News
Further reductions in the prices of generic versions of key second-line antiretroviral drugs were announced yesterday, writes Michael Carter thanks to an agreement negotiated by the international drug purchase fund UNITAID and the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative with Indian and Chinese generic drug manufacturers.
Under the deal the cost of tenofovir, 3TC (lamivudine) and lopinavir/ritonavir will fall by almost a fifth compared to prices a year ago.
Six new, easy to take child-friendly antiretroviral formulations will also be made available by the deal, and a paediatric fixed-dose combination of AZT, 3TC and nevirapine will cost no more than $66 per year.
The cost cutting will mean that tenofovir, 3TC and lopinavir/ritonavir, the most widely used second-line generic combination, will be available to low income countries at an average of 16% less than the current average market price and to middle-income countries at prices that are 46% lower.
Standard HIV drug resistance tests may fail to detect HIV drug resistance in more than one-third of newly diagnosed patients, the 14th British HIV Association Conference heard last week writes Gus Cairns. This is important clinically because if no more 0.4% of a person’s viral population is drug-resistant, this can triple the risk of treatment failure, the conference was told. Standard resistance tests can only detect resistance if 10-20% of a person’s viral population is drug-resistant.
Dr Jeffrey Johnson of the US Centers for Disease Control retested 205 samples of what was thought to be wild-type, non-resistant HIV from a group of people newly diagnosed with HIV between 2003 and 2005 in Los Angeles and Chicago, using hypersensitive resistance tests that could pick up resistant virus that comprised as little as 0.1% of the viral population .
The group was a very mixed population of newly-diagnosed people, with roughly a third each being white, Latino and black. Two-thirds were gay men, one in five were injecting drug users, and in the other 15% the HIV exposure risk was heterosexual sex.
A specific protein in the body may be the key to overcoming the increasing problem of resistance to HIV drugs according to a BBC report . Inactivating the ITK protein which is involved in the immune response blocks many steps of HIV replication, studies in the laboratory show. Most current HIV drugs attack the virus itself which is liable to mutate and become resistant to treatment. HIV experts said the results were promising but any drug would take a long time to get to the clinic.
ITK is involved in activating a type of immune cell called a T cell in the presence of infection. HIV works by infecting T cells, taking them over so they can replicate and create large quantities of the virus, compromising the whole immune system. The team at the US National Institutes of Health realised that many of the pathways regulated by ITK were also needed for HIV to take hold in the body.
Harsh living conditions and the onset of the cold rainy season in Kenya are making it increasingly difficult for HIV-positive people displaced in the recent post-election violence to stay healthy, according to health workers in the camps and reported in PlusNews.
"The main difficulty is getting a good balanced diet," said Ancilla Kemunto, a government community healthcare worker at the largest camp for internally displaced people [IDPs] in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru. "Although, like other IDPs, they [HIV-positive people] get the WFP [United Nations World Food Programme] rations, they are not nutritious or large enough to keep them healthy."
AIDS patients in poor countries checked for signs of decline such as fever or weight loss are likely to have nearly the same survival rate as Western patients who undergo costly laboratory tests, researchers said on Friday.
Observing clinical symptoms is also almost as effective as laboratory analysis in deciding when to switch from first-line drug treatments to second-line drugs if resistance sets in, according to the study in the Lancet medical journal reports Reuters.
Few of those patients have access to costly tests to measure the body's immune levels by measuring how much virus is travelling in the bloodstream or by counting the numbers of immune cells called CD4 T-cells, which are standard in rich countries.
Two global research organisations dedicated to designing a vaccine against HIV - the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and the Centre for HIV/Aids Vaccine Immunology (Chavi) -- have signed an agreement to work together to address major biological questions that have slowed development of a safe, effective and affordable Aids vaccine reports the Mail and Guardian.
“Solving the HIV vaccine puzzle is a scientific challenge that can be solved only through fundamental and applied research, collaboration and transparency,” says Dr Barton Haynes, Chavi director and professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Centre
“The work that will be done by IAVI, Chavi and their networks of partners will rapidly enhance our understanding of HIV and help lay the groundwork for new vaccine approaches.”
The QIS Standards for Sexual Health Services have recently been launched and will support the ongoing implementation of Respect and Responsibility, Scotland’s national sexual health strategy. The publication is being widely distributed. This document can be viewed on http://www.nhshealthquality.org/
New Publications:
A new book covering the essentials of medical law in Scotland has been published by Dundee University Press. ‘Medical Law Essentials’ is aimed at solicitors, healthcare professionals and students, and covers core topics including consent, confidentiality and medical negligence as well as ‘hot’ topics such as fertility, transplantation and assisted suicide.
Click here for further details.
The recently published HIV and Poverty Report is the first that has been produced on poverty and HIV in Scotland and is the result of a successful working partnership between Crusaid, Waverley Care and HIV Scotland. It clearly demonstrates that 25 years on in the history of the epidemic, HIV and poverty remain interlinked. The full report can be read here.
The National AIDS Trust has published a new report: HIV and the UK Asylum Pathway. The report maps out the complex pathway an asylum seeker in the UK takes from application to when a decision is made on their claim. It also highlights the needs of an HIV-positive asylum seeker and identifies both challenges and opportunities professionals have to address those needs.
The report is an ideal guide for professionals including community care nurses, GPs and civil servants, who support asylum seekers through the course of their work.
New issue of Impact examines HIV and the Law. The National AIDS Trust has launched the latest issue of Impact, its policy bulletin which stimulates debate on key HIV policy topics.
This issue focuses on HIV and the law and aims to give an overview of both the current legal developments that can affect the lives of people living with HIV and the work that the National AIDS Trust and other organisations are doing to ensure that the law protects, rather than infringes, the rights of people living with HIV. |
Events, Activities and Research
HIV: Confidentiality and risks to third parties Part 2 – an ethicist’s perspective. The fact that a person is HIV-positive would normally be regarded as strictly confidential, but difficult questions may arise if someone is thought to be putting a sexual partner at risk by having unprotected sex without disclosure. In exceptional cases, a breach of confidentiality may be legally and ethically permissible (or, arguably, even necessary). Waverley Care invite you to this event which follows on from the discussion held on the legal aspects of confidentiality, and will focus on the ethical issues for front line staff. The talk led by Kenneth Boyd, Professor of Medical Ethics at Edinburgh University takes place at Waverley Care Solas on Thursday 15th May from 6 – 7.30 pm. Refreshments will be available from 5.45pm.
Positive Women: Private Lives - Over the past year HIV support organisation, Positively Women, has developed this project recording the lives of women living with HIV and AIDS in the UK. Through a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund an oral archive has been produced, preserving the memories and experiences of women living with HIV for generations to come. On completion the recordings will be lodged at the British Library, preserving the archive for generations to come.
For a short time Positively Women will be taking the archive out on the road and staging exhibitions at centres around the UK. The exhibition will bring the testimonies to a wider audience providing an insight into the lives and experiences of living with HIV in the UK today. Positively Women is actively seeking centres and organisations that can host the exhibition, whether it be for a few hours or for a few days. If you would like to find out more please contact Jan Paul Rosen on 020 7713 0444 or by Email: jan-paul@positivelywomen.org.uk
The Connected Scotland website is the first website in the world to be developed for gay and bi men living with HIV. It has lots of information for gay and bi men in Scotland who are HIV positive as well as sections for partners, friends and family. Visit the website on www.connectedscotland.co.uk
HIV Scotland and The National Aids Trust (NAT) have produced the HIV and Recruitment guide for employers and job applicants living with HIV. To download the leaflet click here
More exciting COCKTALES NEWS! The latest edition of COCKTALES is now available and reported as probably the best ever and now in the making is a new COCKTALES website. If you’re interested in being part of the COCKTALES CREW contact us at Healthy Gay Scotland
A series of leaflets have been printed in both Polish and Spanish. Dealing with STI’s and HIV testing, they are available on the Healthy Gay Scotland Website |
Archive of HIV Scotland's UPDATES
March 2008 Last months new letter updates
September 2004 reports that the UK government has helped to pluga a gap in the money that is needed for the global fight against HIV. It agreed to bring forward" to this year $5.3 million of its 2005 allocation to the Glabal Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
August 2004 looks at fears being raised that young people are increasingly at risk from sexual diseases, as it emerged that rates of chlamydia infection rose 16% in three months .
July 2004 reports on the Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson's Annual Report. It says more needs to be done to ensure that people who are infected with HIV are detected at an earlier stage.
June 2004 reports that the UK government's efforts to fight the spread of Aids in resource poor countries have been criticised by the National Audit Office, (NAO.) It said that the Department for International Development is unaware how much it spends fighting Aids.
May 2004 reports that Britain's youth are complacent about HIV/AIDS. It highlights the decline in 12-15 year olds' knowledge about the risk of HIV/AIDS as highlighted by the Schools Health Education Unit
March 2004 reports on moves to moves to improve community engagement with the police force Proposals aim to ensure that the public should play a more active role in shaping local police services and priorities.
February 2004 Reports that the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has withdrawn its' cooperation from the BBC's “Newsnight Scotland” programme over its' “sneering and aggressive” attitude on the Churches position on shared campus schools... and that HIV cases have reached an all-time high in Glasgow
September 2003 Sexual health improvements in England to get an extra £11m... A survey reveals that 26% of Scots claim prejudice is acceptable...Experts claim that people with HIV and Aids face living in poverty as a result of their diagnosis...
August 2003 More controversy in the press over the Scottish Executive's Sexual Health Strategy... Scots regulator backs HIV drug Fuzeon...
July 2003 Fuzeon, a completely new treatment for HIV infection, the first in seven years, was launched in the UK... APPGA launches report on Migration and HIV... News that ten per cent of HIV caught in Europe is drug resistant...more...
June 2003 Scottish Executive's Sexual Health Strategy sparks fresh battle with Catholic Church... EU cash for AIDS fight dubbed 'modest'... House of Commons Health Select Committee releases its report on Sexual Health... more...
May 2003 Huge increases in the number of Scots with sexually transmitted diseases revealed... EU Governments rubberstamped a plan to provide cheap anti-AIDS drugs to developing countries... Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS) published... more...
April 2003 The number of pregnant women infected with HIV reaches an all-time high in Scotland... Scottish Inquiry begins into complaints that hundreds of Scots haemophiliacs contracted hepatitis C from infected NHS blood products... more...
March 2003 Scottish Executive Expert Group publishes report in favour of Hep C compensation... Asylum seeker is accused of selling false AIDS-test results to refugees in Scotland for £1500 a time... Half of new European HIV cases acquired heterosexually... World's first attempted and widely tested AIDS vaccine proves unsuccessful... more...
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