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

HIV/Aids Discrimination Rife In China

Disturbing news from a survey conducted in China; 30 percent of survey respondents said children suffering from HIV/AIDS should not be allowed to attend school, 65 percent were not willing to stay in the same room as a sufferer, and 48 percent would not share a meal with them, reports the China Daily newspaper.

The apparent discrimination against HIV sufferers may be causing some to avoid seeking treatment, because they are afraid to let others know of their illness. "People I have encountered in China have told me they suffer from discrimination, and some of them have stopped in the middle of treatment,” according to Edwin Cameron, A south African AIDS prevention expert.

HIV is a growing concern in China, with over 700,000 people currently living with the virus.

The survey polled 6,000 people from six major cities in China and was conducted from February to March 2008 by Renmin University of China. The financial and technical support was provided by UNAIDS.

Voices Of HIV

Listen to eight voices of persons living with HIV at this link to the New York Times.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/the-voices-of-aids-and-hiv/

Herpes Drug Could Be Model For Future HIV Treatments

The anti-herpes drug acyclovir has been found to slow down HIV infection, researchers report in this week's JBC. This beneficial effect does pose a risk though, as HIV-infected cells treated with acyclovir promote the emergence of drug resistant strains of the virus.

HIV and herpes (HSV) are two of the most common sexually transmitted diseases worldwide, and individuals frequently become co-infected with both. In such cases, the two viruses interact with each other; the presence of HIV often results in more frequent HSV lesion outbreaks, while HSV can speed up the progression of HIV to AIDS.

Considering their interaction, recent studies showing that acyclovir treatment could reduce HIV viral load in co-infected patients were not surprising, and attributed to an indirect effect of HSV suppression. However, Moira McMahon and colleagues at Johns Hopkins decided to look whether the effects on HIV might be direct.

However, acyclovir treatment had some unexpected results; as early as five days after initial infection and subsequent treatment with acyclovir, a mutant (and potentially drug resistant) version of HIV appeared in the cells, and within 94 days spread to comprise over 90% of the viral population. The tests were conducted in the laboratories of Johns Hopkins.

What this means, the authors note, is that acyclovir could be a great model for designing future HIV treatments, but also could be a risky drug if given to HSV patients co-infected with HIV by potentially promoting cross-resistance to current treatments. Courtesy American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Johns Hopkins University.

Study Unravels Reasons For Failure Of Experimental HIV Vaccine

Trials of a once-promising experimental HIV vaccine were cut short in 2007 because the drug may have increased the likelihood of HIV infection rather than preventing it, according to a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

The HIV-1 vaccine, created by American drug maker Merck, was undergoing second stage trials when the problem was discovered in September 2007, according to researchers at the Montpellier Institute of Molecular Genetics in France.

The vaccine relied on a modified form of a common cold virus to carry elements of HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) into the body, triggering the human immune system to start fighting off later infection with the virus.

But three years after the first trial, researchers discovered that more of the vaccine recipients who had prior immunity to the Ad5 virus had been infected with HIV than those not exposed to the vaccine.

The presence of long-lasting antibodies specifically catering to the Ad5 virus, generated during natural infections with the common cold, could have altered the response to the HIV vaccine, the study said.

HIV infection spread through cell cultures three times faster in the presence of antibodies from individuals immune to the Ad5 virus, because the HIV virus came in contact with more of its preferred "T" cells -- prompted to grow by the vaccine -- to infect.

The study said the vaccine reached the second phase of its trials because primates, used in the first phase, do not naturally come into contact with the human common cold, so the problem went unrecognized.

The vaccine prototype was tested on 700 HIV-negative persons in five hospitals in South Africa between February and September 2007, in the first clinical HIV trial of its magnitude ever conducted in Africa. Courtesy AFP.

Human Growth Hormone May Improve Efficacy Of Retroviral Drugs

Researchers at Imperial College in London England have released a study that gives encouraging news in the treatment of HIV.

Using a combined therapy of recombinant Human Growth Hormone (rhGH) and retroviral drugs they found "significant increases in both proliferative CD4+ and ...CD8+ HIV-1-specific T-cell responses after daily administration of rhGH" The 48 week study also concluded that much like the usage of retroviral drugs, the rhGH must also be dosed on a daily basis for greatest effect.

The study gives hope to chronically infected HIV patients who also suffer with lipodystrophy.The study was published in the Journal of Immune Based Therapies and Vaccines and printed online at 7th space interactive

Thank You!

For everyone who supported Barack Obama in his successful run to the presidency, I thank you.

I truly believe that every vote cast for Barack Obama is a vote to end the scourge of HIV, not only in the U.S, but across the globe.

Too many past Republican adminstrations have either ignored the problem, or sought to minimize the problem on our own shores. Hopefully, this will end.

More than ever I am hopeful that there will be a cure for HIV and an end to this terrible disease.

OraSure Technologies Seeks Approval for HepC Test

OraSure Technologies, Inc. has submitted a pre-market approval application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a rapid test for antibodies to the Hepatitis C virus ("HCV") utilizing OraSure Technologies' OraQuick(R) technology platform. If approved, the OraQuick(R) HCV test is expected to be the first rapid HCV test approved by the FDA for use in the United States .In a dual track process, the company has also requested CE mark approval of the HCV test for use in the European Union.

The product would test for HCV by use of an oral swab or by blood sample. The company recently successfully completed clinical studies which include data from over 3,000 subjects
On a world-wide basis, the company estimates there are 180 million people who are chronically infected with HCV, with an estimated three to four million individuals newly infected each year. The prevalence of Hepatitis C infection is estimated to be four times that of HIV around the world.

According to the World Health Organization, as many as fifty percent of persons infected with HCV are undiagnosed and up to eighty percent who have HCV show no signs or symptoms. In the U.S., there are an estimated four million Americans, or 1.3 percent of the population, that are or have been infected with HCV. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC"), new infections in the U.S. are estimated at approximately 20,000 per year.

Hepatitis C is the major cause of acute Hepatitis and chronic liver disease and, if left undiagnosed and treated, can lead to cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer, liver failure and death. According to the CDC it is estimated that seventy-five to eighty-five percent of those people who become infected with the hepatitis C virus develop chronic infection, and five to twenty percent eventually develop cirrhosis of the liver. Hepatitis C is also a common co-infection among those infected with HIV.

OraSure currently manufactures oral fluid and blood sampling kits for testing HIV. Information from Orasure Technologies.

AIDS Activists Favor Obama Over McCain On HIV/AIDS Issues

Some AIDS activists are rallying behind Democratic nominee Barack Obama as the best presidential candidate to address the growing number of HIV infections nationwide.

Carl Schmid, director of federal affairs for the AIDS Institute and a Republican, said “it’s great that both presidential candidates” favor a strategy, but he had more praise for Obama’s work on the issue. “Sen. Obama has been quite knowledgeable and active and supportive of the issues that we’ve been working on — both domestically and globally,” Schmid said. “On the other hand, John McCain … really hasn’t been active on the domestic front.” Schmid said Obama started calling for a national AIDS strategy last year, but McCain only began calling for such a strategy this fall.

Obama also has been a strong supporter of the Ryan White CARE Act, a law that provides federal funding for HIV prevention, and has written letters supporting increased funding for HIV prevention, Schmid said. In one such letter, dated Sept. 19 Obama writes that “aggressive federal action” and “new investments that are with state and local initiatives” are necessary to confront the problem.

“Clearly, Sen. Obama is much more comfortable and progressive on these issues,” Schmid said.

Sean Strub, an HIV-positive gay man and founder of POZ magazine, said “there is no question” that Obama’s AIDS strategy is “far superior” to McCain’s. “He has a vastly better record on AIDS than McCain, and given the likelihood of large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, he’ll be in a better position to implement his plan,” Strub said.

Strub said McCain’s “continued referencing” of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) “as his go-to guy on AIDS should send chills down the spine of everyone with HIV as well as those who care about us.”

In March 2007, McCain referenced Coburn as “the guy I really respect” on HIV policy and said he looks to him on these issues. Coburn has often pursued a religious agenda at the expense of people with AIDS,” Strub said. “He is familiar with the issues, but he is no friend of people with HIV.”

But Strub lamented that Obama does not have many AIDS activists visible in his campaign, such as Bob Hattoy, who supported Bill Clinton’s 1992 bid for the White House and later served in his administration.

Neither presidential candidate has revealed comprehensive details of his national AIDS strategy, but both noted some key points of their plans in recent interviews with the Blade.

In a written interview published Sept. 12, Obama said he would implement a strategy during his first year in office that would include all federal agencies and “reduce HIV infections, increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities.” He also said he would continue to confront the stigma surrounding HIV that is “too often tied to homophobia.”

Obama also called on lawmakers to approve the JUSTICE Act “to combat infection within our prison population.” The legislation, currently in limbo in Congress, would allow community organizations to distribute condoms throughout federal prisons and engage in HIV education and counseling at the facilities.

During an Oct. 17 conference call with reporters, Neera Tanden, domestic policy director for the Obama campaign, said the candidate’s AIDS strategy would not supplant, but rather incorporate, the Ryan White CARE Act, but she could not quantify how much money Obama would allocate for his strategy because he wants to “work with Congress to come up with the right number.”

Tanden said the strategy also would incorporate community-based organizations to reach out to black Americans, who are disproportionately affected by HIV. CDC estimates show that 45 percent of new HIV infections are among blacks, even though they only make up 13 percent of the U.S. population.

McCain, in a written interview with the Blade, said he would “settle on” on a strategy “with input from state, local and federal government officials.” He noted that doctors, drug companies and AIDS activists also would contribute to the plan. The McCain campaign did not respond to the Blade’s request this week for more details about the GOP candidate’s plan. Courtesy Washington Blade

Clinic Slashes HIV Medical Staff, Leaving 300 Patients With Reduced Care

A community health group has fired Dr. Gary Good, the infectious-disease specialist who founded Sullivan Countys' only HIV/AIDS clinic in 1994 and quickly established himself as a respected doctor and advocate for his patients. The clinic is at the Monticello branch of Hudson River HealthCare, a not-for-profit medical group based in Peekskill, New York.

The group fired Good, his nurse and a data-entry worker on Tuesday and cut the HIV social worker's time by half. Administrators would not explain the firings, citing personnel confidentiality.

"It's about effectively using our limited resources," said Allison Dubois, vice president of administration at the health center. "We're not reducing access in any way."

But HIV patients and others familiar with the program say the move is devastating, especially in Sullivan County, with the state's highest per-capita incidence of HIV/AIDS outside New York City.

About 325 county residents are living with HIV or AIDS, and roughly 12 new cases of HIV are diagnosed every year, state health records show. The vast majority of those patients were treated by Good's clinic, one of only two clinics outside New York City to treat HIV, hepatitis and drug addiction in one location.

Now that Good is gone, an infectious-disease doctor based in Peekskill will visit the Monticello clinic only once a week, Dubois said. Otherwise, the roughly 300 patients will be seen by a nurse practitioner with years of HIV experience.

Good, 52, said the new model falls short in many ways. "To have one person (the nurse practitioner) taking care of more than 200 people will be nearly impossible."

Good said he'd like to start a private practice or find a new nonprofit home for his clinic, which was partially funded by a yearly $465,000 federal grant. Courtesy Times-Herald Record.

Making A Difference, One Quilt At A Time

Americans continue to make a difference in the lives of African children who have been orphaned by the AIDS epidemic.

Quilts Beyond Borders is a Florida based non profit organization that provides volunteer made quilts to Ethiopian children living in orphanages. The need for the colorful and warm quilts is great because temperatures can drop to 30 degrees at night.

If you would like to help, Quilts Beyond Borders is always in need of brightly colored cotton fabrics and quilt batting which can be made into quilts. The organization will also accept brightly colored lap sized quilts made in simple colors. Also needed are childrens books, clothing and school supplies.

For more information and a mailing address to ship your donations, contact Lynne Fling at
quiltsbeyondborders@gmail.com

Information courtesy Quilt Magazine.

http://www.cherokeegivesback.org/docs/Quilt_Magazine_CGB_Oct_2008.pdf?/base//living-0/1220678503128490.xml&coll=1

Clinic Patients Face Scare After Staff Reused Syringes

2,700 patients of an Alberta, Canada clinic are facing HIV and Hepatitis screening after a manager at the High Prairie hospital discovered some staff had been routinely reusing syringes in patient IV lines. Such practices had been going on for as long 18 years.

New needles were used, but attached to used syringes containing medication vials filled with enough medication to cover several people undergoing endoscopy or dental procedures in a given day. When the needle was withdrawn, there was a chance some blood and contaminated medication could come up the IV line into the syringe, and then infect the next patient needing the medication.

The correct practice - and the one put in place at the facility after the problem was discovered Oct. 2 - is to have separate syringes with separate medication vials for every patient.

"We want to reassure the public that care provided in our facilities is safe, and the risk to this group of patients in High Prairie is very low." according to Dr. Albert de Villiers, officer of health for Peace Country Health.