Washington Blade - June 13, 2003

NEW YORK - AIDS researchers say the U.S. government needs to increase HIV prevention funding now, or it will have to pay a much larger amount in medical costs later, according to Reuters. An additional $383 million per year is needed for HIV prevention now to help reach the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention's goal of reducing new infections by 50 percent by 2005, according to study co-authors David R. Holtgrave and Steven D. Pinkerton. If that doesn't happen, the report estimates it will cost an additional $18 billion in health care costs by the year 2010. Federal investment in HIV prevention has not increased in recent years, according to the report, published in the June issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. "This study underlines the importance of thinking about clinical prevention services when dealing with patients who are at risk or are already infected," said Holtgrave, a researcher at Emory University.

HIV infections increase among gay men in Seattle

SEATTLE (AP) - HIV infections among gay men in King County appear to be soaring, prompting warnings from health officials to take more precautions against the spread of the disease. HIV infections diagnosed in public health clinics rose 40 percent last year and are projected to increase by another 60 percent this year, "the most dramatic increase since the beginning of the epidemic" more than 20 years ago, said Dr. Robert Wood, director of AIDS control for the Seattle-King County Health Department. The agency's clinics reported 94 new HIV infections in gay men tested last year, and testing through April indicates there could be more than 150 cases by the end of this year. Health officials based their analysis on reports from public clinics, where patients generally have high infection risks. Increases in private clinics likely are lower, Wood said. Officials estimate there are 400 to 500 new HIV infections in the county each year.

HIV researchers struggle to find test volunteers

ANAHEIM, Calif. - As HIV treatments improve, it is becoming more difficult for researchers to find volunteers for new testing, the Orange County Register reported. That is a huge contrast to the early 1980s, when people with AIDS stepped forward willing to try anything that might prolong their lives. "There is not the incentive people once had," said Marty Keale, executive director of the Center for AIDS Research, Education & Services in Sacramento. Congress authorized $27 billion this year for HIV/AIDS research. "When you are speaking of HIV, more than any other disease, clinical trials and research are a key way for people to get cutting-edge drugs," said Dr. Donna DeFreitas, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, Davis. Researchers are reaching out for more volunteers, especially among women and the African-American and Latino communities.

Reports details factors that contribute to HIV vulnerability

WASHINGTON - Health problems do play a role in men who may be more vulnerable to HIV infection, according to the Health Behavior News Service. Urban men who have sex with men and who face a combination of physical abuse, drug use and depression are more vulnerable, according to a study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Public Health. "The interconnection of these problems functions to magnify the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in this population," said Ron Stall of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Stall and others collected information on health problems from 2,881 gay or bisexual men in four cities. Men who used several kinds of drugs or were violently abused by their partners were more likely to be HIV-positive, according to the study. It also concludes that men who were sexually abused as children were more likely to engage in high-risk sex.

HIV database speeds hunt for a cure

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - Two Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers have spent countless hours keeping an online database on HIV updated. "HIV is really heavily studied, but still 50 million people have died or are dying from it," Bette Korber said. "It's killing nations. We need a vaccine. We need to find new ways to fight it, and fast." The online HIV database lets researchers look at the genetic makeup of a strain of the virus and compare it with other strains - at last count there were 86,000. Researchers can determine what part of the world a particular strain came from and instantly find genetic markers, literature and other information to speed their work. The database has improved researchers' abilities to solve the many problems HIV poses, said Jean Carr, a senior research scientist at the Henry Jackson Foundation of Maryland, which does medical research for the military.

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