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Huffington Post profiles UNITAID chair

The Huffington Post profiles Philippe Douste-Blazy, U.N. under-secretary-general of Innovative Financing for Development and chair of UNITAID, a financing mechanism he conceived in 2004 to help provide medicines for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries.

7 Oct 2011

Cuts to U.S. military's HIV research program threaten HIV vaccine progress

Fred Sawe, deputy director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Walter Reed Project HIV Program in Kericho, Kenya, and Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention, report in Global Health Magazine that "[t]he Department of the Army is set to slash 73 percent of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program's (MHRP) Army research budget for FY13 through FY17," a move they write is a threat to HIV vaccine progress.

7 Oct 2011

Research roundup: Health disparities; Prescription drug abuse in Medicare Part D; Medicaid's role for HIV patients

Achieving Equity In Health -- This policy brief examines the outlining factors that cause disparities in the health care system and focuses on the October issue of the journal, which is devoted to research on the subject.

7 Oct 2011

PEPFAR ART cost model data presented to PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board

"For every 1,000 patient-years of PEPFAR-supported HIV treatment provided, 228 fewer HIV patients die, 449 fewer children become orphans, 61 fewer sexual HIV transmissions occur and 26 fewer 'vertical' transmissions (e.g. mother-to-child) occur," John Blanford of the CDC told the PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board in Washington, D.C., on September 14, according to a post in the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog.

7 Oct 2011

Scientists discover two HIV variants in cerebrospinal fluid of HAD patients

When the virus that causes AIDS infects the central nervous system, it can lead to the development of a severe neurological disease called HIV- associated dementia.

7 Oct 2011

Keeping HIV patients on ART will have long-term economic benefits, study shows

Investments to keep 3.5 million people living with HIV on antiretroviral drugs provided by programs co-financed through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria through 2020 will cost an estimated $14.2 billion, but "the financial savings would amount to between $12 billion and $34 billion," according to a study published in the journal PLoS One, Sarah Boseley reports in her "Global Health Blog" in the Guardian.

7 Oct 2011

Measurable changes in brain function may be a consequence of early HIV infection

Measurable changes in brain function and communication between brain regions may be a consequence of virus-induced injury during the early stages of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

7 Oct 2011

The male circumcision debate continues

Much has been written on the controversies and debates on whether males – from infants to adults – have a human right to retain their foreskin. The protestors have helped persuade 18 states to stop paying for circumcisions under their Medicaid health insurance programs.

5 Oct 2011

Hormonal contraceptive shots and risk of HIV in African women

A new study from Africa reveals that using a hormone shot given every three months - the most popular contraceptive for women in eastern and southern Africa, may make it easier for HIV to spread between heterosexual sex partners.

5 Oct 2011

DNA primer vaccine enhances immune response to H5N1 avian influenza vaccine

The immune response to an H5N1 avian influenza vaccine was greatly enhanced in healthy adults if they were first primed with a DNA vaccine expressing a gene for a key H5N1 protein, researchers say.

4 Oct 2011

Kenya national AIDS program considering mandatory HIV testing

VOA News examines how Kenya's National Aids Control Council and STI Control Program (NASCOP) is considering proposing mandatory HIV testing for adults and children who seek medical care for other conditions, noting that some AIDS organizations are expressing ethical concerns because of continuing stigma and discrimination. For now, "fears of mandatory testing in Kenya are premature, as Kenyan law currently bans such practices," the news service writes.

4 Oct 2011

Addressing high-risk groups, couples counseling in HIV prevention

In this post in the Center for Global Development's "Global Health Policy" blog, Mead Over, a senior fellow at the center, follows up on a post last week in which he wrote that a panel of senior economists commissioned by the Rush Foundation was to address the question of how to spend an additional, but hypothetical, $10 billion on HIV/AIDS programs in Africa over the next five years.

4 Oct 2011

Individuals should act against NCDs

In this Foreign Policy Association blog post, freelance writer Julia Robinson calls for individuals to start demanding more action on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), writing, "It is possible to have stronger responses to NCDs" than those presented in the political declaration that resulted from last month's U.N. High-level Meeting (HLM) on NCDs, such as the smoking bans, requirements for posting nutrition information in restaurants and trans fat restrictions enacted in New York City by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

4 Oct 2011

Researchers identify new enzyme function that may protect against anemia

Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital have discovered a new function for an enzyme that may protect against organ injury and death from anemia.

4 Oct 2011

New Kaiser Family Foundation report examines Medicaid’s role for people with HIV/AIDS

A new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation examines Medicaid’s current role in providing health coverage for people with HIV and provides an important baseline for monitoring the impact of health reform in expanding coverage to this population beginning in 2014.

3 Oct 2011

Adaptimmune announces new board appointments as clinical programmes get underway

Adaptimmune, the T cell therapy company pioneering enhanced T cell receptor-driven T cells for the treatment of cancer and infectious disease, announces two new Board appointments with immediate effect. Dr Jonathan Knowles joins the Board as a non-executive director and Dr Helen Tayton-Martin, Adaptimmune’s Chief Operating Officer, becomes an executive director.

3 Oct 2011

Sangamo's SB-509 fails to meet key endpoints in Phase 2b study for diabetic neuropathy

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. today announced that its Phase 2b study (SB-509-901) did not meet its primary or secondary clinical endpoints in subjects with moderate severity diabetic neuropathy (DN) as compared to placebo.

3 Oct 2011

GeoVax completes enrollment for HIV/AIDS vaccine Phase 2a clinical trial

GeoVax Labs, Inc., an Atlanta-based biopharmaceutical firm developing vaccines to prevent and fight Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infections, announced today the completion of enrollment for a Phase 2a clinical trial testing its HIV/AIDS vaccine.

3 Oct 2011

SANNI Foundation commits to finance education centre for HIV/AIDS affected children in Southern India

The parents of Susanne Schroff, Gunther and Ingrid Schroff, created the Schroff Foundation out of their private fortune in 1984. Their declared aim was to exploit entrepreneurial success for socially important scientific causes and in the interests of society.

1 Oct 2011

AHF protests J&J over AIDS drug prices

A group of committed AIDS activists and advocates are expected to participate in a protest and "die-in" hosted by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Friday, September 30th at 12:30 pm near the New Brunswick headquarters of Johnson & Johnson to protest the company's pricing of its HIV/AIDS medications.

1 Oct 2011