct shape—but different teams are trying different ways to achieve this goal.
In a little-noticed study published earlier this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists at Merck & Co. provided what Dr. Koff calls a "proof of principle" that other researchers can build on. Starting with an old antibody—one that is much weaker than the newly found ones—the Merck researchers created replicas of its target site. It was a painstaking, iterative process, requiring the researchers to add chemical bonds to stabilize the replica so that it wouldn't collapse.
Eventually, Merck was able to produce experimental vaccine candidates capable of stimulating guinea pigs and rabbits to produce the antibody. John Shiver, head of Merck's vaccine research, said he believes similar vaccine candidates could be "engineered using one of these new antibodies."
There are other potential pitfalls. There is evidence that Donor 45's cells took months or possibly even years to create the powerful antibodies. That means scientists might have to give repeated booster shots or devise other ways to speed up this process.
Finally, there are experimental methods that employ tactics such as gene therapy. Nobel laureate David Baltimore, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is working on one such approach.
His team at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., has stitched genes that code for antibodies into a harmless virus, which they then inject into mice. The virus infects mouse cells, turning them into factories that produce the antibodies.
Using one of the old antibodies, Dr. Baltimore said his team was able to protect mice from getting infected when injected with live HIV. Those experiments are not published. Recently, his lab has begun working with Dr. Burton's antibodies and the strongest antibody from Donor 45. Even if it proves successful, this strategy is years away from the clinic, Dr. Baltimore cautioned.
Write to Mark Schoofs at mark.schoofs@wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703609004575355072271264394.html?mod=e2fbBy MARK SCHOOFS
U.S. government scientists have discovered three powerful... more
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A US decision to freeze spending on treatment for HIV in several African countries has prompted concern that some of the gains made against the AIDS epidemic since 2003 could be reversed.
President George W. Bush?s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), launched in 2003, focused largely on treating patients in urgent need of medicine, but the new US administration?s programme has shifted away from emergency treatment.
"George W. Bush is a hero in this country," said Peter Mugyenyi, who heads Uganda?s Joint Clinical Research Centre, a leading AIDS treatment clinic.
Uganda received 929 million dollars (678 million euros) from PEPFAR between 2003-2008 and used much of those funds to provide some 150,000 people with Antiretroviral therapy.
But the US switch in emphasis means that clinics are now being forced to turn new patients away.
"We had drugs under PEPFAR. We didn?t have to turn patients away," he told AFP.
While PEPFAR expanded access to medicine, new HIV infections rose.
So, when PEPFAR was up for renewal the new administration of President Barack Obama demanded greater focus on preventing new infections.
"We have all lost momentum on the prevention front and we?re paying for it now in the form of rising prevalence," PEPFAR?s Kampala-based spokeswoman Lynne McDermott told AFP in an email.
The difficult economic climate meant spending more on prevention necessitated cutbacks on treatment in a country where the infection rate is 6.4 percent in a population of 31 million
Read more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100208/pl_afp/africaushealthaidsA US decision to freeze spending on treatment for HIV in several African countries has... more
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From http://ridavio.com/
This short documentary follows a unique group of local leaders starting a community center for gay and transgender individuals in a working class neighborhood of Lima, Peru. I had the opportunity to shoot and edit this piece thanks to a good friend who works on this project. It was a rare opportunity to see a side of Lima that I otherwise never would have witnessed.
In a poor neighborhood of Lima, Peru, five local leaders are trying to start a community center for gay and transgender individuals. The president of the center, Cuti, explains what it’s like to be gay in the neighborhood, how he came to open his own beauty shop and why he decided to participate in the project. The group talks about their activities, challenges they face and what they want to do in the future. The ASOCAHU center is a project of the University Cayetano Heredia and the University of California Los Angeles. Its goal is HIV & STI (Sexually Transmitted Infection) prevention in men who have sex with men (MSM).
To support ASOCAHU and similar groups in Peru send an e-mail to: info@epicentro.org.pe.From http://ridavio.com/
This short documentary follows a unique group of local... more
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"Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College have published results showing that a new contraceptive device may also effectively block the transmission of the HIV virus. Findings show that the device prevents infection by the HIV virus in laboratory testing. The promising results are published in the most recent issue of the journal AIDS.
The new device is a vaginal ring that releases multiple types of non-hormonal agents and microbicides, which would prevent conception as well as sexually transmitted HIV infection.
Worldwide, there are about 5 million new infections and 3 million deaths per year due to HIV/AIDS. If proven successful in future clinical trials, the new device could empower women to effectively and conveniently protect themselves from unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection. The ring may also someday represent a novel method to prevent STIs for those with aversion to currently available methods, with hormonally derived active agents, or with allergies to latex condoms.
"This device is a new approach to birth control, because it avoids the long-term use of hormonal methods that have been associated with increased risk of certain cancers," says Dr. Brij Saxena, lead author and the Harold and Percy Uris Professor of Reproductive Biology and professor of endocrinology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medical College. "At the same time, this is the first device to simultaneously offer the possibility to prevent unintended pregnancy and HIV transmission.""Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College have published results showing... more
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"Of course I do!" Katharine said, looking at me in amazement. "Everyone does." "Well", I began, rather timidly, "it's just that Catholics aren't supposed to use them". She looked at me pityingly and rolled her eyes. In fact, every single one of my Catholic friends admits to using or having used condoms. Katharine is in her late 20s, she has a successful career, a long-term boyfriend and is a practising Catholic. They use condoms because they don't want to have children yet, she can't take the pill for medical reasons and they are aware that the methods of contraception advocated by the Catholic Church are far from reliable.
I have known Katharine since childhood and in many ways she lives an exemplary Christian life. My mum is Catholic and I went to a Catholic Convent school so I am very aware of the theological and moral underpinnings to the Vatican's objection to condoms, just as Katharine is. We even had an outline of the Church's position stapled over the section on contraception in A-level biology texts books in our school library. For my Catholic friends, however, condom use is a sensible lifestyle choice and not a significant issue.
They see no problem with choosing to ignore the Vatican on this one topic. Nor do they see any reason to change now after the issue was reignited last week by the Pope's comments on the eve of his visit to Africa. Much of what Pope Benedict said was touching and thoughtful, filled with love and compassion. He called on Christians to speak up in the face of violence, poverty, hunger and corruption. He spoke of the continent's "painful wounds, its enormous potential and hopes". It is a shame that historic visit to Africa has been overshadowed by his comments on condoms, with even the EU issuing a rebuke to his statement. He was, of course, only reiterating the church's long-standing position, but there were two reasons why this caused such controversy.
Firstly, there is the symbolic nature of saying such a thing just before a tour of a continent so ravaged by HIV. Secondly, and this is where I take particular issue with his words, is the suggestion that condom distribution "risks aggravating" the HIV epidemic. This is categorically not true and risks inflaming an already fragile situation. There is considerable resistance from certain sections of African society - typically men - to using condoms. They see it as emasculating and unnecessary. Years of work have gone into trying to reduce the stigma attached to condom use in Africa, and while Catholics in the West, such as Katharine, are liberated and able freely to choose to adhere or ignore the Vatican's stance on condoms, this luxury is not afforded to those in Africa, particularly women.
HIV transmission routes are complex, particularly in a continent as vast as Africa. The lorry drivers who shift freight up and down the Trans-Africa highways significantly compound the problem. If they visit brothels or use prostitutes in the cities when away from home they are at high risk of HIV infection. On their return home they infect their unsuspecting wives. In a place where treatment is scarce and a diagnosis of HIV signals a death sentence, the stigma is such that many would rather not know their status. Those women who are breastfeeding or who fall pregnant then risk infecting their children. Whole families can be wiped out. Fidelity doesn't protect these women or their children."Of course I do!" Katharine said, looking at me in amazement. "Everyone... more
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Criticism of the pope’s attitude to condoms reveals a fault line in western propaganda, writes JOHN WATERS
DRIVING AROUND Uganda in recent years, you could hardly help noticing the government-sponsored advertising hoardings along the highway. One had a picture of a smiling man in his 60s with the slogan, “Say No to Sugar Daddies”. Another showed a slightly younger man, and the slogan, “Would you want this man sleeping with your daughter? So why are you sleeping with his?” The billboards were part of Uganda’s long, successful battle against Aids, these posters being directed at creating a sexual firebreak between generations.
In the 1980s, Uganda was at the epicentre of the African Aids catastrophe, but managed to reverse the spread of the disease through an emphasis on cultural adaptation – abstinence, fidelity and some education about condom use. In Europe and America, however, whenever the subject of Aids and Africa is mentioned, there is an assumption that condoms are incontrovertibly the sole option.
Click on link for rest of article...Criticism of the pope’s attitude to condoms reveals a fault line in western... more
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Adjusting to college life can be rough – moving into residence, living with roommates, balancing academic demands with those of social life. Now try taking your antiretroviral (ARV) medication without the whole world knowing you're positive, and things get even more complicated. Treatment adherence, proper nutrition and treating opportunistic infections are all problematic in the campus environment.Adjusting to college life can be rough – moving into residence, living with... more
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The country's three political parties - ZANU-PF and the two factions of the majority Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - signed a power-sharing deal on 15 September, ending one of the worst periods of inter-party political violence since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980. AIDS activists are hoping that the country's new administration will make good on promises to urgently improve access to affordable HIV/AIDS treatment and services at state hospitals.
The country's three political parties - ZANU-PF and the two factions of the... more
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Combining antiretroviral (ARV) therapy with treatment for tuberculosis (TB) could more than halve the current mortality rate among patients co-infected with HIV and TB, saving an estimated 10,000 lives a year in South Africa.
Combining antiretroviral (ARV) therapy with treatment for tuberculosis (TB) could more... more
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Shortages of antiretroviral (ARV) and other drugs in public health facilities in Swaziland have been among a long list of grievances cited by protesters during several weeks of unprecedented political unrest ahead of parliamentary polls on Friday.
Shortages of antiretroviral (ARV) and other drugs in public health facilities in... more
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If you live along the main highway linking Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire's economic hub, with Lagos in Nigeria, it is almost impossible to ignore the many AIDS awareness messages along the route, travelled by 47 million people each year. The 'Caravane pour la vie' (caravan for life), is an annual travelling HIV/AIDS awareness campaign organised by the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Project in the five countries - Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria - that the road goes through. So far, it If you live along the main highway linking Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire's... more
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A new take on an old system, known as 'jaboya' (a customer who is also a lover, in the local Luo language) in Kenya, in which female fishmongers develop sexual relationships with fishermen and middlemen in exchange for fish is now putting young girls at risk of HIV as female relatives use young girls to negotiate for better deals on their wares.
A new take on an old system, known as 'jaboya' (a customer who is also a... more
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Kenya's circumcision rollout, due to be launched in the Nyanza area in late September, is already facing problems; according to local media, members of the Luo Council of Elders, an advisory cultural body that wields considerable influence, have threatened to disrupt the launch unless they are properly consulted. The Council of Elders are against the idea of promoting mass circumcision.Kenya's circumcision rollout, due to be launched in the Nyanza area in late... more
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Several prominent demographers and scientists have vigorously refuted Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang's claim that South Africa's HIV epidemic is declining and that the country "may be making some real progress in its response to the HIV epidemic". Tshabalala-Msimang's statement was based on a national survey of HIV prevalence among pregnant women, which researchers are describing as deeply flawed.
Several prominent demographers and scientists have vigorously refuted Health Minister... more
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Uganda's rising HIV prevalence is forcing policy makers to look for inventive ways of educating people about the virus. Their latest tool is mobile phone technology, whose rapid growth has provided an avenue that could potentially reach millions with messages. Text to Change (TTC) , an NGO that uses a bulk short message service (SMS) platform for HIV/AIDS education, recently partnered with the AIDS Information Centre in Uganda (AIC) and Celtel, a local mobile phone network, to pilot a project in western Uganda aimed at communicating knowledge about the disease and encouraging subscribers to volunteer for HIV testing. Uganda's rising HIV prevalence is forcing policy makers to look for inventive... more
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Uganda's health ministry has been scrambling to stave off a nationwide shortage of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) that could jeopardise the lives of tens of thousands of HIV-positive people.
Uganda's health ministry has been scrambling to stave off a nationwide shortage... more
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