Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 2 452 252 at noon, April 16
Collaboration: Two global research organisations dedicated to designing a vaccine against HIV — the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and the Centre for HIV/Aids Vaccine Immunology (Chavi) — have signed an agreement to work together to address major biological questions that have slowed development of a safe, effective and affordable Aids vaccine.
‘Solving the HIV vaccine puzzle is a scientific challenge that can be solved only through fundamental and applied research, collaboration and transparency,” says Dr Barton Haynes, Chavi director and professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Centre
‘The work that will be done by IAVI, Chavi and their networks of partners will rapidly enhance our understanding of HIV and help lay the groundwork for new vaccine approaches.”
There are about 33-million people around the world living with HIV, the virus that causes Aids. Scientists have tested multiple vaccine candidates in early phase trials, but only two have been fully tested in efficacy trials and neither has been found effective in preventing HIV infection or lowering the viral load in patients who subsequently encountered HIV and became infected.
‘We are committed to the discovery of an effective vaccine, particularly for regions hardest hit by the epidemic,” says Dr Wayne Koff, senior vice-president of research and development at IAVI.
‘We are hoping that the synergy of shared investigation will yield insight into novel solutions that will advance Aids vaccine discovery.”
Investigators supported by both organisations are especially interested in further understanding what happens in the very earliest post-infection stage of HIV infection, especially within the body’s T cells, a class of white blood cells that normally fight off foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses.
One of the goals of this work will be to identify any genetic variations linked to the strength of the immune response at the site of initial infection.
Chavi and IAVI hope that by sharing samples, reagents, databases and laboratories and by launching parallel studies, they will be able to speed up discoveries about this critical phase of the disease.
Source: International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and the Centre for HIV/Aids Vaccine Immunology
Aids-related deaths in South Africa: 2 438 978 at noon on April 2
Unsuccessful: Becky Mugisha* had been ill with a hacking cough for three months before she was admitted into one of Kampala’s tuberculosis (TB) wards. It was her second bout with the disease.
As a person living with HIV, she was used to taking multiple pills on a daily basis, but she failed to complete her treatment during her first bout of TB because the clinic where she lives in Wakiso, east of Uganda’s capital, Kampala, ran out of the drugs.
Mugisha’s compromised immune system and treatment history made her susceptible to infection with multi-drug resistant TB. Now Mugisha is receiving in-patient treatment at the TB unit in Mulago Hospital, Kampala.
According to the 2008 global tuberculosis report, released by the WHO this week, Uganda has the lowest TB cure rate in the world — just 32%. The report also notes that in 2004 and 2005, Uganda had the highest default rate (numbers of patients who fail to complete treatment) of all countries with large TB burdens.
While more than half of Uganda’s population may carry a latent form of TB, people with HIV-compromised immune systems are 50 times more likely to develop an active TB infection. TB is the most common opportunistic infection for people living with HIV and accounts for up to half of Aids-related deaths worldwide.
About half of the patients at Mulago Hospital’s TB unit are HIV-positive, said Dr Alphone Okwera, who heads the unit.
* Not her real name
Aids-related deaths in South Africa: 2 438 978 at noon on April 2
Unsuccessful: Becky Mugisha* had been ill with a hacking cough for three months before she was admitted into one of Kampala’s tuberculosis (TB) wards. It was her second bout with the disease.
As a person living with HIV, she was used to taking multiple pills on a daily basis, but she failed to complete her treatment during her first bout of TB because the clinic where she lives in Wakiso, east of Uganda’s capital, Kampala, ran out of the drugs.
Mugisha’s compromised immune system and treatment history made her susceptible to infection with multi-drug resistant TB. Now Mugisha is receiving in-patient treatment at the TB unit in Mulago Hospital, Kampala.
According to the 2008 global tuberculosis report, released by the WHO this week, Uganda has the lowest TB cure rate in the world — just 32%. The report also notes that in 2004 and 2005, Uganda had the highest default rate (numbers of patients who fail to complete treatment) of all countries with large TB burdens.
While more than half of Uganda’s population may carry a latent form of TB, people with HIV-compromised immune systems are 50 times more likely to develop an active TB infection. TB is the most common opportunistic infection for people living with HIV and accounts for up to half of Aids-related deaths worldwide.
About half of the patients at Mulago Hospital’s TB unit are HIV-positive, said Dr Alphone Okwera, who heads the unit.
* Not her real name
Source: www.plusnews.org