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South African President introduces National Strategic Plan on HIV, STIs, TB

South African President Jacob Zuma in a speech on Thursday to mark World AIDS Day introduced a new five-year National Strategic Plan on HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and tuberculosis (TB), which "calls for stepped-up prevention efforts to halve new infections of HIV and tuberculosis by 2016 and to put 80 percent of eligible patients on antiretroviral drugs to fight AIDS," Agence France-Presse reports.

3 Dec 2011

Bristol-Myers Squibb and Tibotec partner to evaluate daclatasvir-TMC435 combination for HCV

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced today that it has entered into a clinical collaboration agreement with Tibotec Pharmaceuticals to evaluate the utility of daclatasvir (BMS-790052), Bristol-Myers Squibb's investigational NS5A replication complex inhibitor, in combination with Tibotec Pharmaceuticals' investigational NS3 protease inhibitor, TMC435, for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV).

3 Dec 2011

Women for Positive Action comments on research into prevention strategies for sexual transmission of HIV

To mark World AIDS Day (December 1, 2011), Women for Positive Action has released a commentary which discusses recent and ongoing research on prevention strategies for the sexual transmission of HIV. With expert opinion from Teresa Branco, Margaret Johnson, Karine Lacombe, Anne-Mette Lebech, Mona Loutfy, Angelina Namiba, Maria Jesús Pérez Elías and Sharon Walmsley, the article is focused on the potential clinical relevance of these studies.

3 Dec 2011

Baby boomers more likely to develop HCV

Experts at Montefiore Medical Center urge the general public to be tested for the Hepatitis C virus, especially baby boomers, adults born between 1946-1964, who could be most at risk for this disease. Baby boomers are more likely to have been exposed to dangerous risk factors decades ago, such as sharing a drug needle, being tattooed or pierced with unsterilized tools or receiving a tainted blood transfusion.

2 Dec 2011

Bristol-Myers Squibb, Tibotec partner for TMC435 Phase II combination study in HCV

Medivir AB, the research-based speciality pharmaceutical company focused on the development of high-value treatments for infectious diseases, announces that its development partner, Tibotec Pharmaceuticals, has entered into an agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.

2 Dec 2011

Multimedia resources published in recognition of World AIDS Day

The following is a summary of some of the multimedia resources published in recognition of World AIDS Day, observed on Thursday, December 1.

2 Dec 2011

Opinion pieces address Global Fund's future after cancellation of Round 11 grants

The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria decided to cancel Round 11 grant approval during a two-day meeting in Accra, Ghana, that concluded on November 22, according to a Global Fund press release (11/23).

2 Dec 2011

Mylan's NDA for Atazanavir Sulfate and Ritonavir Tablets receives tentative FDA approval through PEPFAR

Mylan Inc. today announced that its subsidiary Mylan Laboratories Limited has received tentative approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for its New Drug Application for Atazanavir Sulfate and Ritonavir Tablets, 300 mg/100 mg.

2 Dec 2011

Financial Times, IPS report on male circumcision as HIV prevention strategy

Male circumcision is "a practice that -- despite the evidence -- has yet to be adopted as much or as fast as experts had hoped," the Financial Times reports.

2 Dec 2011

U.S. global AIDS funding faces up to 10% cuts in fiscal 2012

As we approach World AIDS Day, life-saving funding is under attack from multiple fronts, and it couldn't come at a worse time. One of the world's biggest donors, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria canceled its next round of funding, because it couldn't secure enough donations.

2 Dec 2011

Only 21% of medical students could identify correct hand hygiene indications

Only 21 percent of surveyed medical students could identify five true and two false indications of when and when not to wash their hands in the clinical setting, according to a study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of APIC - the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

2 Dec 2011

DNDi highlights lack of healthcare coverage for children with HIV/AIDS

Less than one-quarter (23%) of children with HIV/AIDS who need treatment are getting it, according to a report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the occasion of World AIDS Day.

2 Dec 2011

New insight into why aminoglycoside antibiotics cause deafness

Peter Steyger's research on hearing is very personal. That's because Steyger - a research scientist with the Oregon Hearing Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University - is deaf. Now Steyger has published groundbreaking research that is as personal as it gets. The study gives scientists new insight into why a specific class of antibiotics causes deafness - the same class of antibiotics that caused Steyger's deafness as a child in England 48 years ago. The study was published this month in Scientific Reports, part of the Nature Publishing Group.

2 Dec 2011

Longer looks: Life of a Medicare demo project; Broken hearts; AIDS funding

Today's Medicare demonstration project might determine how physicians interact with the program tomorrow, so naturally such projects generate a lot of buzz in the health care community. Lately, some of that buzz has been about how demos might provide part of the solution for Medicare's payment problems.

2 Dec 2011

Obama renews U.S. commitment to ending AIDS in World AIDS Day speech

President Barack Obama on Thursday renewed the U.S. commitment to ending HIV/AIDS in a speech marking World AIDS Day, and was joined by former presidents Bill Clinton, who participated by video, and George W. Bush, who spoke from Tanzania with that country's President, Jakaya Kikwete, the Independent reports.

2 Dec 2011

Research on HIV stigma between gay men and within gay communities

An article published in the journal AIDS Care has, for the first time, reviewed research on HIV stigma between gay men and within gay communities.

2 Dec 2011

Al Jazeera examines HIV, drug use among women in Northeast India

Al Jazeera examines HIV among women in India's Manipur state, particularly in the district of Churachandpur, where local non-governmental organizations "say more than one-quarter of the women use some kind of drugs and suffer from HIV; many, due to a lack of financial opportunities, will end up turning to" sex work to obtain money to buy drugs, the news agency writes.

2 Dec 2011

NAPWA advocates for fighting a three-fronted war against HIV/AIDS

"NAPWA, the largest and oldest advocacy group for people living with HIV/AIDS, advocates for fighting a three-fronted war against HIV/AIDS.

2 Dec 2011

Opinion pieces, editorials recognize World AIDS Day

"This year we will hear that the first AIDS-free generation since the discovery of HIV may be a reality. But we are unlikely to hear what counts. As with every year, we are left more questions than answers," Barrett of Harm Reduction International writes before posing questions about the epidemic to several organizations.

2 Dec 2011

Percentage of pregnant women living with HIV in South Africa increases, survey suggests

The percentage of pregnant women living with HIV in South Africa "has inched up to 30.2 percent from 29.4 percent last year," according to the annual National Antenatal Sentinel HIV and Syphilis Prevalence survey released by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi in Pretoria on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reports.

2 Dec 2011