Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Aids, hiv, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust
10/24/2010 • 9:50 pm Comments Off on POZ Magazine: New Study Challenges Assumptions About HIV Treatment as Prevention
POZ Magazine: New Study Challenges Assumptions About HIV Treatment as Prevention
A new Chinese study conducted among heterosexual couples of mixed HIV status found that antiretroviral (ARV) therapy does not substantially reduce the risk of HIV transmission in a real-world setting. The study, published October 1 in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, and reported by aidsmap, suggests that more data might be needed before rushing to roll out HIV treatment-as-prevention programs around the globe.
Treatment-as-prevention rests on a fairly well-established theory that when ARV therapy reduces an HIV-positive person’s viral load, he or she will be less likely to transmit the virus to sex partners. While this has been noted for nearly a decade, the strategy has received increasing attention in light of recent studies showing a reduction in HIV transmission in both San Francisco and Vancouver, two cities where an increasing number of HIV-positive people have received ARV therapy and the average community viral loads have dropped substantially.
To test this theory further, researchers looked at HIV transmission rates among 1,927 mostly monogamous couples in the Henan province of China, where one of the partners had HIV and the other did not. Many people in this province became infected from tainted equipment used for blood donations.
Surprisingly, the researchers found that there was no statistically meaningful difference in the rate of transmission in the couples whose HIV-positive partner was on ARV therapy (3 percent transmission) compared with couples where the HIV-partner was not on treatment (5 percent transmission).
The study’s authors acknowledge that poor adherence could have contributed to the failure to find that ARV therapy reduced transmission risk. Nevertheless, aidsmap reports that Myron Cohen, MD, from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill said in an accompanying editorial that the study results “demand a giant pause.”
“Will ART suppress transmission of HIV under ‘real life’ conditions?” he asks. “[I]t seems wise to try and answer this question before we fully deploy a ‘Test and Treat strategy,’ expecting to detect a benefit to the general population.”
Source: http://www.poz.com/rssredir/articles/hiv_china_prevention_761_19254.shtml
Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, Medical and Research, Aids, hiv, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment
10/22/2010 • 9:47 pm Comments Off on POZ Magazine: Regulating Condoms in the Porn Industry
POZ Magazine: Regulating Condoms in the Porn Industry
The great condom debate lives on: Requiring the adult film industry to use condoms may not stem the spread of HIV among actors, according to an article in The Atlantic. After an actor tested positive for HIV last week, activists, legislators and industry execs are once again weighing in on condom regulation in porn. Among many intelligent talking points, the article highlights the difficulties of policing film sets for condoms and HIV tests, stating the current standard in gay porn is “condoms but no testing” and the standard of straight porn is “testing but no condoms.”
To read the Atlantic story, click here.
Source: http://www.poz.com/rssredir/articles/Condoms_in_Porn_1_19264.shtml
Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, Aids, hiv, porn industry
10/20/2010 • 6:49 am Comments Off on 20.10.2010 Podium Discussion
20.10.2010 Podium Discussion
Yesterday evening at the Centre of the Book: Podiums discussion about ” A new South African HIV/AIDS policy: Reason for HOPE?.
Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, Deputy Minister of Defence (1999-2004) and Deputy Minister of Health (2004-2007) and Chris Bateman, Senior Editor of the SA Journal of Medicine and myself are discussing the new policy and the role, politics and civil society must play so that the new HIV/AIDS policy becomes reality. An interesting debate about the possibilities and limitations of the New South Africa and its leaders, but also the misery and burden of ordinary South Africans. The questions of the audience give room for a brought debate from trips to the bilateral German – South African agreement versus a contribution to the Global AIDS Fund, but also practical question how hope can be brought to certain communities and a perspective on life worth living and striving for.
An interesting evening where also the president’s life and the topic “leading by example” was not spared some honest comments. Last but not least the question why South Africa pays 20% above the cheapest market price for ART medication produced by Aspen and all the red tape stopping to make cheaper and more meaningful solutions possible.
Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, Politics and Society, Aids, Aspen, Chirs Bateman, Global Aids Fund, hiv, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, people living with the virus, policy, south africa, zuma
10/18/2010 • 11:46 pm Comments Off on Sic tacuisses: AIDS = Justice – Belgian Catholic Archbishop of Brussels claims
Sic tacuisses: AIDS = Justice – Belgian Catholic Archbishop of Brussels claims
The Catholic Church in Belgium has been battered by scandals and missteps over the past year, and now its new leader, the conservative Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard of Brussels, has sparked a fresh controversy with comments declaring that people afflicted with AIDS are receiving “a sort of immanent justice” for their sexual practices.
Léonard, who Pope Benedict XVI appointed this year to replace a much-loved liberal, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, compared the suffering of AIDS victims to human-caused degradation of the environment, for which people themselves then pay the price.
“Maybe human love also responds when she is treated badly, without the need of a transcendent source,” Léonard said in a just-published book of interviews he gave to two Belgian journalists over the past few years. “Badly handling physical nature causes it to treat us badly in turn, and badly dealing with the deeper nature of human love will ultimately always lead to catastrophes on all levels.”
The reaction against Léonard’s comments has been swift and sharp.
Belgian parliamentarians have called the archbishop’s statements “disgusting” and “stupid,” and some are calling for the government to re-examine the favorable tax status of the Catholic Church, which receives hefty government subsidies.
Even conservative Christian Democratic party leaders expressed outrage. Léonard’s words “strike me speechless. For Jesus there were no justified illnesses,” said parliamentarian Mia De Schamphelaere, according to a National Catholic Reporter story.
Such official condemnation comes at a difficult time for the Belgian church, which is engaged in a tug-of-war with government investigators who have seized documents in a probe of clergy abuse of children going back decades.
Léonard’s comments are also not winning him or the institutional church many points with Catholics themselves, who are increasingly indifferent to their religion, as is the case in many European countries.
The clergy scandals have shocked Belgians, with revelations of at least 475 victims over the decades, 13 of whom committed suicide. The reports brought down the country’s longest-serving bishop, Roger Vangheluwe, and even tarnished the legacy of Cardinal Danneels, whose negotiations with an abuse victim were surreptitiously recorded and released, portraying him in a harsh light.
Filed under: HIV and AIDS, Aids, André-Joseph Léonard, archbishop, Belgium, Brussels, catholic church, Church Matters, hiv
God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE 