Not So SMART: Interruption Strategy Questioned
Results from one of the largest HIV clinical trials ever conducted conclude that a specific strategy of interrupting HIV treatment more than doubles the risk of disease progression or death and is actually associated with a higher risk of serious side effects.
COPD More Likely in Patients With HIV (Reuters Health)
In keeping with findings in the pre-HAART era, it appears that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) continues to be more common in patients who are HIV-positive compared to those who are HIV negative, researchers report in the November issue of Chest.
Thymidine-Sparing Regimen Improves Lipoatrophy (Reuters Health)
Switching from a thymidine nucleoside analogue to tenofovir or abacavir can improve the loss of limb fat mass in HIV-infected patients with lipoatrophy, according to a report in the October 24th issue of AIDS.
November 29, 2006
Psychiatric Disorders Make HIV Treatment Costly (Reuters Health)
Neuropsychiatric disorders (NPD) add substantially to the cost of treatment of HIV-infected patients, according to a report in the October 24th issue of AIDS.
Micronutrient Deficiency Rare in Treated Patients
Low micronutrient levels were uncommon in a study of HIV-positive people receiving antiretroviral therapy, according to a report published in the December 1 issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
World AIDS Day Report: "Millions of Lives at Risk" The International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), a group of 800 treatment activists from more than 125 countries, has released a new report evaluating global efforts to increase access to antiretroviral treatment in low- and middle-income countries where it is desperately needed.
Treatment Adherence Depends on Many Factors
How well people adhere to treatment—take their medications exactly as prescribed— depends on a variety of factors, either positive or negative, many of which are common to HIV-positive people around the world.
Gorilla Virus Source of Some HIV Infections An article in the November 9 issue of Nature reports the discovery of gorillas living in the wild in Central Africa infected with an HIV-related virus.
November 21, 2006
Belly Fat Gains no More Common in HIV Increases in waist size are no more common in HIV-positive men compared
to HIV-negative men, according to new data from the Multicenter AIDS
Cohort Study (MACS).
Imiquimod for Anal Intraepithelial Neoplasia? (Reuters Health)
Clinicians in Germany report that treatment with imiquimod usually clears human papillomavirus (HPV)-related anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN), without having to resort to surgical or ablative treatments, in HIV-positive men.
HIV Infection On The Rise Worldwide (Reuters Health)
HIV infection is rising in every region of the world and, most worrying, in countries like Uganda and Thailand that had been heralded as success stories in the fight against AIDS, UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation announced Tuesday.
November 17, 2006
Innate Factors May Block HIV in Women (Reuters Health)
Upregulation of certain immunologic factors could account for the
continued seronegativity of African commercial sex workers at high risk
of HIV infection, according to researchers.
November 15, 2006
Boosted Invirase vs. Kaletra
Early results from a 48-week clinical trial comparing Norvir® (ritonavir)-boosted Invirase® (saquinavir) to Kaletra® (lopinavir plus ritonavir) suggests that the protease inhibitors are potentially equal in terms of viral load reductions.
Vaginal Infections Decline (Reuters Health)
Over time, there has been a decrease in rates of certain vaginal infections in women with HIV infection, according to researchers.
November 13, 2006
Radiolabeled Antibodies Kill HIV-1-Infected Cells (Reuters Health)
Radiolabeling antibodies to HIV proteins may provide a successful strategy against the infection, investigators in Germany and the US report in the November issue of PLoS Medicine.
November 10, 2006
Treatment Interruption No Benefit to Multidrug Resistant (Reuters Health)
No advantages in structured treatment interruption (STI) are seen in patients with multi-drug-resistant HIV, according to final results of a study of the CPCRA 064 study.
November 09, 2006
Success With Radioactive Antibody Therapy
Using a new strategy featuring radioactive antibodies, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in Bronx, New York, have successfully targeted and destroyed HIV-infected CD4 cells in laboratory experiments involving mice.
Zinc Supplements Don't Improve Diarrhea (Reuters Health)
Two weeks of treatment with 50 mg zinc twice daily does not reduce or
eliminate persistent diarrhea in adults infected with HIV, according to
a report by an international team of researchers.
November 08, 2006
Making Babies the Old-Fashioned Way
A new report suggests that natural conception may be a safe option for heterosexual couples in which one partner is HIV positive and the other is HIV negative.
November 07, 2006
Making (Anti)sense of Gene Therapy Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have
reported encouraging results from a small clinical trial of a gene
therapy approach to treat HIV.
Indian Alert on Faulty HIV Tests (Reuters Health)
Faulty blood-testing kits for HIV and hepatitis may have been fraudulently sold to government clinics across India, possibly resulting in people receiving transfusions of infected blood, officials said on Thursday.
Monoclonal Gammopathy in People With HIV (Reuters Health)
Monoclonal gammopathy occurs at a younger age and is more often
associated with other viral infections in HIV-positive patients than in
the general population, investigators in a multicenter report.
Gene Therapy for HIV Infection Shows Promise (Reuters Health)
Gene therapy with an HIV-based lentiviral vector can decrease viral
loads and increase CD4 T cell counts in chronically infected patients
who have failed to respond to at least two antiretroviral regimens,
results from a phase I study suggest.
November 03, 2006
HIV Treatment: That'll be $618,900, Please "The Lifetime Cost of Current HIV Care in the United States," a major study appearing in the November 2006 issue of Medical Care, projects that the average lifetime cost of HIV treatment is $618,900.
Once-daily lopinavir/ritonavir effective in HIV (Reuters Health)In anti-HIV combination therapy, use of a once-daily lopinavir/ritonavir
formulation (Kaletra, Abbott) appears as effective as twice-daily
dosing, and may help improve adherence, according to researchers.
November 02, 2006
New U.S. HIV Cases Cost $12 Billion a Year (Reuters Health)
Future treatment for the 40,000 people infected with HIV in the United
States every year will cost $12.1 billion annually, a new study showed
on Wednesday.
November 01, 2006
HIV Infects Epithelial And Brain Cells Lacking CD4 (Reuters Health)HIV is able to infect cells in the female reproductive tract, brain, and colon that lack CD4 receptors, according to a report in the October 1st Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
