Hot Items
UNITED KINGDOM: Young Most at Risk as Number of Sex Infection Cases Soars
Drop HIV restrictions, UN official says
Papua New Guinea releases new HIV prevalence estimates
Study Finds Retroviruses in Chronic Fatigue Sufferers
Editorial: Milestone on AIDS prevention
DISCLAIMER: All articles posted in this section are for information only. The views expressed in articles from external sources are not necessarily those of the NRL and posting should not be considered as endorsement of the information or opinions therein.
UNITED KINGDOM: Young Most at Risk as Number of Sex Infection Cases SoarsThe Guardian (London) (08.25.10) - Friday, August 27, 2010
Newly released figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) show a worrisome increase in STDs in the United Kingdom. Sexual health clinics in 2009 reported 482,700 new STD cases - 12,000 more than in the previous year. The data clearly show that people under age 25, particularly females, are most affected by STDs. Dr. Gwenda Hughes, head of the STD section of HPA, said two-thirds of diagnoses were in females ages 15-24. The peak age for STD infection in young women is 19-20, compared to 20-23 for men. And roughly 10 percent of the 15- to 24-year-olds who are treated for an STD will be re-infected within a year. Though improved screening efforts are behind some of the increase, experts say they are concerned about youths who are vulnerable and lack confidence to negotiate safe sex. Many studies show that young people often lack the skills to negotiate safer sex in their relationships. "The numbers we're seeing in teenagers are of particular concern as this suggests they are repeatedly putting their own as well as others' long-term health at risk from [STDs]," said Hughes.
According to the data, STD diagnoses were also high among men who have sex with men. HPA said genital wart and syphilis diagnoses have stabilized, but gonorrhea is on the rise. Of particular concern is that resistance to the main antibiotic used to treat gonorrhea, cefixime, rose from 0.1 percent in 2005 to 10.6 percent last year. HPA's gonorrhea expert, professor Cathy Ison, said no new antibiotics are in the pipeline to treat the infection. Cefixime may be effective against gonorrhea for only another five years, she estimated.
Posted 30/08/2010
Drop HIV restrictions, UN official says
August 27, 2010
A senior United Nations (UN) official has called for the removal of immigration restrictions that can prevent HIV-positive people from relocating to Australia. UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibe said Australia should follow the USA and China which had recently removed their travel restrictions affecting people who were HIV positive. Mr Sidibe, in Australia to attend a major UN summit in Melbourne next week, said he would raise the issue in talks with the federal government over the coming days. "To know that in Australia, we have a restriction for people living with HIV to come and to stay ... is a little bit painful for me," Mr Sidibe said. "I will ask them (Prime Minister Julia Gillard and other officials) - I think it is something that needs to come through the due processes of your country, but it is something that Australia should deliver on." Permanent visa applicants aged 15 years or older in Australia are required to have a HIV-AIDS test, and residency can then be denied on the grounds of the high cost of treatment. Mr Sidibe said travel bans and residency restrictions had the effect of further entrenching the prejudice and disadvantage faced by HIV-positive people and, ultimately, they hindered the global response to the virus. He also gave an address that said the global effort to curb the spread of HIV had reached a critical point where years of hard-fought gain could be lost. "I think we are at the best of times, but unfortunately we are also at the worst of times, in the fight against HIV-AIDS," Mr Sidibe told the audience at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney on Friday.
On the positive side, he said the virus had prompted a cultural shift across Africa where it was now socially acceptable for parents to have candid discussions about sex with their adolescent children. The number of impoverished HIV-positive people in treatment programs also jumped from around 500,000 five years agoto now more than five million, while significant declines were evident in the rate of new infections and mother-to-child infections. On the negative side, he said world leaders were due to meet in October to allocate the next tranche of funding to a global pool used to treat HIV, malaria and tuberculosis and $US20 billion was needed."I am scared by what I am seeing now, for the first time in 15 years, a reduction in funding allocation," Mr Sidibe said. "Any reduction in funding will be translating into a reduction in services already available today." There are now 33.4 million people worldwide living with HIV while there are 2.7 million new infections, and two million related deaths, every year. Only 40 per cent of those infected know of their HIV-positive status.
Posted 30/08/2010
Papua New Guinea releases new HIV prevalence estimates
UNAIDS - 26 August 2010UNAIDS - 26 August 2010
Approximately 0.92% of the adult population in Papua New Guinea was living with HIV in 2009, according to new estimates from the National Department of Health and the National AIDS Council Secretariat. This latest round of estimates of HIV prevalence--carried out by a panel of national and international experts--is based on extensive data from antenatal clinics in Papua New Guinea's Highlands, Southern, Momase, and New Guinea Islands regions.
In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in the number of health facilities in Papua New Guinea conducting HIV tests among pregnant women--from 17 in 2005 to 178 in 2009. New data collected at these facilities have provided a clearer picture of the country's HIV prevalence than ever before. "These new estimates have greatly enhanced our understanding of the scale and scope of Papua New Guinea's AIDS epidemic," said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe, in an official visit to Papua New Guinea. "They provide an opportunity to redouble our efforts to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support."
An estimated 34 100 people in Papua New Guinea were living with HIV in 2009. HIV prevalence was found to be the highest in the country's Highlands and Southern regions, at 1.02% and 1.17%, with lower but increasing prevalence in Momase and New Guinea Islands, at 0.63% and 0.61%. Approximately 3200 people in Papua New Guinea were newly infected with HIV in 2009 and, that same year, some 1300 people died of AIDS. Papua New Guinea had previously projected a higher national HIV prevalence for the year 2009, based on data from a relatively small number of rural and urban sites. The downward revision in estimates reflects--to a large extent--improvements in national disease surveillance systems. The new findings also indicate that the spread of Papua New Guinea's HIV epidemic may be levelling off.
"The risk factors that contribute to HIV infection in Papua New Guinea have not changed," said Mr Sidibe. "We cannot afford to be complacent or reduce investments in the country's AIDS response."
Posted 30/08/2010
Study Finds Retroviruses in Chronic Fatigue Sufferers
Wall Street Journal - August 23, 2010
Researchers said Monday they have identified a family of retroviruses in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, a finding that is likely to spur patients with the condition to seek treatment with drugs used to fight HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was accompanied by a call for new clinical trials to test HIV drugs in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, which afflicts an estimated one million to four million Americans and as many as 17 million people world-wide. Although HIV and the newly identified virus group are different, both are retroviruses. Based on other recent research linking CFS to a retrovirus called XMRV, some doctors are already prescribing drugs approved for HIV for CFS patients. The syndrome has no known cause and there aren't any effective treatments. The group of viruses, called murine leukemia virus-related viruses, or MLV, are known to cause cancer and neurological problems in mice, but whether they cause any diseases in humans isn't known. XMRV is among several different members of the MLV family, researchers said.
In the new study, researchers said they found at least one of four different MLV-like viruses in 32 of 37, or 86.5% of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, compared with just three of 44, or 6.8%, of apparently healthy volunteer blood donors.The paper is the latest in a series of reports about a possible link between CFS and a virus. Previous studies have focused on XMRV and have turned up conflicting evidence. Indeed, the just-published study was held back from publication in June because it was at odds with a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found no evidence of XMRV in chronic fatigue syndrome patients. The current paper didn't find XMRV either - one reason it isn't likely to resolve a brewing debate over the role that XMRV may play in the syndrome. But researchers said the variants of MLV-like viruses closely related to XMRV they found in CFS patients was evidence of a link between the virus family and the syndome. Andrew Mason, a University of Alberta professor, co-wrote the commentary in PNAS calling for trials testing anti-retrovirals in CFS patients who are positive for one of the MLV-related viruses. "If the patients improve, after a certain point you stop debating whether it causes the disease and say the treatment works and we're going to use it," said Dr. Mason. But until further evidence establishing that the virus causes CFS is developed, a large-scale clinical trial testing HIV drugs against the syndrome isn't likely. Norbert Bischofberger, chief scientific officer at Gilead Sciences Inc., the leading maker of HIV drugs, said the company might consider a small pilot trial but would like to see stronger evidence that the viruses cause CFS before launching a large trial. But "I'm very open and this would be a great opportunity," he said.
A spokesman for Merck & Co., another major manufacturer of HIV drugs said: "A clinical trial program would be possible to develop only after further substantial evidence of an association with CFS." Some doctors and patients are already testing the idea, based in part on a University of Utah and Emory University study in mice which suggested a cocktail of three anti-retroviral drugs appeared to inhibit infection by XMRV. Jamie Deckoff-Jones, 56, a doctor and CFS patient in New Mexico, has been blogging about her experiences and those of her 20-year-old daughter. They both tested positive for XMRV and are taking a combination of three anti-retrovirals. Dr. Deckoff-Jones said a year ago she could only get up for short periods during the day. After five months on the drugs, she flew last week to Reno for an XMRV conference. Her daughter was able to go to a party and is enrolling in community college. "This is all very new and there is no way to know if improvement will continue," Dr. Deckoff-Jones wrote in an email, "but we appear to be on an uphill course." Joseph Brewer, an infectious disease doctor in Kansas City, Mo., who treats AIDS patients, said he now has 15 patients with CFS in his clinic taking anti-retrovirals. "It's a mixed bag," said Dr. Brewer about the results. Patients who have been sick less than two years improve more rapidly, he said, adding that one of the challenges is that there is no reliable way to measure the amount of virus present in patients.
Posted 30/08/2010
Editorial: Milestone on AIDS prevention
San Francisco Chronicle - July 22, 2010
The AIDS-causing virus has infected 33 million worldwide, killing at a rate of 2 million per year. Any medical breakthrough, extra money or public program to stem this enormous tide pales against such numbers.
The disease continues on despite the tens of billions (much of it American) spent in the fight. But consider also that the infection rate is stable and not rising. Regimen drugs that prolong life and tamp down symptoms are in wider use. Prevention, public health programs and education efforts have bridged daunting religious and cultural gaps. But three decades in the AIDS war has shown that no single answer will win it, short of a magic-bullet vaccine that continues to elude researchers. Even if one was found, there would still be the 33 million-and-counting who are living with the virus that crashes the human immune system. What it will take is a battery of responses, and this week produced one. After earlier failures, researchers found a vaginal gel that can ward off nearly half the number of infections for women exposed to the AIDS virus during sex. Since half the AIDS population is female, the finding is significant. The virus can still be passed along by needle use and male-to-male sex, but women - who are most at risk in African countries where AIDS rates run highest - now have at least a partial defense.
Much more work is needed. Only 5 million of those infected receive life-prolonging drugs, and AIDS leaders at an annual conference this week in Vienna thumped for ever-cheaper medications.
The need for global attention to the AIDS crisis remains as urgent as ever. The Vienna conference produced signs of progress that were both welcome and maddeningly limited.
Posted 30/08/2010
