Antiretroviral News and Research

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Brazil to distribute 19.5 million condoms during carnival

Health officials in Brazil on Sunday began distributing millions of condoms ahead of the country's five-day Carnival in an effort to reduce the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, the AP/San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

30 Jan 2008

U.S. PTO's rejection of Gilead's antiretroviral patents might affect applications in India

Last week's rejection by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office of four patents on Gilead Sciences' antiretroviral drug Viread might affect patent applications for the drug in India, the Times of India reports.

28 Jan 2008

Mouse model shows potential efficacy of HIV prevention strategy

A new kind of laboratory mouse can be used to test the efficacy of much-needed methods to prevent transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to research by J. Victor Garcia and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

15 Jan 2008

AHF to Schwarzenegger: Re-consider proposed budget cuts in AIDS services

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has urged California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to reconsider and reverse $11 million of proposed budget cuts in AIDS services that will reduce and threaten vital lifesaving care and services for Californians living with HIV/AIDS as he seeks to close a $14 billion deficit in the state budget.

11 Jan 2008

New York City mortality rate at all-time low in 2006

The death rate in New York City reached an all-time low in 2006, the Health Department reported today, as the number of deaths fell to 55,391 - down from 57,068 in 2005 and 60,218 in 2001.

10 Jan 2008

Ryan White funding proposal demonstrates neglect of US' growing AIDS epidemic

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has strongly criticized Ryan White CARE Act funding levels contained in the latest budget package drafted by Congress in order to meet the restrictions of President George W. Bush's spending target for next year.

18 Dec 2007

Aggressive TB control can yield big economic gains

A new World Bank research report finds that 22 countries with the world's highest numbers of TB cases could earn significantly more than they spend on TB diagnosis and treatment if they signed onto a global plan to sharply reduce the numbers of TB-related deaths.

14 Dec 2007

Doctors failing to diagnose HIV early in UK Africans

Doctors are missing valuable opportunities to diagnose HIV in Africans living in the UK, with serious consequences for their long term health, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust.

10 Dec 2007

HIV-infected infants respond poorly to childhood vaccination

It is known that HIV-infected children who do not receive appropriate antiretroviral drugs experience immune depression, and may become susceptible to infectious diseases that would otherwise be prevented by childhood immunization.

5 Dec 2007

Women being treated for AIDS could end up dying of cervical cancer unless they have access to screening and treatment

According to a report issued last week by UNAIDS, access to antiretroviral therapy is beginning to reduce AIDS mortality worldwide.

3 Dec 2007

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines can improve the lives of HIV-infected children

An international team of experts has published the first comprehensive review of evidence on pneumococcal conjugate vaccination (PCV) for children with HIV infection.

29 Nov 2007

HIV in Thailand appears more deadly

Two studies led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that people infected with HIV in Thailand die from the disease significantly sooner than those with HIV living in other parts of the world.

27 Nov 2007

Surge in HIV/AIDS prompts demand for all Beijing hotels to provide condoms

As a result of a surge in new HIV/AIDS cases in the first 10 months of this year, health authorities in China's capital Beijing have ordered all hotels in the city to provide condoms in every room.

27 Nov 2007

India to provide 2nd-line AIDS treatment to 5,000 patients, bows to activists' pressure

Bowing to an increasing need for more effective AIDS treatments in India and recent high-profile public advocacy from a broad coalition of AIDS activists, India's National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) and Health Minister A. Ramadoss will announce the rollout of lifesaving second-line antiretroviral treatment (ART) in India in a ceremony on World AIDS Day, Saturday December, 1st .

22 Nov 2007

AIDS statistics revised by WHO in 2007

New data show global HIV prevalence - the percentage of people living with HIV - has levelled off and that the number of new infections has fallen, in part as a result of the impact of HIV programmes.

21 Nov 2007

Suppressing herpes virus may reduce infectiousness of HIV

A recent study of men co-infected with herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) and HIV revealed that drugs used to suppress HSV decrease the levels of HIV in the blood and rectal secretions, which may make patients less likely to transmit the virus.

16 Nov 2007

HIV drug resistance risk in mothers reduced by tenofovir/emtricitabine with nevirapine during labor

New research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) shows that adding a single dose of two common anti-HIV drugs can prevent HIV-positive pregnant women from developing resistance to an entire class of drugs, potentially improving future treatment options.

14 Nov 2007

Brazilian experience of AIDS cocktails

AIDS continues to be a staggering global public health problem. The World Health Organization estimates that two million people in developing countries receive treatment known as HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy), more commonly known as “AIDS cocktails.”

13 Nov 2007

Former Chair of Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS Hitt passes away

R. Scott Hitt -- a former HIV/AIDS physician and former chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS during the Clinton administration -- died Thursday of colon cancer at his home in West Hollywood, Calif., according to Hitt's friend and West Hollywood Mayor John Duran, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports.

12 Nov 2007

BCG vaccine causing illness, death among HIV-positive infants, report says

The BCG vaccine, which aims to prevent tuberculosis among children in developing countries, might be causing illness and death among some HIV-positive infants, researchers said on Friday, the Los Angeles Times reports.

6 Nov 2007