God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

07/19/2010 • 6:01 pm 1

SA Medical Council fast-tracks 65 AIDS drugs now…

The Medicines Control Council (MCC) has fast-tracked the registration of 65 antiretroviral drugs, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Monday. The anti-Aids drugs were given priority while the MCC tried to clear a backlog of more than 4 000 medicines which had been awaiting registration since 2007 and longer, he said in response to a parliamentary question.

Motsoaledi said the MCC currently still had 1 503 applications on its backlog, which he blamed on personnel, financial and structural problems at the council.  All registration applications for ARVs had been reviewed and those still unregistered either did not meet requirements, or the companies had failed thus far to respond to the MCC’s recommendations.

South Africa has the world’s biggest Aids treatment programme.

Source http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/MCC-fast-tracks-65-Aids-drugs-20100719

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Treatment, Medical and Research, Politics and Society, , , ,

07/16/2010 • 8:47 am Comments Off on Aids fund cuts a death sentence

Aids fund cuts a death sentence

Vienna – Cutbacks in rich-world funding for Aids treatment could sentence millions of sufferers to death for lack of access to anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs, Medecins Sans Frontieres warned on Thursday. “Donors have started to shift their support away from HIV/Aids, and funding is not keeping up with the need,” the medical charity warned in a report ahead of a major Aids conference in Vienna next week.

“If nothing is done, most of (those infected with HIV) will die within the next few years,” it said, in a study based on fieldwork in eight African countries. According to MSF, many donors have frozen their contribution to the fight against Aids – partly due to the financial crisis – with the United States planning to cut its support for ARV drugs in Mozambique by 15% over the next four years.

The Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria is trying to raise $20bn for the next three years. So far it has received just a few hundred million dollars, the author of the report, Mit Philips, told journalists. “It is a very frustrating feeling to see that in spite of the achievements that have been made… the international donors, for the moment, show less interest and less resolve to continue to support the fight against HIV/Aids,” she said.  “It’s as if they want to give up the fight halfway through. We want to tell them: ‘you cannot turn back now on Aids treatment, it’s too important’.” While some three million HIV patients now have access to anti-retroviral drugs in Africa, the continent worst affected by the virus, another six million were still without treatment, MSF warned. By reducing funding, donor countries would ensure that even less patients received care, or received it too late, it added in its report. Turning people away from clinics, for lack of staff or resources, would also destroy the sense of trust that took years to build with local communities and make people less willing to come forward and get tested in a region where HIV still carries a strong stigma.

MSF’s study showed that early and sustained treatment of HIV patients had born fruit in several regions, including Malawi’s Thyolo district where the overall death rate dropped by a stunning 37% between 2000 and 2007, thanks to universal access to ARVs. Where patients get treatment, “there is an overall reduction of mortality in the community, there is also less tuberculosis and we start to see, where there is a high coverage of ARV, also a reduction in the number of new cases (of HIV/Aids),” said Philips.

Source: http://www.news24.com/World/News/Aids-fund-cuts-a-death-sentence-20100715

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, Medical and Research, Politics and Society, , , , , , , , ,

07/14/2010 • 3:00 pm Comments Off on HIV figures around the world

HIV figures around the world

A major international conference on AIDS starts in Vienna on July 18, when thousands of scientists, health workers, activists, and government officials will gather to discuss the latest advances against the disease.

An estimated 33.4 million people worldwide are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, according to figures issued by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Here are some AIDS figures from around the world:

THE GLOBAL PICTURE:

* Global deaths from AIDS reached an estimated 2 million in 2008, the same number as in 2007. Since the AIDS pandemic started in the early 1980s, almost 60 million people have been infected with the virus and 25 million have died of HIV-related causes.

* In 2008, around 430,000 children were born with HIV, bringing to 2.1 million the total number of children under 15 living with HIV. Young people account for around 40 percent of all new adult (those aged 15 and over) HIV infections worldwide.

* The annual number of new HIV infections remained the same in 2008 as for 2007 at 2.7 million. This is down from 3.0 million in 2001.

* Although 33.4 million people had the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 2008, more of them are living with HIV than ever before, at least in part due to the beneficial effects of AIDS drugs known as antiretroviral therapy. There are currently 26.3 million adults over 25 living with HIV.

AFRICA & ASIA:

* Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most heavily affected by HIV, accounting for 67 percent of all people living with the virus worldwide, 71 percent of AIDS-related deaths and 91 percent of all new infections among children.

* An estimated 1.9 million people were newly infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2008, bringing to 22.4 million the number of Africans living with HIV.

* The nine countries in southern Africa continue to bear a disproportionate share of the global AIDS burden. Each of them has an adult HIV rate of more than 10 percent.

* With an adult HIV prevalence of 26 percent in 2007, Swaziland has the most severe level of infection in the world. Lesotho’s epidemic seems to have stabilised, with an adult HIV rate of 23.2 percent in 2008.

* South Africa continues to be home to the world’s largest population of people living with HIV — 5.7 million in 2007. More than 250,000 South Africans died of AIDS-related diseases in 2008 and almost 2 million children there have lost one or both parents to the epidemic.

* Asia, home to 60 percent of the world’s population, is second only to sub-Saharan Africa in terms of people living with HIV. An estimated 4.7 million people were living with HIV in Asia in 2008.

* India accounts for roughly half of Asia’s HIV cases. With the exception of Thailand, where HIV affects 1.4 percent of adults, every country in Asia has an adult HIV infection rate of less than 1 percent.

OTHER REGIONS:

* Rates of HIV in eastern Europe and Central Asia are on the rise, with severe and growing epidemics in the Ukraine and Russia. With an adult HIV prevalence of 1.6 percent in 2007, Ukraine has the highest prevalence in all of Europe. In eastern Europe 1.5 million people were living with HIV.

* In Latin America, new HIV infections totalled an estimated 170,000 in 2008 bringing to 2 million the number of people living with HIV there. An estimated 77,000 people died of AIDS-related illnesses there last year.

* There were 2.3 million people living with HIV in 2008 in North America and western and central Europe.

Sources: Reuters/UNAIDS
yahoo news: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100713/tsc-uk-aids-figures-factbox-011ccfa.html

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, Medical and Research, Politics and Society, , , , , , , , ,

07/11/2010 • 12:29 pm Comments Off on POZ: Newly Discovered Antibody Kills Up to 91 Percent of HIV Strains

POZ: Newly Discovered Antibody Kills Up to 91 Percent of HIV Strains

U.S. government scientists have discovered three potent new antibodies, one of which can neutralize up to 91 percent of all HIV strains. These discoveries were published online July 8 in Science and were reported by The Wall Street Journal. Though the scientists acknowledge that their findings represent a hopeful step forward, they caution that it will take a lot of time and effort before they can be translated into something that will prevent or treat HIV infection.

Antibodies are a key element in the immune system that our body uses to defend itself from bacteria and viruses. Antibodies kill these microbes directly or flag the foreign invaders for destruction by other immune cells. Unfortunately, HIV’s outer surface is so easily changeable that antibodies—most of which can neutralize only a few strains—fail to keep it in check. This has made designing a vaccine, which works by provoking the body to produce antibodies, such a frustrating endeavor.

Following a string of failures in vaccine science, researchers have turned in recent years to a search for broadly neutralizing antibodies, which can kill multiple strains of HIV. Several have been identified, but none have been able to neutralize more than 40 percent of HIV strains, and all were quite difficult for the body to produce naturally.

The Wall Street Journal reports that, “The [new] antibodies were discovered in the cells of a 60-year-old African-American gay man, known in the scientific literature as Donor 45, whose body made the antibodies naturally. Researchers screened 25 million of his cells to find 12 that produced the antibodies.”

It’s not yet clear whether or how these new antibodies can be used to prevent and treat HIV. Researchers will focus on several possibilities. One approach entails giving the antibodies directly to people, specifically in cases to prevent transmission from mothers to their babies. Other approaches range from building traditional vaccines with the antibodies, to the developing gene therapies.
Whichever strategy is most promising, it will likely take some time before it is available. Gary Nabel, MD, PhD—one of the leaders of the studies and a director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland—told the Journal, “We’re going to be at this for a while” before any benefit is seen in the clinic.

Source: http://www.poz.com/rssredir/articles/HIV_neutralizing_antibody_761_18701.shtml

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, Medical and Research, , ,

06/19/2010 • 2:44 pm 3

POZ Magazine: AIDS Draws “Red Card” at World Cup

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has launched its “red card” campaign with the support of international soccer stars “to ensure an HIV-free generation by the 2014 FIFA World Cup” in Brazil, according to a UNAIDS statement. The goal is to eliminate the transmission of HIV from mother to child. The campaign title refers to the red card a soccer referee gives a player to eject him or her from a game.

The UNAIDS statement:

New global initiative at the FIFA World Cup shines spotlight on the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV

JOHANNESBURG, 12 June 2010—A new campaign is using the power and outreach of football to unite the world around a common cause—preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to child. Launched today in South Africa by the UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, international musician Akon, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador and producer of the World Cup opening ceremony, Lebo M, UNAIDS National Goodwill Ambassador, Jimmie Earl Perry, and Kirsten Nematandani, President of the South African Football Association. The campaign aims to ensure an HIV-free generation by the 2014 FIFA World Cup to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Each year, an estimated 430 000 babies are born with HIV globally, the large majority in Africa. Over the course of a 90-minute football match, nearly 80 babies will become newly infected with HIV. In many parts of Africa, AIDS-related illness is the leading cause of death among infants and young children.

Through the campaign—backed by international football stars and UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassadors Michael Ballack of Germany and Emmanuel Adebayor of Togo—captains of 32 World Cup qualifying teams have been invited to sign the appeal: “From Soweto to Rio de Janeiro, give AIDS the red card and prevent babies from becoming infected with HIV.” Nineteen captains have already signed on, including host country South Africa and defending champion Italy.

“By the next football World Cup we can virtually eliminate HIV transmission to babies,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé who attended the campaign launch in South Africa. “Let us give AIDS the red card permanently.”

The lives of mothers and their babies can be saved through a combination of HIV testing and counselling, access to effective antiretroviral prophylaxis and treatment, safer delivery practices, family planning, and counselling and support for optimal infant feeding practices.

An estimated 33.4 million people are living with HIV worldwide. Since 2001, there has been a 17% reduction in new HIV infections globally. However, for every two people who access antiretroviral treatment, five more become newly infected with HIV.

Contact:

UNAIDS New York | Richard Leonard | +1 646 666 8003 | LeonardR@unaids.org
UNAIDS South Africa | Sheba Okwenje | +127 11 517 1634 | okwenjeb@unaids.org

Source: http://www.poz.com/rssredir/articles/unaids_red_card_1_18571.shtml

http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/PressCentre/PressReleases/2010/20100601redcard.asp

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, Medical and Research, Society and living environment, , ,

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