Washington Blade - August 16, 2002

BOSTON - More than one-fifth of people recently infected in the U.S. and Canada with the virus that causes AIDS have strains that do not respond to some of the best anti-viral medications, according to a study in the Aug. 7 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. The growth of drug-resistant strains troubles those providing HIV treatment, who have been increasingly successful in recent years prescribing a "cocktail" of several anti-viral medications. The trend signals a need for development of new classes of drugs if doctors are to remain ahead of the virus, Mercury News reported. In 1998, about 8 percent of new patients were infected with drug-resistant HIV, but by 2000 that number had jumped to 23 percent, according to researchers at the University of California-San Diego. "These are patients who are coming into clinics, who have never been treated, yet their virus is already resistant to many of the drugs we would use to treat their infection," said Dr. Andrew Zolopa, medical director of the HIV care clinics at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and Stanford University Hospital.

Gay men at higher risk of suicide, study confirms

NEW YORK - A large study has confirmed earlier research suggesting that gay and bisexual men face a higher risk of considering and attempting suicide, and of killing themselves, Reuters Health reported. Past research has found that gay and bisexual men and women are at greater suicide risk than their heterosexual peers, but the investigations have often looked at small numbers of gay and bisexual individuals, or have been of poor quality, according to Dr. Jay P. Paul, a researcher at the University of California in San Francisco. To investigate a larger and more representative group, researchers interviewed nearly 3,000 urban gay or bisexual men between 1996 and 1998. They reported the findings in the August issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Slightly more than 21 percent of the men said they had previously made a plan to kill themselves; 12 percent said they had attempted suicide, the authors report. Paul and colleagues point out that past studies estimate roughly 1.5 percent to 3 percent of all males attempt suicide during their lifetimes, while about 9 percent to 15 percent consider killing themselves.

Budget shortfall pushes Ore. officials to reduce AIDS drug program

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - In a recent letter to residents served by its AIDS drug program, the Oregon Department of Human Services recently outlined plans to cap enrollment and slice benefits. Known as CAREAssist, the plan is designed for people who make too much money to qualify for government health coverage, but make too little to pay for private health insurance. Oregon and at least 11 other states are rolling back programs because demand for the drugs is rising and so are pill prices. Oregon is facing a $1.7 million shortfall it its $3.8 million program budget. To make up the money, officials are transferring funds from other HIV programs, trimming overhead and limiting services.

Feds recommend failed HIV therapy for hepatitis B

WASHINGTON (AP) - A failed HIV therapy should be sold instead to treat the liver-destroying hepatitis B virus, advisers to the Food & Drug Administration ruled Aug. 6. If the FDA agrees, Gilead Sciences' adefovir would become the first new treatment in years for the estimated 1.2 million Americans struggling with the potentially deadly infection. Adefovir originally was tested as a potential treatment for the AIDS virus, but the FDA rejected that use because the high doses required proved toxic to patients' kidneys. So Gilead tested far lower doses as a hepatitis B treatment. It didn't cure the chronic infection, but studies concluded that liver cirrhosis, as measured by biopsies, improved in between 56 percent and 66 percent of patients testing the drug, company officials said. Taking 10 milligrams once a day didn't appear to cause outright kidney damage, the company said, but it is still a potential side effect.

Study finds new combination of drugs can reduce HIV load

WASHINGTON - A placebo-controlled trial of 481 people infected with HIV shows that giving patients a new combination of drugs, which includes two protease inhibitors rather than one, can reduce the virus load in a substantial proportion of patients who already had taken several anti-HIV drugs, according to AIDS Weekly. The Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group study took place at 31 participating medical centers in the U.S. "Reserving potent classes of drugs, if possible, rather than using all of them in a cocktail during first- and second-line treatments should improve the long-term response rates of patients to anti-HIV drugs," said Dr. Scott Hammer of Columbia University, who co-chaired the study along with Dr. John Mellors of the University of Pittsburgh. The study results were published online in July by the Journal of the American Medical Association to coincide with the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain.
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