FDA Approves New HIV Screening Test

Federal regulators said Tuesday they have approved a new HIV test that screens for two, less common forms of the virus.

The Food and Drug Administration said the TaqScreen MPX Test is the first to simultaneously detect HIV-2 and HIV-1 Group O strains. Both types of HIV are mainly found among patients in Africa, but the FDA said they have recently been detected in the U.S.

The test, which is made by a division of Swiss drugmaker Roche, also screens for the most common forms of HIV and hepatitis.

The MPX test is designed to screen for infectious diseases in human blood and tissue samples from donors.

"Blood donor testing laboratories will be able to use nucleic acid technology to screen for additional HIV strains, further assuring that donated blood and tissue are free from infection," FDA division chief Jesse Goodman said in a statement.

Other companies offering HIV tests include Abbott Laboratories and Gen-Probe Inc.

On Monday the FDA also approved the release of a generic version of HIV drug Zerit by drugmaker Mylan. Zerit is a NRTI type drug that was originally released by Bristol Myers Squibb in 1994.

Christine Maggiore, Prominent HIV Skeptic, Dead At 52

Christine Maggiore, a Van Nuys California woman who garnered national attention as an outspoken skeptic of HIV, has died, according to the L.A. County coroner's office.

Maggiore, 52, was founder of Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives, a nonprofit that challenges "common assumptions" about AIDS. Her group's website and toll-free hotline cater to expectant HIV-positive mothers who shun AIDS medications, want to breast-feed their babies and seek to meet others of like mind. She also had written a book on the subject, titled "What if Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?"

In 2006, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office decided not to file criminal charges against Maggiore, whose daughter died the year before in what the county coroner ruled was AIDS-related pneumonia.

Los Angeles police had been investigating whether Maggiore and her husband, Robin Scovill, were negligent in not testing or treating Eliza Jane Scovill for the human immunodeficiency virus before her May 2005 death.Maggiore had said that she did not take antiviral medications during her pregnancy and that she did not have her daughter tested for the virus after birth.

According to the website, "the symptoms associated with AIDS are treatable using non-toxic, immune enhancing therapies." (Clearly, she was wrong.) Courtesy Los Angeles Times.

California Ordered By Courts To Fund Care For HIV'ers

California was ordered by a court to provide Medi-Cal coverage to poor people who are HIV-positive but who haven’t been diagnosed with AIDS, said a nonprofit organization that had sued the state.

A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles found that California’s Department of Health Care Services must comply with a 2002 state law intended to extend Medi-Cal benefits to people with HIV, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation said Tuesday in a statement. Medi-Cal is the California Medicaid program that provides health-care services to low-income people.
Before the 2002 law, only HIV positive people who had developed AIDS were eligible for Medi-Cal, according to the statement.

Implementing the bill wasn’t possible in a “cost neutral environment,” Anthony Cava, a spokesman for the Department of Health Care Services in Sacramento, said in an e-mailed statement.

“The law was very clear that it should not be implemented if the costs could not be offset by savings,” Cava said. The department “will continue to work with its partners to implement the law in a cost-neutral manner, just as the legislature intended.” Source Bloomberg.

Rising HIV Rates May Prompt Dallas County To Drop Condom Distribution Ban

The number of Dallas County residents living with HIV and AIDS has steadily increased during the past five years.

But county health workers still are not allowed to distribute condoms in high-risk neighborhoods because of a controversial Commissioners Court policy passed 13 years ago.

At least two court members, however, are hoping to reverse that policy.

"I can't continue to join the ostrich head-in-the-sand group given the numbers," said Commissioner John Wiley Price, a Democrat who raised the issue during a recent meeting.
Dallas County had the highest HIV rate in Texas last year and in 2006, state officials say, although the reported number of new cases has been decreasing.

Before 1995, county health workers routinely ventured into local communities to hand out condoms and needle sterilization kits to those with the greatest risk of infection. But that year, a narrow majority of commissioners voted to end the practice, saying it encouraged illegal and immoral behavior.

Mr. Price, who is black, said he is alarmed by the number of AIDS cases in local black communities and said he doesn't want to see the numbers continue to increase "under my watch." Local Hispanic communities also have been hit hard, mirroring a national trend.
In Dallas County, condom availability is not a question of money.

The Texas Department of State Health Services provides free condoms to all county health departments in Texas.

County Judge Jim Foster, a fellow Democrat of Mr. Price's, said it's time to end the ban on condom distribution.

It's not clear whether Mr. Foster and Mr. Price have enough votes to reverse the county's condom policy. Two of the court's three Republicans – Kenneth Mayfield and Mike Cantrell – voted for the condom distribution ban in 1995.

Shortly after commissioners enacted the 1995 ban, they agreed to a compromise under which privately donated condoms would be available in county health clinics.

Local medical professionals blasted their decision at the time, saying it would endanger public health. Federal and state agencies cut some grant funding to the county for disease prevention and education. Courtesy Dallas Morning News.

Merry Christmas!

Non Profit Issues Challenge In Search For The Cure

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the development of safe, effective and accessible, preventive HIV vaccines, has posted a $150,000 challenge on to AIDS researchers. The challenge seeks proposals for and a sample of the protein that will provide researchers with new avenues for furthering HIV vaccine design and development.

Specifically, the challenge calls for the design of a protein that mimics the part of the HIV envelope that is first visible to the body's host defenses. In animal models and other experimental systems, this protein has triggered antibody immune responses that have successfully blocked HIV from entering cells and thus prevented HIV infection. Unfortunately, the protein, in its natural state, is unstable and breaks down easily when it enters the body. To date, investigators have been unable to engineer a stable protein that remains consistently intact in laboratory testing. The winner of this challenge will be the researcher who successfully designs and creates a stable functional HIV envelope protein, which will then be tested to see what kinds of immune responses it generates. If the protein is sufficiently immunogenic, (able to block HIV from entering human cells) researchers will also be eligible for a bonus of up to $1M dollars and/or the opportunity to pursue their research further with support from IAVI.

In 2007, 33.2 million people were living with HIV worldwide, with at least 70 percent of those in clinical need of ARV treatments worldwide not receiving them. IAVI estimates that the potential positive impact of HIV vaccines would be enormous, especially in the developing world.

The challenge is being supported in part by The Rockefeller Foundation, as part of its Accelerating Innovation for Development Initiative, which supports the application of new innovation models to solve challenges facing poor or vulnerable populations around the world. Source press release.
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Making Egg Nog Safe For HIV'ers

Holiday time is full of traditions from making sugar cookies and fruitcakes to whipping up a batch of homemade eggnog.

But beware grandmas traditional eggnog recipe; for those of us with HIV, it can be a killer.

The practice of mkaing eggnog with raw eggs is never recommended; raw eggs are a dangerous and deadly source of the bacterium salmonella, which can cause food-borne illness.

To continue to make eggnog at home, use of the following food safety substitutions.

Use commercially-prepared eggnog, which contains pasteurized eggs.

Or in place of raw eggs, use an equivalent amount of pasteurized (frozen or refrigerated) egg product that has never been opened. Because of the risk of bacterial contamination after opening, any leftover egg product should be used only in cooked products.

Cooked eggs can also be used in your eggnog recipe. Combine the raw eggs with half of the milk and sugar in a 4-quart double boiler. Cook and stir over medium heat, approximately 10 to 15 minutes, until the mixture coats a metal spoon and the temperature reaches 160 degrees F. Continue preparing your recipe as directed.

NEVER use unpasteurized whole eggs or even egg whites. Eggs with clean, uncracked shells can still be contaminated with salmonella bacteria and it has not been proven that raw egg whites are free of salmonella bacteria. Courtesy Utah State University Extension.

Cell Phone Enabled To Detect HIV And Other Diseases

A new MacGyver-esque cellphone hack could bring cheap, on-the-spot disease detection to even the most remote villages on the planet. Using only an LED, plastic light filter and some wires, scientists at UCLA have modded a cellphone into a portable blood tester capable of detecting HIV, malaria and other illnesses.

Blood tests today require either refrigerator-sized machines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or a trained technician who manually identifies and counts cells under a microscope. These systems are slow, expensive and require dedicated labs to function. And soon they could be a thing of the past.

UCLA researcher Dr. Aydogan Ozcan images thousands of blood cells instantly by placing them on an off-the-shelf camera sensor and lighting them with a filtered-light source. The filtered light exposes distinctive qualities of the cells, which are then interpreted by Ozcan's custom software. By analyzing the cell types present in a much larger sample, a more accurate diagnosis can be made in a matter of minutes. No more sending blood away to a lab and waiting days or weeks for the results.

Starbucks RED Product Program To Continue Into 2009

Since Starbucks began donating a portion of its sales on Nov. 27, customers have generated contributions equal to more than 1.4 million daily doses of antiretroviral medicine, which would provide a year of therapy to more than 3,800 Africans with HIV, the company said Thursday.

The Starbucks beverages that help the fund are peppermint mocha twist, gingersnap latte and espresso truffle. (RED) products do not cost extra.

Also Thursday, Starbucks gave details on how it would continue its partnership with (RED) in 2009.

(RED) is a private organization that benefits health programs in Africa through the Global Fund. Rock singer Bono and Bobby Shriver (President John F. Kennedy's nephew) founded (RED) in 2006 to benefit the Global Fund. It works with other companies, including Apple, Dell, Gap and Microsoft.

On Jan. 3, Starbucks will release a new type of customer rewards card designed for its (RED) campaign. From Jan. 3 until Dec. 31, 2009, every time a customer uses the (RED) stored-value card to make a purchase, 5 cents will go to the Global Fund.

Before this announcement, it was unclear what Starbucks' partnership with (RED) would look like in 2009. Currently, 5 cents from the sales of certain types of holiday beverages go to the fund, but Starbucks has said that the partnership would change once the holiday beverages finished the season. Courtesy Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Newly Released Research Sheds Light On Hiv Transmission And The Importance Of Condom Usage

Researchers at Northwestern University are reporting today that HIV can penetrate the lining of a woman's vaginal tract during intercourse.

Previously, researchers thought the lining served as a barrier to the virus. HIV was probably transmitted through skin lesions or a thin layer of cells lining the cervical canal, they speculated.

Instead, it appears that the HIV can enter a woman's system through areas where the vaginal tract sheds skin cells, according to Thomas Hope, professor of cell and molecular biology at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine.

He presented the findings today at the American Society for Cell Biology annual meeting in San Francisco.

Hope and colleagues from Northwestern and Tulane University observed the movement of HIV, tagged with a flourescent marker, in animals and human tissue discarded after a hysterectomy. These only approximate the virus' behavior in women and results need to be replicated.

"We urgently need new prevention strategies or therapeutics to block the entry of HIV through a woman's genital skin," Hope said in a statement.

The finding is timely as the female condom gains new attention this week, following the unanimous approval of a second-generation version of the product by an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration. Courtesy Chicago Tribune.

I'm Happy Happy Happy

I have my 5 plus month checkup with my doctor this week. But I have already received my lab results which make it all seem anti-climatic.

I am usually a wreck when doctor time rolls around, but my T cell counts are very good and my viral load is undetectable, which makes me a very happy (and grateful) person. I would not be here to today without Atripla. I just wish the other 90 percent of those infected with HIV had the same access to retro viral medications.

Your DNA May Determine Your HIV Fate

An HIV positive patient's DNA can indicate how quickly the virus will develop into full -blown AIDS, according to a new research.

A team at the National Cancer Institute in Maryland has found that some variations in the DNA in mitochondria, the powerplant of a cell, actually make AIDS develop twice as fast as others.

Researchers, led by Stephen O'Brien, have based their findings on an analysis of data from five studies tracking 1,833 HIV positive people during the 1980s and early 90s, the 'New Scientist' reported.

And, by studying the time it took for the subjects to develop AIDS-related diseases and relating it to their genetic information, the researchers found that some mitochondrial DNA genotypes are associated with rapid development of AIDS.

For example, subjects with specific sets of variations known as U5a1 and J haplogroups progressed to AIDS at almost twice the average rate of the studied population. In contrast, people with the H3 haplogroup progressed more than twice as slowly, the study found.

This supports existing theories that mitochondria are implicated in the progression of HIV/AIDS. "Having less energy available seems to exacerbate the effects of the disease," said team member Sher Hendrickson.

"The U5a1 and J haplogroups seem to be responsible for this lack of energy. This means mitochondrial DNA tests could one day give an accurate prognosis for people with HIV, though further work on other genetic and environmental influence factors would be necessary first," said Hendrickson. Source The Hindu.

New York Man Accused Of Forging HIV Status For Sex

A man who sought to have unprotected sex with a woman allegedly gave her a forged medical document stating he had tested negative for HIV. The man, who apparently knew he was HIV positive, now might face prison time.

Duane Lang, 47, was arrested Monday and charged with reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a forged instrument. He could face up to eight years in prison.

The woman, whose identity is being kept private, wanted proof from Lang of his HIV status before agreeing to unprotected sex. He allegedly presented her with a forged document purportedly from the AIDS Center of Queens County, where Lang had formerly worked as a volunteer. The document stated that as of Dec. 12, 2007, Lang was “negative/non-reactive for the HIV-1 antibody based upon the rapid HIV antibody test.”

They subsequently had unprotected sex between eight and 10 times from December 2007 to March 2008. In March, the woman apparently questioned Lang about the document’s authenticity, and he allegedly admitted he had been HIV positive since 2002 and that he had created the fake document. “With deceit and depravity, the defendant repeatedly endangered the life of a person he supposedly cared for, according to the criminal complaint,” said Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn. Courtesy Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

USA Winning The War On New HIV Infections But Falling Behind In Funding AIDS Prevention

Twenty four years ago, the AIDS epidemic peaked in the U.S. as 130,400 people contracted the HIV virus that causes this devastating illness.

Back then, before most Americans knew about AIDS, before antiretroviral treatments were available, 44 of every 100 HIV-positive people conveyed the virus to someone else.

Today, only 5 of every 100 people with HIV infect others, according to data released this week by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Credit goes to prevention programs that promote safe sex and needle use and have helped change behavior, experts say. But inflation-adjusted funding for HIV/AIDS prevention has actually declined recently and advocates worry that gains in combating this disease could be undermined.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, only 4 percent of the nation's $23 billion spending on AIDS goes to U.S. HIV/AIDS prevention efforts. The remainder goes to research, treatment and overseas programs.

In a statement, Richard Wolitski, acting director of the CDC's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention sounded a note of caution.

"Despite this success, we can't forget that new HIV infections are increasing among gay and bisexual men and that African Americans and Hispanics continue to experience disproportionate and unacceptable high rates of HIV and AIDS," said Wolitski, co-author of the research letter published this week in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

"The fight against HIV is far from over."

Indeed, about 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV/AIDS, compounding the risk of transmission. And 55,000 people still become newly infected with the virus annually.

The new research letter provides a reminder of the human toll of HIV infections. It shows that 540,432 Americans died of AIDS between 1978 and 2006, the latest year for which data is available. Thirty years ago, one person was recorded as perishing from the disease; two years ago, it claimed the lives of almost 14,000 Americans. Courtesy Judith Graham and the Chicago Tribune.

Making A Case For HIV Testing Among Teens

The Los Angeles Times on Monday examined new practice guidelines issued recently by the American College of Physicians recommending routine HIV testing for all patients beginning at age 13, regardless of whether they engage in high-risk behaviors. The Centers For Disease Control (CDC) in 2006 also released recommendations for HIV screening as part of routine medical care.

Bernard Branson of the HIV/AIDS prevention division at CDC, who helped develop the agency's current recommendations, said that although physicians in the past might have limited HIV screening suggestions to high-risk patient groups, this approach often failed to identify new HIV cases. By recommending routine HIV screening for all patients, physicians can avoid asking patients sensitive questions about sexual activity and high-risk behavior.

In addition, universal HIV testing can benefit teenage patients, who may be reluctant to discuss their sexual activity if they are accompanied by parents, Branson said. He added that patients can benefit from early HIV diagnosis because early treatment is more effective and can delay progression to AIDS. In addition, HIV/AIDS researchers say that increased awareness can slow the spread of HIV, because people who are aware of their HIV-positive status might engage in fewer risky behaviors.

According to the Times, obstacles to universal HIV screening are "falling away" as some states are requiring health insurers to cover HIV testing costs and fewer states are requiring counseling and informed consent before conducting blood tests. However, some physicians still might hesitate to suggest HIV screening because it could "open up a discussion that the physician feels he or she doesn't want to get into or doesn't have time for or doesn't have training for," Thomas Coates, director of the global health program at the University of California-Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, said.

He added that recommending universal HIV screening also raises questions about counseling, referrals and partner notification if the patient tests HIV-positive. However, Coates said it is important to recommend HIV screening even without follow-up discussions because it indicates to patients that HIV tests are an important component of medical care. adding that when a physician recommends HIV testing, "it's kind of a signal to the adolescent that this is something that he or she needs to think about." Courtesy Kaisernetwork.org and The Los Angeles Times.

Profectus BioSciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that develops vaccines, announced Monday that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded to Profectus two contracts totaling $21.6 million to develop a preventative HIV vaccine.

Both HIV vaccine products are expected to begin human clinical trials by late 2009. The vaccines were originally developed by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and licensed to Profectus in 2008. Profectus BioSciences is based in Baltimore Maryland.

HIV Infections Increasing In Rural Georgia

HIV is no longer a 'big city' problem, according to a Georgia Health official.

In rural Georgia, the number of cases is spiking, said Donald Slakie, public health educator and AIDS expert with the Georgia Health Department. “The rural areas are being much more severely affected with HIV than ever before,” Slakie said. He blames the fact on both resources and treatment not being readily available and on the greater difficulty in reaching people through prevention efforts.

The epidemic is shifting to smaller cities, towns and farms. A third or more of new cases that are men are outside Atlanta’s 20-county metropolitan area. Almost half the women and children are in rural areas, according to governmental statistics. Georgia ranks seventh in the nation for AIDS cases — and more than half the cases reported as recently as 2004 have died.

One group is being hit harder than all others. “We know that more African-Americans are being infected than any other ethnic group in the United States at this time,” Slakie said. “ … Particularly between the ages of 18 and 44.” Of the 6,348 AIDS cases reported in rural Georgia from 1981 to 1999, more than two-thirds — 70 percent — are among minorities. Of all cases in the state, 83 percent are now black — more than three-fourths — up from just over half in 1996. Persons 30 to 39 years old have the largest number of cases.

The reasons for such high numbers in this area are many, according Raphael Holloway from the Georgia Department of Human Resources. “I think it’s different for different people,” he said. “An inability to prioritize, their sex behaviors that put them at risk; it may be housing, it may be income, it could be other pressing health issues.”

More teenagers are becoming infected, according to government statistics. Teens, the prevention plan states, are less likely to perceive themselves at risk and more likely to take chances with unprotected sex. Many of the 19 percent of Georgians who were diagnosed in their 20s were likely infected as teens. In Georgia’s North Health District, 490 cases of HIV/AIDS have been diagnosed since 1981 and 143 have died. Since 2004, 104 cases have been diagnosed and nine have died. Courtesy IndependantMail.com

Nobel Winner Sees End To AIDS Spread Within His Lifetime

A French scientist who shared this year's Nobel prize for medicine said on Saturday in Stockholm Sweden that he believes the transmission of AIDS could be eliminated within years.

Luc Montagnier, director of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, told a news conference that halting the transmission of AIDS would make it a disease much like others.

"Our job, of course, is to find complementary treatment to eradicate the infection. I think it's not impossible to do it within a few years," Montagnier said.

"So I hope to see in my lifetime the eradication of, not the AIDS epidemic, but at least the infection," the 76-year-old said. "This could be achieved."

Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, of the Institut Pasteur, shared half of the 2008 Nobel prize for discovering the virus that has killed 25 million people since the early 1980s.

There is no cure for AIDS, which infects an estimated 33 million globally, but cocktails of drugs can control the virus and keep patients healthy.

There is no vaccine either, although researchers are trying to find vaccines that either prevent infection or would control the virus so that patients are less likely to transmit it -- a so-called therapeutic vaccine.

Montagnier said he hoped such a therapeutic vaccine could be developed within about four to five years, noting he and colleagues had already been working on this for a decade.

The only impediment to eradicating the illness, according to Barre-Sinoussi, is money. She fears the global financial crisis could lead some countries to water down their commitment to the fight against diseases such as AIDS, so it was important Nobel winners tried to use their influence.

Montagnier and Barre-Sinoussi expected to use the prize money to further their research. They also said the award was important in that it shed a bright light on the issue of AIDS.

"Still, 25 years after the HIV discovery, (there is) discrimination, stigmatisation against HIV-infected individuals, even criminalization. This is not acceptable. This is really not acceptable," Barre-Sinoussi said. Information from Reuters.

Experimental Vaginal Gel Proves Ineffective Against HIV Transmission

A microbicidal vaginal gel called Carraguard doesn't protect women from HIV infection.

That's the conclusion of a study that included more than 6,200 sexually-active, HIV-negative women at three sites in South Africa.

The women were given either Carraguard or a placebo gel and told to use one applicator of gel and a condom each time they had vaginal sex. The women, who were followed for up to two years, visited a clinic every three months to have tests for HIV infection.

The rate of HIV infection among women using Carraguard was 3.3 per 100-woman years, compared with 3.8 per 100-woman years in the placebo group. Rates of self-reported gel use were similar in both groups (96.2 percent Carraguard, 95.9 percent placebo), but applicator testing indicated that actual gel use was much lower (41.1 percent Carraguard, 43.1 percent placebo). Self-reported condom use was 64.1 percent for both groups.

The findings were published in this week's issue of The Lancet.

"This study did not show Carraguard's efficacy in prevention of male-to-female transmission of HIV, although no safety concerns were recorded. Low levels of gel use could have compromised the potential to detect a significant protective effect. Although the results from this and other completed microbicide efficacy trials have been disappointing, the search for female-controlled HIV-prevention methods must continue," wrote researchers from the Population Council in New York City and their colleagues.

Carraguard, a carrageenan-based compound, was developed by the Population Council. Source Forbes Magazine.

China Sees Sharp Rise In HIV-Positive Gay Men

The number of gay men in China who are HIV positive has risen sharply in the last three years, according to a survey of Chinese cities conducted by the Ministry of Health.

Men with HIV make up 4.9 percent of the gay population, up from 0.4 percent in 2005, the Xinhua news agency said Friday, citing Hao Yang, deputy director of the disease control department under the Ministry of Health. "Sex becomes the major way of AIDS transmission in China and its spread among men having sex with men is worsening notably. I think whether we can well control AIDS transmission among gays will greatly affect the future of the whole country's battle against the epidemic," Hao said.

Heterosexual sex was still by far the most common way for HIV to spread in China, accounting for 40.4 percent of new cases in 2008. Same-sex intercourse accounted for 5.1 percent of new infections, up from 0.4 percent on 2005, and drug use accounted for 28.3 percent, according to Hao.Xinhua did not give comparative figures for heterosexual transmission or transmission through use of injected drugs.

The survey was carried out in 61 Chinese cities on more than 18,000 gay men, said Wu Zunyou, director of the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention under the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.The health department surveyed gay men in three cities in 2005, and in five cities in 2006. In one unidentified city surveyed this time, 15 percent of gay men surveyed were HIV positive, Xinhua said. China has become more open about addressing AIDS and HIV in recent years, but embarrassment about talking directly about sex hinders frank education. Many people also avoid testing for HIV, for fear of losing their jobs or being socially ostracized.

Although homosexuality is also more tolerated, it is still taboo in many socially conservative Chinese families and cities. By September, China reported about 260,000 HIV positive in total, among whom 77,000 had developed AIDS, and 34,000 have died. The number of HIV-positive people increased by 50,000 in 2007, Xinhua said. Courtesy Reuters.

Abusive HIV Plan Rejected By Indonesian AIDS Commission

The Indonesian AIDS commission has rejected a plan by the lawmakers of Papua province which requires microchips to be implanted in HIV/ AIDS patients to monitor the spread of disease. It is expected that the bill would be passed on a majority vote and would implemented in January 2009.

The implicit reason behind the bill is to track sexually active people who have HIV/AIDS who could be prosecuted if they are suspected of infecting others. According to lawmakers, the proposed bill would also give a permission to the authorities to identify and ultimately punish "sexually aggressive,” HIV-positive individuals.

Nafsiah Mboi, chairperson of the National AIDS Control Commission has said that they have rejected such a plan as it clearly violates human rights. Moreover it seems to be a plan that is impractical and impossible to be implemented. She expressed hope that local lawmakers in Papua would reconsider the implementation of the law as it was not in line with human rights. She urged the Papuan lawmakers to conduct public hearings before the bill is passed.

If Bill is cleared it would mean that anyone found guilty by a court of law of deliberately spreading the virus could be fined up to $4,000 dollars or given six months in jail.

World AIDS Day: A Day Of Reflection, Remembrance and Hope

Since 1988 the first day in December has been set aside to raise awareness of the AIDS pandemic, as well as remember those who both live with HIV and have died from this terrible disease.

Across the world 32 million persons live with HIV everyday. Sadly millions have died from the disease and millions more will succumb to the illness even in an age of miracle drugs and distant hopes for a cure.

It was a mere 10 years ago that retroviral drugs were introduced that gave hope to HIV sufferers. What was once considered a certain killer, the disease has changed into a chronic but manageable illness. But retrovirals reach only 10 percent of those infected, leaving 90 percent of infected persons to needlessly die from HIV and AIDS.

Despite the dismal news, there is one bright hope that comes with World AIDS Day; awareness and recognition. If you are in a high risk group for HIV infection, I urge you to take advantage of the many opportunities to be tested. Timing is crucial in the treatment of this still deadly disease. If you are infected, the outcome is far greater with early intervention and treatment.

I am so grateful for the doctor I visited three years ago who INSISTED I have an HIV test. He saved my life. While we cannot predict our future, there is no need to foolishly cut short a life over fear of an HIV diagnosis. I have far too many journeys to go before I pass to the next plane of existence. As Doctor Seuss would say, "Oh the places you will go!"

Dance 4 Life

On November 29th , fifty thousand young people will make a worldwide statement against HIV and AIDS. Connected live via satellite, young people in 19 countries will dance in unity and solidarity as ambassadors for Dance4Life.

These young people want to inspire companies, politicians, artists and media to join them in committing to push back the global spread of HIV and AIDS. More than 33 million people are living with HIV or AIDS. People under 25 years old account for half of all new infections.

Dance4Life involves this young generation and raises their awareness of how they themselves can push back the spread of HIV and AIDS. Dance4Life does this in schools with a personal, interactive and emotional approach, using the language of youth, their media, icons, music and dance to connect with them. Dance4Life empowers young people to take action themselves and to challenge taboos around sex, HIV and AIDS. Inspired and informed during the schools projects, young people initiate their own prevention, awareness raising and fundraising actions. For example, they fundraise for HIV and AIDS projects, approach community leaders, write letters to politicians, organize exhibitions or do volunteer work with HIV positive children.

Originating in the Netherlands, the initiative is now active in nineteen countries: Germany, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, Russia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Spain, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, UK, USA, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Source: Dance4Life

Anti Viral Drug Shows Promise In Treatment For HIV - Without Drug Resistance

Bavituximab, an anti-viral drug developed by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center, is showing promise as a new strategy to fight viral diseases, including HIV.

In a study published in the December issue of Nature Medicine, groups of guinea pigs infected with a virus similar to Lassa fever virus recovered from the fatal disease when treated with bavituximab in combination with a common anti-viral medication. Bavituximab treatment also cured mice infected with cytomegalovirus, an opportunistic infection that afflicts AIDS patients.

Dr. Philip Thorpe, professor of pharmacology at UT Southwestern and senior author of the study, proposed that phosphatidylserine, a lipid molecule that is normally positioned on the internal surface of a cell, flips to the outside of the cell when the cell is infected by a virus. His laboratory developed bavituximab, which binds to phosphatidylserine on the infected cells. Dr. Thorpe predicted that this interaction would muster the body's immune cells to attack and destroy the infected cells before the virus has a chance to replicate.

"When injected into the bloodstream, bavituximab circulates in the body until it finds these inside-out lipids and then binds to them," said Dr. Thorpe. "In the case of virus infection, the binding raises a red flag to the body's immune system, forcing the deployment of defensive white blood cells to attack the infected cells."

In an experiment, researchers administered both bavituximab and the anti-viral medication ribavirin. Ribavirin works by a different mechanism than bavituximab; it stops virus replication in the cell. With this combination therapy, 63 percent of guinea pigs survived.This is the first report of a therapeutic treatment being effective against advanced Lassa-like fever infections in animals.

Dr. Melina Soares, instructor of pharmacology at UT Southwestern and lead author of the Nature Medicine study, said, "As viruses mutate, they become more resistant to existing anti-viral drug therapies. Using bavituximab to attack a lipid target could prove to be a new and effective strategy for treating virus infections."

"This approach reduces the ability of the virus to escape attack by a drug," he said. "Viruses often dodge drugs by mutating into a different form that the drug is ineffective against. Host cells are a more immutable target." making drug reistance less problematic, according to Dr. Thorpe.

Researchers have found that phosphatidylserine flipping occurs in cells infected with a host of viruses including HIV. The drug "could lead to a new, broad spectrum anti-viral treatment." Dr. Soares said.

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals has exclusively licensed bavituximab from UT Southwestern and has a sponsored research agreement to develop the drug further. Dr. Thorpe is a consultant to and has an equity interest in the company.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and Peregrine. Press release provide by Peregrine Pharmaceuticals. Peregrine is a small pharmaceuticals company based in Tustin, CA.

Study: Hospitals Not Doing Enough To Screen For HIV

Two years after the Centers For Disease Control urged doctors and hospitals to routinely test their patients for HIV, the mandate has fallen on deaf ears.

Only about 5 percent of patients with evidence of serious illness are being routinely tested in hospital emergeny rooms for the HIV virus, according to Veronica Miller, director of the Forum for Collaberative HIV research at George Washington University.

According to a study released this week at a conference in Arlington Virginia, the primary reasons for ignoring the recommendations are that the test takes too much time and that insurers may be reluctanct to pay for the test.

"Reimbursement is a major barrier to routine testing" said Kevin Fenton, Director of HIV prevention at the CDC.

In urban emergency rooms, infection rates run from 0.5 to 1 percent of people tested, although many choose not to be tested, studies presented at the conference found.

At John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, in Chicago, about 2,000 patients who went to the emergency room and were ill enough to be admitted were offered HIV tests. Just under 1 percent were infected, and more than 90 percent of them had CD4 cell counts below 200. At that level, a person has severe immune system damage and is considered to have AIDS.

Recent studies have also concluded that irreparable damage is done to the human body when retroviral treatment is started too late, when CD4 counts dip below 200.

While the odds of being HIV positive have proven to be quite small among those tested in hospitals, those that have tested positive are clearly too far along in the progression of the disease for the 'miracle' drugs to have any effect.

Information source: The Washington Post

Mother Of HIV Positive Student Sues School District Over HIV Discrimination

The mother of an HIV-positive student says the girl was bullied so badly she was forced to leave school -- and educators did nothing to stop the harassment.

Now she's filed suit against the Indiana school district in a case that echoes the story of Ryan White, the famous Hoosier teenager who first drew attention to the plight of children with HIV more than two decades ago.

The lawsuit was filed last week against Washington Township Schools. It claims the district violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by allowing the girl's classmates to call her names, harass her and bully her so much that she was afraid to show up at Westlane Middle School.

The girl has withdrawn from the district and is being home-schooled.

The harassment began, according to the suit, after the girl told a friend she had been diagnosed as HIV-positive. That friend told her sister, and news spread throughout the school.

She soon had a nickname -- a play on the word AIDS -- and one day found a sign on her locker that said, "No AIDS at Westlane." The lawsuit says the bullying was so traumatic it caused seizures.

The student's mother met with counselors at the Northside school in April 2007 because she wanted her daughter's harassers to be suspended, the lawsuit says. It said the school district warned the students but didn't remove them from class.

The mother met with counselors three more times in 2007. The suit says a friend of the girl's also reported the bullying.

This school year, the girl's soccer coach asked her whether she had AIDS. The girl's mother again met with administrators Sept. 22, demanding action to help her daughter.

Washington Township Superintendent James Mervilde said he couldn't comment on the case, but noted the district has policies against bullying and harassment.

School districts are governed by state rules to protect students' confidentiality and for working with students and staff members who have communicable diseases such as HIV, said Avon Waters, Indiana Department of Education spokesman.

But, the lawsuit claims, such rules did not protect the teenager once word got out that she had HIV. Information Indystar.com

Papuans With HIV/AIDS To Get Microchips

Amid protests from Papuans and NGOs, the Papua provincial legislative council is set to pass a bylaw on HIV/AIDS that includes a controversial article requiring certain people living with the disease to be implanted with a microchip.

“If the draft bylaw is passed, it will violate the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS because they will be implanted with microchips,” said Constan Karma, executive director of the Papua AIDS Commission (KPAD).

Councilor John Manangsang said the microchips would only be implanted in people living with HIV/AIDS who were deemed to be “aggressive”.

“Aggressive means actively seeking sexual intercourse. This is one way to protect healthy people,” he said.

Enita T. Rouw, coordinator of the Papua branch of the Indonesian Network of People Infected with HIV, said incidences of discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS had declined.

“However, the stigmatization is still there,” she said. “So please don’t use microchips. We’re humans, not animals.”

The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Papua is increasing, with 319 new cases reported so far this year as of October, taking the total to 4,114 reported cases, Karma said earlier this month.

Courtesy The Jakarta Post

Zimbabwe Runs Out Of HIV Drugs

The nation of Zimbabwe has run out of Anti-Retroviral drugs (ARVs), dealing a major blow to the HIV and AIDS patients, a highly placed source in the health sector has revealed.

The source added that only patients who take Cotrimoxazole ARVs (on level one or first line therapy) might be lucky as there are limited quantities still available owing to a government embargo on the drugs early this year. All other drugs are out of supply," said the source in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare.

He added that those HIV positive patients with the A-B strain of the disease might die soon as it is difficult to manage.

Zimbabwe has more than six million HIV positive people and their fate could be sealed owing to the unavailability of the drugs, which are very expensive in private pharmacies and beyond the reach of many.

The source added that even if the drugs were available, most of them never found their way on the deserving patients as oficials looted some for the ill relatives, while diverting others on the parallel market. Courtesy Radio VOP

Philadelphia: 15 Years Later

Back when the AIDS movie "Philadelphia" was being filmed, producers hired 53 extras to appear in various scenes. Granted, they were just bit parts. Some of them made it to the screen for mere seconds. But what made these roles noteworthy was that all of the actors were either HIV-positive or had AIDS. This was no accident. Director Jonathan Demme intentionally set out to include as many people with the virus as possible in the critically acclaimed movie. A group called Action AIDS provided the volunteers. No one was turned down. Now, 15 years later, every single one of those novice performers is dead - except one.

Suellen Kehler, 44, a former bank secretary who lives in the Northeast, is the lone survivor. If you watched the movie, you may have spotted the camera lingering on a petite Amerasian woman in one of the courtroom scenes. Or you might have heard her laugh during a scene at the clinic where Tom Hanks' character, a gay lawyer with the disease, gets treatment.

"It just seems like yesterday that I was in the movie. I'm so grateful to be around for the protease inhibitors," Keh-ler told the Philadelphia Enquirer in an interview "Unfortunately, so many other people in the movie weren't able to hang around long enough for the protease inhibitors." Since they were approved by the Food and Drug Administration more than a decade ago, protease inhibitors have become something of a miracle drug because they help those infected with HIV to live longer without developing AIDS. The drug's arrival meant that patients who had expected to die soon from the disease were living years longer than they dreamed they could back when they were first diagnosed.

Kehler, for example, was diagnosed on Nov. 15, 1989, after contracting the virus from a boyfriend who had used intravenous drugs. At the time of her diagnosis, Kehler thought that she was doomed, that maybe she had only a week to live. But she's still here. Low energy, sore muscles and join pain are constant companions. She also suffers from neuropathy and has a sciatica and herniated discs.To maintain her health, Kehler takes 25 pills a day. Her doctors have warned her not to miss any doses.

Even though Americans know more about the virus than they did back when "Philadelphia" hit the big screen, Kehler still finds herself explaining to a neighbor that it's not spread by mosquitoes. She also has to deal with the sadness of having family members nearby who don't want her around. Even though Kehler struggles with dark moments, she reminds herself of how lucky she is to still be alive after all of these years. "I need to be grateful because these people in the movie, 'Philadelphia,' wish they could be here," she said. "I can't believe I'm the only survivor from that movie." Courtesy Philadelphia Daily News.

Interpol Cracks Down On Manufacture And Sale Of Counterfeit HIV Drugs

Police across Southeast Asia have made a series of arrests and seized fake drugs worth millions of dollars in an operation supported by Interpol, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Customs Organization (WCO).

The seizures, operating under the moniker Operation Storm, targeted individuals and groups involved in the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit medicines which included anti-HIV medications.

“Counterfeit medicines pose a significant threat to the health and safety of some of the most vulnerable members of society, and it is clear that only through a multi-agency response can we significantly disrupt the trade in fake drugs.” said Interpol Secretary General, Ronald K. Noble.

The operation, which ran from April to September 2008, took place in nearly 200 raids across Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam

The results of the operation were announced Tuesday in Cambodia at the International Law Enforcement Traning Seminar on Combating Counterfeit Drugs .Information provided by Interpol

Persons Infected With HIV May (Or May Not) Be At An Increase An Increased Risk Of Cancer

People living with HIV have an increased risk of non-AIDS cancer, according to a report released Tuesday at the American Association for Cancer Research's International conference in Washington, D.C.

Compared with those in the general population, the risk appears to be more than doubled for men and 50% higher for women with HIV, according to Meredith Shiels, MHS, a doctoral candidate at the Johns Hopkins University. But there appears to be little difference in the risk when those with full-blown AIDS and those with controlled HIV infection are compared with the general population, according to Shiels.

While HIV has been known to be associated with three forms of cancer -- Kaposi's sarcoma, cervical cancer, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma -- little is known about the risks of other forms of cancer, (or non HIV cancers) among those infected with the virus. But preliminarly analysis of of 11 studies, mostly from Europe, suggests that those with HIV are at greater risk for developing cancer, when compared to the general population.

Whether those living with HIV place themselves at greater risks of cancer through smoking, drug use or unsafe sexual practices was not factored into the analysis and could in part explain the increased risk of cancer.

And the analysis looks at just 11 studies, which may prove to be too small a pool of data to reach a long term conclusion. But the information gives fuel to doctors to insist their HIV infected patients refrain from life threatening behavior - like smoking, drug use and unsafe sexual practices (which have all been proven to increase the chances for cancer whether a person is HIV Positive or HIV Negative.

The study was supported by the NIH and was presented orally at the conference.

When HIV Is A Crime

An increasing numbers of countries worldwide are enacting laws and prosecuting citizens for HIV transmission or exposure, according to a new report released by The International Planned Parenthood Association.(IPPA).

While the laws seem well intended, IPPA notes that prosecution "undermines human rights and jeopardizes hard won gains in the global response to HIV". Furthermore the group asserts that criminalizing HIV exposure "only serves to intensify a climate of denial, secrecy and fear".

Since 2005 a wave of laws criminalizing HIV transmission has swept across Africa. In Sierra Leone, for example, this approach led to the approval of a law that explicitly criminalizes a mother living with HIV who exposes her fetus to the virus. In Egypt, merely living with HIV can lead to prosecution for crimes of ‘debauchery’. Source IPPA.

Some HIV'ers May Not Be Ideal Candidates For Lasik

A recent online survey of surgeons who perform LASIK found that the doctors who responded to the survey overwhelmingly opposed the surgery for AIDS patients, while most found the refractive eye surgery acceptable for patients with HIV.

Doctors at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine recently investigated current care practices and opinions by sending a confidential online questionnaire to members of the International Society of Refractive Surgery of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Of the 25 percent of surgeons who responded, 51 percent considered persons with HIV to be acceptable candidates for elective refractive surgery, but only 12.5 percent considered people with AIDS to be so. The majority of respondents (72.7 percent) who perform these procedures in persons with HIV or AIDS said they take additional precautions, such as addressing one eye at a time rather than bilaterally, scheduling the patient last in a given day, and increasing attention to equipment and staff hygiene.

This research was presented at the 2008 Joint Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (Academy) and European Society of Ophthalmology (SOE) in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. on November 10, 2008 and published online at ScienceDaily.com

Survey: Serio Discordant Families Fear HIV Infection

Two-thirds of families with an HIV-infected parent experience fears about the virus spreading at home, according to a joint study released by the University of California.The study is the first to interview multiple family members, including minor children, in families with an HIV-infected parent.

'We found that many of the worries were based on misconceptions about how HIV is spread,' said study co-author Burt Cowgill, staff researcher at the University of California Los Angeles -/RAND Centre for Adolescent Health Promotion.

'We also learned that HIV-infected parents had legitimate concerns about contracting infections such as a cold, flu or chicken pox while caring for a sick child,' added Cowgill. 'This knowledge could help pediatricians to address children's specific fears about HIV transmission as well as help clinicians who care for the HIV-infected parents.'

Between March 2004 and March 2005, the team conducted interviews with 33 HIV-infected parents, 27 of their children aged nine to 17, nineteen adult children and 15 caregivers -. Interview questions were open-ended and broad to elicit a detailed description of family members' experiences. In addition, follow-up questions focused on whether respondents' fears subsided over time and what was done in the household to address them.

In a majority of the families, participants reported HIV transmission-related fears, included acquiring HIV through contact with blood from a parent's cut, through saliva by sharing a bathroom or kissing, or by sharing food or beverages. HIV-infected parents were also concerned about catching an opportunistic infection from a sick child or other family member, and they were especially concerned about caring for a child with chicken pox, a cold or the flu.

'Fears about disease may substantially affect the relationship between the HIV-infected parent and child,' said co-author Mark Schuster, chief of general pediatrics at Children's Hospital Boston and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. 'It is critical not only to provide children with age-appropriate information on how the disease is transmitted, but also to clear up any misconceptions.' The findings are scheduled for publication in a forthcoming issue of Pediatrics. Courtesy rxpgnews.com

Truvada Maker Faces Patent Challenge By Generic Pharmaceutical Maker

Gilead Sciences Inc said on Friday it has been notified that Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd is seeking U.S. regulatory approval to sell a generic version of Gilead's HIV drug Truvada.

Gilead said it has 45 days from the receipt of the notification by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to commence a patent infringement lawsuit against Teva. A lawsuit would restrict approval of the generic drug for up to 30 months or until a court ruling in favor of Teva, whichever occurs first.

Truvada is a combination of Gilead's drugs Viread, known generically as tenofovir, and Emtriva, or emtricitabine. (Truvada is also a component of Atripla, a drug co-marketed with Bristol-Myers Squibb)

Gilead said Teva has claimed that two of the patents associated with emtricitabine -- owned by Emory University and licensed Gilead -- are invalid or unenforceable.

The company said Truvada is protected by 10 patents, and all 10 would need to be invalidated or expired before a generic version of Truvada could be marketed.

Teva, a generic drug manufacturer based in Israel, has major manufacturing and marketing facilities in Israel, Europe and the US. Information provided by Reuters and Teva Pharmaceuticals.

Out Of The Closet Store Agrees To Change Name

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) the operator of the fundraising 'Out of the Closet' thrift store chain in California and Florida, has reached agreement to resolve the issue of trademark infringement with the operator of a private, for-profit Alaska consignment shop of the same name that was cited by Republican Vice Presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin during the presidential campaign as her favorite store. The Alaska consignment store came to national attention following revelations that the Republican National Committee (RNC) spent over $150,000 on a campaign wardrobe and other clothing for Governor Palin and her family. During a subsequent interview, Governor Palin noted that she and her family were, in fact, quite frugal shoppers who favor Alaska's 'Out of the Closet' store, a for profit resale store based in Anchorage, Alaska.

The Alaska store had apparently been operating for five years under the same 'Out of the Closet' name as AHF's fundraising chain--which first opened in 1990--and under the same name for which AHF has had registered federal trademark since 1997. Upon learning of the trademark infringement, AHF attorney Tome Myers issued a cease and desist letter to owner Ellen Arvold, the proprietor of the Alaska store and requested she immediately change the name of her store.

In a letter, Ms. Arvold pledged to honor and fully comply with AHF's federal trademark by changing the name of her own store; however, in her reply, she cited several practical and logistical reasons--replacing store signage, changing bank account names and bank card receipts--while asking for time to make the needed changes. In her letter, Arvold asked: "I am respectfully requesting that AIDS Healthcare Foundation give me until December 31st to effectuate the change of the name of my business." The AHF has assented to Ms. Arvolds request for additional time, according to Michael Weinstein, President of AHF.

Revenues generated by AHF's 'Out of the Closet' contribute to caring for AIDS patients in the US and abroad, as well as supporting AHF's HIV prevention and testing programs worldwide. Information source: Press release from AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

Baltimore HIV Non-Profit To Close Doors - Reason Unknown

After 25 years, Baltimore's' oldest and largest non-profit organization that helps those infected with HIV/AIDS is closing its doors.

The Health Education Resources Organization (HERO) posted a notice on its windows that said it was closing effective November 26th 2008, the day before Thanksgiving. HERO was a source of case management, housing services, drug abuse counseling and legal services, in addition to physical and mental health care. Many of their clients are or have been homeless.

The reason for the closing is unclear, as HERO did not return calls to WZJ news. HERO served an average of 3000 clients per year. Courtesy WZJ Television News.

"Assassin Cell' Therapy To Tackle HIV

Researchers have developed a new "assassin cell" therapy for treating HIV which involves engineering the patient's own immune system to fight the virus more effectively.

The therapy – which has proved effective in laboratory tests using human cell cultures – will be tested in a clinical trial of 35 patients with advanced HIV infection that is due to start next summer.

Efforts to find a traditional vaccine against HIV – the virus that causes Aids – have so far drawn a blank. "HIV mutates so quickly," said Dr Bent Jakobsen at Adaptimmune, the company in Oxford that is developing the new approach. "Gradually it gets better and better at escaping the detection of the immune system."

Jakobsen and his colleagues began to pursue a different approach after investigating a patient who had resisted his HIV infection particularly effectively. "When we tested the T cells from this patient, it looked as if he was responding to a number of those variants that normally escape the immune system," he said.

T cells are components of the immune system that attack and destroy cells within the body that are infected. They recognize components of the virus – antigens – that are displayed on the outside of infected cells. In this patient, the T cell receptor protein seemed particularly good at recognising HIV antigens.

The team isolated the receptor protein and then improved its ability to recognise HIV further by randomly mutating it.

Treating patients will involve taking a blood sample and adding an engineered virus containing genes for the improved T cell receptor. The patient's own T cells then take up the genes and so are equipped with the improved receptor. These cells are then injected back into the patient.

The result was a T cell receptor that binds to HIV 450 times more strongly. The study was published this week in Nature Medicine.

"In the face of our engineered assassin cells, the virus will either die or be forced to change its disguises again, weakening itself along the way," said Prof Andy Sewell from Cardiff University.

"Because the immune cells work so much better when they have this modified antigen receptor they can eliminate the virus. And the mutants that normally escape detection are also recognised and eliminated," Jakobsen said. "That's not to say that will happen in patients. HIV is incredibly difficult to deal with. But it does give hope that it will do much more than the immune system does against the virus."

The clinical trial of 35 patients next summer will take place at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Courtesy guardian.co.uk

Project Runway Alumni Debuts Living Positive By Design Campaign

On Monday, "Project Runway" alumni Jack Mackenroth debuted an HIV and AIDS education campaign called Living Positive By Design, in New York, at the Gay Men's Health Crisis Fashion Forward event.

At Fashion Forward, Jack unveiled a signature campaign scarf and addressed attendees regarding the campaign. The Living Positive By Design campaign, a sponsor of Fashion Forward, seeks to help combat the stigma associated with HIV by engaging people in conversation about the condition and is being supported by pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck & Co., Inc. Merck is the maker of Isentress, a treatment for HIV.

Prior to the event, Mackenroth released this statement. "I am excited to be nationally launching Living Positive By Design in partnership with organizations that are committed to improving the lives of people living with HIV and to be debuting the signature campaign scarf I created," said Mackenroth. "Through Living Positive By Design, I will be speaking about my experiences living with HIV for nearly 20 years, addressing the stigma still associated with the disease and highlighting the importance for people living with HIV to have a positive outlook on life while effectively managing their disease." All attendees of the event, held at Skylight Studios, received a signature Living Positive By Design scarf, to symbolize the campaign's goals of combating stigma and encouraging those people living with HIV to have a positive outlook on life, while effectively managing their disease.

Jack is also partnering with expert physician Dr. Martin Markowitz, clinical director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York, NY, for the national launch of Living Positive By Design. "One of the goals of Living Positive By Design is to educate people living with HIV that taking medications to help reduce the amount of virus in the blood to undetectable levels and helping to try restoring their immune system must be some of the priorities for today's disease management," said Dr. Markowitz. "In addition to this, with new advancements in HIV treatment, physicians should also factor in the tolerability of treatment regimens."

Jack recently held Living Positive By Design events in Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the 2008 United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) and Atlanta, Georgia. He will continue to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS over the next year through events in several cities, including San Francisco and Houston. For additional information on Living Positive By Design and participating cities, please visit: www.LivingPositiveByDesign.com.

The Curious Case Of The Cured HIV Patient

The startling case of an AIDS patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia is stirring new hope that gene-therapy strategies on the far edges of AIDS research might someday cure the disease.

The patient, a 42-year-old American living in Berlin, is still recovering from his leukemia therapy, but he appears to have won his battle with AIDS. Doctors have not been able to detect the virus in his blood for more than 600 days, despite his having ceased all conventional AIDS medication.

Normally when a patient stops taking AIDS drugs, the virus stampedes through the body within weeks, or days.

"I was very surprised," said the doctor, Gero Hütter.

The breakthrough appears to be that Dr. Hütter, a soft-spoken hematologist who isn't an AIDS specialist, deliberately replaced the patient's bone marrow cells with those from a donor who has a naturally occurring genetic mutation that renders his cells immune to almost all strains of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The development suggests a potential new therapeutic avenue and comes as the search for a cure has adopted new urgency. Many fear that current AIDS drugs aren't sustainable. Known as antiretrovirals, the medications prevent the virus from replicating but must be taken every day for life and are expensive for poor countries where the disease runs rampant.

While cautioning that the Berlin case could be a fluke, David Baltimore, who won a Nobel prize for his research on tumor viruses, deemed it "a very good sign" and a virtual "proof of principle" for gene-therapy approaches. Dr. Baltimore and his colleague, University of California at Los Angeles researcher Irvin Chen, have developed a gene therapy strategy against HIV that works in a similar way to the Berlin case. Drs. Baltimore and Chen have formed a private company to develop the therapy.

Back in 1996 researchers discovered that some gay men astonishingly remained uninfected despite engaging in very risky sex with as many as hundreds of partners. These men had inherited a mutation from both their parents that made them virtually immune to HIV. The mutation prevents a molecule called CCR5 from appearing on the surface of cells. CCR5 acts as a kind of door for the virus. Since most HIV strains must bind to CCR5 to enter cells, the mutation bars the virus from entering. About 1% of Europeans, and even more in northern Europe, inherit the CCR5 mutation from both parents. People of African, Asian and South American descent almost never carry it.

Dr. Hütter, 39, remembered this research when his American leukemia patient failed first-line chemotherapy in 2006. Dr. Hütter scoured research on CCR5 and consulted with his superiors. Finally, he recommended standard second-line treatment: a bone marrow transplant -- but from a donor who had inherited the CCR5 mutation from both parents.

Bone marrow is where immune-system cells are generated, so transplanting mutant bone-marrow cells would render the patient immune to HIV into perpetuity, at least in theory. To prepare for the transplant, Dr. Hütter first administered a standard regimen of powerful drugs and radiation to kill the patient's own bone marrow cells and many immune-system cells. This procedure, lethal to many cells that harbor HIV, may have helped the treatment succeed. The transplant specialists ordered the patient to stop taking his AIDS drugs when they transfused the donor cells, because they feared the powerful drugs might undermine the cells' ability to survive in their new host. They planned to resume the drugs once HIV re-emerged in the blood. But it never did.Nearly two years later, standard tests haven't detected virus in his blood, or in the brain and rectal tissues where it often hides.

The case was presented to scientists earlier this year at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. In September, the nonprofit Foundation for AIDS Research, or amFAR, convened a small scientific meeting on the case. Most researchers there believed some HIV still lurks in the patient but that it can't ignite a raging infection, most likely because its target cells are invulnerable mutants. The scientists agreed that the patient is "functionally cured."

Caveats are legion. If enough time passes, the HIV might evolve to overcome the mutant cells' invulnerability. Blocking CCR5 might have side effects: A study suggests that people with the mutation are more likely to die from West Nile virus. Most worrisome: The transplant treatment itself kills up to 30% of patients. While scientists are drawing up research protocols to try this approach on other leukemia and lymphoma patients, they know it will never be widely used to treat AIDS because of the mortality risk.

There is a potentially safer alternative: Re-engineering a patient's own cells through gene therapy, although even gene therapy comes with risks. Gene therapy also faces daunting technical challenges. For example, the therapeutic genes are carried to cells by re-engineered viruses, and they must be made perfectly safe. Also, most gene therapy currently works by removing cells, genetically modifying them out of the body, then transfusing them back in -- a complicated procedure that would prove too expensive for the developing world.

Dr. Baltimore and others are working on therapeutic viruses they could inject into a patient as easily as a flu vaccine. But, he says, "we're a long way from that." Expecting that gene therapy will eventually play a major role in medicine, several research groups are testing different approaches for AIDS.

At City of Hope cancer center in Duarte, Calif., John Rossi and colleagues actually use HIV itself, genetically engineered to be harmless, to deliver to patients' white blood cells three genes: one that inactivates CCR5 and two others that disable HIV. He has already completed the procedure on four patients and may perform it on another. One big hurdle: doctors can't yet genetically modify all target cells. In theory, HIV would kill off the susceptible ones and, a victim of its own grim success, be left only with the genetically engineered cells that it can't infect. But so far that's just theory. All Dr. Rossi's patients remain on standard AIDS drugs, so it isn't yet known what would happen if they stopped taking them. Courtesy Wall Street Journal