Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 52 225 331 at 9.04am on Wednesday May 28
Resistant: Researchers in Vancouver, Canada, have identified two
separate cases where anti-retroviral-resistant HIV was transmitted up
to three years after the virus
developed its resistance.
These drug-resistant viruses were unusual in that they retained the ability to destroy CD4 cells and
did not revert to wild-type drug-sensitive HIV, which usually happens when the virus is not under pressure from anti-retrovirals.
Both patients infected with the
mutated virus did not respond well to treatment and the disease therefore progressed more rapidly than usual.
The researchers say that the drug-resistant virus can persist for much longer than scientists had previously thought, leading to further complications in treatment and a less positive prognosis whose HIV has developed a resistance to anti-retroviral treatment.
This ”suggests that resistance testing should be considered before treatment in the chronically
infected and treatment-naive
patient”, the researchers said.
Source: aidsmap.com
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 52 129 132 at 4.45pm on Wednesday May 21
Breakthrough: Scientists believe they are a step closer to developing an effective Aids vaccine after studying an unexpected response to the HI virus in individuals in Uganda who appear immune.
Just more than two dozen people near Lake Victoria have been found to remain uninfected though they have unprotected sex with HIV-positive partners.
Researchers found that the immune systems of the 28 resistant people behaved in surprising ways that it is hoped will point the way to a vaccine within 10 years.
Some of the resistant individuals had a lower measured immune response than infected partners, but their immune systems attacked the virus more effectively, keeping them HIV-negative.
The Ugandan results suggest resistant individuals are a more widespread and significant phenomenon than first realised, researchers said. They expect to cause a stir by calling on the scientific community to focus half of vaccine research on resistant individuals, a dramatic scaling up of what has been a minority interest.
Source: The Guardian
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 52 041 714 at 2.59pm on Thursday May 15
Child care: A first-of-its-kind child counselling centre at the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital is making a difference to HIV-positive and Aids-infected children and their families. The hospital and Cotlands charity are sponsoring the project.
Counsellors at the children’s centre will assist HIV-positive children and their primary caregivers during clinic visits and hospitalisation of the children. They will also provide bereavement therapy and prepare family members for the imminent death of a loved one.
Busi Nkosi, the programme’s counselling leader, said they had already dealt with 541 cases since the programme started at the hospital this year.
Source: Sapa
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 51 925 785 at 1.51pm on Wednesday May 7
Access: People with HIV living in poorer areas of San Francisco are more likely to progress to Aids than those living in wealthier districts, according to a recent study.
But the study also found no difference in survival rates regardless of wealth and social status among patients with access to highly active anti-retroviral therapy (Haart).
Investigators at the San Francisco Public Health Department and Johns
Hopkins University recorded the address every patient known to have died of an HIV-related cause before the availability of Haart in 1996, and from 1996 to the end of 2001.
They then divided San Francisco into 22 districts according to average household income and found no difference in survival rates between richer and poorer patients before the widespread availability of Haart. After 1996 the survival of patients receiving Haart was identical, regardless of social and economic status. This suggests that access to effective anti-HIV therapy is the key to survival.
Source: www.aidsmap.com
Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 51 827 376 at 5.48pm on Wednesday April 30
Sars: Contradicting pronouncements by HIV co-discoverer Luc Montagnier, Chinese Aids experts have said they believe people with Aids are less vulnerable to severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).
Laurie Garrett, a respected medical reporter specialising in HIV and emerging infections, reported that experts are investigating why no Aids patients treated on the same floor of a Guangzhou hospital as Sars patients had contracted the disease, despite regular traffic between the two wards by health-care workers who later succumbed to Sars. Speculation has centred on the potential protective effect of immunosuppression. So far corticosteroids are the most effective treatment identified for Sars.
Guidelines: The British HIV Association’s draft treatment guidelines will advise against the use of d4T and Trizivir in first-line therapy. The new guidelines suggest that d4T (stavudine) is to be avoided because of toxicity and that Trizivir alone is not recommended.
Source: www.aidsmap.com