Antiretroviral News and Research

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Pill box organizers increase HIV patients' adherence and improve viral suppression

Inexpensive pill box organizers are an easy, successful, and cost-effective tool to help patients take their medications as prescribed, according to a new study of low-income urban residents living with HIV infection by authors from the Berkeley School of Public Health and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

30 Aug 2007

HIV protein both causes brain injury and prevents its repair

New evidence reported in the August issue of Cell Stem Cell, a publication of Cell Press, offers a novel perspective on how the HIV/AIDS virus leads to learning and memory deficits, a condition known as HIV-associated dementia.

17 Aug 2007

FDA approves maraviroc, an antiretroviral drug for use in adult HIV patients.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved maraviroc, an antiretroviral drug for use in adult HIV patients. Maraviroc, sold under the trade name Selzentry, is the first in a new class of drugs designed to slow the advancement of HIV and received priority review by the FDA.

7 Aug 2007

Long-term herpes treatment may reduce HIV infectivity

Long-term anti-herpes treatment of women infected with both HIV and HSV2, the virus that causes genital herpes, may reduce the proportion of women with detectable HIV virus in their genital secretions according to the results of a trial in Tanzania presented the International AIDS Society Conference in Sydney.

26 Jul 2007

Children with HIV early antiretroviral therapy study

Hundreds of thousands of babies around the world are born each year with HIV--more than half a million in 2006 alone.

26 Jul 2007

New studies emphasize need for influenza and measles vaccinations in HIV-infected patients

Two new studies emphasize the importance of delivering measles and influenza vaccines to HIV-infected individuals.

24 Jul 2007

Urgent needs of HIV-positive women discussed

Women Living Positive, a roundtable discussion at the IAS congress in Sydney, featured the perspectives of an international panel, including experts in HIV research and medicine, an HIV-positive woman and a member of Australia's National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA), on the progress that has been made, and what remains to be done to address the needs of HIV-positive women.

23 Jul 2007

Patients' perspectives on living with HIV

Recent launches of new protease inhibitors and the anticipated availability of new antiretroviral drug classes have increased the therapeutic options available to treatment-experienced HIV-positive patients, and made achieving an undetectable viral load a realistic goal for this patient population.

23 Jul 2007

Long term antiretroviral therapy may restore CD4 cell counts in HIV positive patients

HIV positive patients who take combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) to combat HIV infection could see the numbers of CD4 cells in their immune system rise to concentrations found in HIV negative individuals, if they remain on the therapy for long enough and their HIV viral load load is suppressed to below 50 copies per ml.

20 Jul 2007

Three gene variants discovered that help fight HIV

An international team of researchers has identified three gene variants in the DNA of 486 people infected with HIV that appear to have helped some of the patients fight off the virus and delay the onset of full-blown AIDS.

20 Jul 2007

Tibotec Pharmaceuticals submits NDA for investigational HIV treatment

Tibotec Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has announced the submission of a New Drug Application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for TMC125 (etravirine), an investigational non- nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), being studied for use with other antiretroviral (ARV) agents as a treatment for people infected with HIV- 1.

19 Jul 2007

HIV-infected children may require repeat measles vaccination

The researchers found that only half of the HIV-infected children who survived without antiretroviral therapy maintained protective antibody levels 27 months after receiving measles vaccine.

18 Jul 2007

Fast market penetration for Roche HIV viral load monitoring test

One-third of Roche Diagnostics' molecular customer base has already purchased or ordered the COBAS AmpliPrep /COBAS TaqMan HIV-1 assay, just eight weeks after the assay received approval from the Food & Drug Administration to go to market.

From Roche Sequencing and Life Science 17 Jul 2007

Clinical responses to antiretroviral drug therapy simulated for the first time

Treatment of HIV patients must balance the need to suppress viral replication against the harmful side effects and significant cost to the patient of antiretroviral therapy.

13 Jul 2007

Malawi aims to provide 150,000 HIV-positive people with access to antiretrovirals

Malawi plans to provide 150,000 HIV-positive people with access to no-cost antiretroviral drugs by the end of the year, Biziwick Mwale, chief of the National AIDS Commission, said on Monday, AFP/Sunday Times reports.

11 Jul 2007

Vietnamese aims to increase access to HIV care, treatment

The Vietnamese government has issued a series of documents aimed at increasing access to HIV/AIDS care and treatment in the country in an effort to keep the country's HIV prevalence below 0.27% in 2007, the Vietnam News Agency reports.

11 Jul 2007

El Salvador needs to take increased HIV/AIDS control efforts

Although health officials in El Salvador have launched an HIV testing campaign in the country, some advocates say that the country needs to take increased efforts to control the growing number of HIV cases in the country, Inter Press Service reports.

10 Jul 2007

Etravirine reduces HIV viral loads when taken with Prezista

The experimental antiretroviral drug etravirine, made by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Tibotec Pharmaceuticals, greatly reduces HIV viral loads in people with a history of drug resistance when taken in combination with Tibotec's antiretroviral Prezista, according to two studies published Saturday in the journal The Lancet.

10 Jul 2007

Etravirine effective for HIV supression

Treatment with TMC125 (etravirine) leads to better virological suppression than placebo as part of antiretroviral therapy in patients with documented resistance to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), conclude two randomised trials in this week's issue of The Lancet.

8 Jul 2007

New drug resistance screening method

A growing number of drug-resistant strains of HIV are a threat to the effectiveness of current treatments despite anti-HIV drug cocktails decreasing the number of HIV-related deaths and improving the quality of life for HIV patients.

29 Jun 2007