There's still no reason to cheer, but in parts of the developing world drug prices are coming down. Price reductions offered by the major pharmaceutical manufacturers in response to competition from generic drug makers are allowing a few small governmental and private treatment programs to move forward.
Two recent meetings examined the need for cheaper and more accessible diagnostic assays for managing HIV therapy in less-developed regions of the world.
They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Well, my feet and I have been on poor terms ever since 1964 when I snagged a toenail under the door and destroyed any potential they had for becoming high-fashion open-toed shoe models. The nail grew back deformed and talonesque, for which I've never been forgiven. In a fit of pique, my crestfallen arches instantly went hurache-flat (the left in solidarity with the right), leaving me with a distinctive lumbering gait. If I didn't compensate I'd galumph along all the time — think Jan Brady in high dudgeon; Gabby Hayes, panic-stricken.
Douglas G. Brust, MD, PhD, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Hepatitis, or inflammation of the liver, is a frequent problem among HIV-infected people that can have serious health consequences. The disease has many causes, but generally originates from either a viral infection that attacks the liver, or a toxin/medication that damages liver cells.
Is there a risk of developing HIV resistance to adefovir or other HIV antiretrovirals (such as tenofovir) when using low-dose adefovir (10 mg/day) for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B?
Every year the American Society for Microbiology sponsors the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), a large conference linking the latest therapeutic advances from the laboratory with clinical practice.
Before the relief brought by HAART, when the emergent therapeutic battles in AIDS focused on treating opportunistic infections, the annual ICAAC conference was the place one went to cull through hundreds of posters and abstracts looking for promising new antifungal or antiparasitic drugs and glimmers of hope.
At the 8th European Conference on Clinical Aspects and Treatment of HIV Infection in Athens this Fall, results were reported from a 48-week randomized trial comparing the standard twice-daily form of d4T (stavudine, Zerit) with a new once-daily extended release form of d4T.
The annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America was held in San Francisco during late October of 2001. Eight of 65 total conference sessions specifically addressed HIV issues. These included a plenary talk, a symposium, three early morning "Meet the Professor" sessions, an interactive session and a walking tour of HIV posters.
GMHC Treatment Issues: October - Volume 15, Number 10
In U.S. hospitals, nurses keep medical records in fairly understandable English — well, maybe more Latin than English — but despite the jargon, a patient's story is told with words. Research nursing is different.
On October 3rd, in Silver Spring, Maryland, the Federal Food and Drug Administration convened a meeting of its antiviral advisory committee to discuss issues pertaining to the approval of a new HIV drug, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), branded "Viread" by its sponsor, Gilead Sciences.
The annual medical meeting called the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, or ICAAC, is one of the research community's most important venues for reporting on the progress of new anti-infective drugs, including those for HIV.
Congress has wisely chosen to not allow the advent of a recession and the unexpected billions of dollars needed to respond to the events of September 11th to imperil current levels of funding for biomedical research.
GMHC Treatment Issues: September - Volume 15, Number 9
An HIV-positive woman elects to have a Cesarean section to minimize the risk of infecting her baby. She asks the surgeon to tie her tubes during the procedure to prevent further pregnancies.
An HIV Special Needs Plan, or HIV SNP (pronounced "HIV snip"), is a new kind of Medicaid plan for people with HIV in New York State. Medicaid is the government health insurance program that provides coverage for people with limited incomes. (Medicaid is not the same as Medicare, which is a federal health insurance program that provides for people who are elderly or disabled.)
In January of 2001, Mauritania, a country with one of the lowest reported HIV prevalence rates in Africa, took a step that Nigerian leaders neglected to take more than 15 years ago: The country's Senate held a Special Session on HIV/AIDS, inviting experts to speak on the nature of the epidemic, and to suggest ways to nip it in the bud, even as the epidemic ravages the rest of the African continent.
Carlton Hogan, University of Minnesota, Coalition for Salvage Therapy
In clinical trials of HIV drugs, the term "endpoint" is often misunderstood as meaning the end of the trial or the end of a participant's enrollment in the trial — Sayonara, Baby. This can be the case, but not necessarily.
In Buenos Aires the midwinter days are short and the weather cool like summer in San Francisco. The International AIDS Society (IAS) chose Argentina to initiate its new pathogenesis and treatment biennial, which will fall during the off-years between the much larger International AIDS Conferences. Although new data was sparse, here is a look at three of the meeting's "greatest hits."
The U.S. government's premier clinical trials group for studying HIV therapies is adrift. The HIV Research Agenda Committee (HIV RAC) of the Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group (AACTG) sees its mission as performing small, scientifically challenging studies that quickly respond to emerging questions about HIV pathogenesis and treatment.
Although U.S. government clinical trials for AIDS were once at the forefront of HIV treatment research, during the past few years pharmaceutical sponsors have taken over the job of conducting the most important studies of new anti-HIV medications.
Unlike Reinaldo Arenas, Cuban author of the AIDS memoir "Before Night Falls", I'll never be on my deathbed writing about — being on my deathbed. It's only after I've gotten to the safe side of a tough situation that I can examine it.
Carlton Hogan, University of Minnesota, Coalition for Salvage Therapy
In Part One we looked at how a scientific paper is organized. Now we can continue to the interesting stuff — the actual contents. Of the thousands of papers published each year, some are far more reliable and relevant than others. There are specific characteristics to look for when deciding which papers to trust and base important decisions on.
On phone kiosks and bus shelters around New York recently, last year's ubiquitous Zerit and Sustiva ads have been replaced by close-up photos of concerned faces, each overlaid with a Big Message: "You need to know about MTV" or "Can you get MTV from Kissing?"
The recent publication of HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials: A Directory for New York State by the Community Research Initiative on AIDS (CRIA) is something of a revelation. Measured by sheer quantity, HIV research is thriving, with 126 clinical trials listed at sites throughout New York, including trials accessible to New Yorkers being conducted in Connecticut, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Bethesda, Maryland (which pays airfare).
GMHC Treatment Issues: April - Volume 15, Number 4
T-20 is the first member of a new class of anti-HIV drugs called "fusion inhibitors" that are designed to block one stage of HIV's entry into target cells. Because T-20 halts HIV at a unique point in the virus's life cycle, it is expected to be active against viral strains with diminished susceptibility to all currently available antiretroviral drugs. This singular resistance profile is one reason why the drug's sponsors, Trimeris, Inc. and Hoffman-LaRoche, have guided the development of T-20 with an emphasis on use in so-called "salvage" therapy.
The fight for affordable AIDS medications for the millions of poor people living with HIV/AIDS across the globe is far from over, yet one year ago, few would have predicted how far the struggle has come since the International AIDS Conference in Durban last summer.
Carlton Hogan, University of Minnesota, Coalition for Salvage Therapy
When it comes to coverage of health issues on TV and in the papers, it seems like the media has a new, and often contradictory, story every week. First eggs are cholesterol-laden orbs of death, then they're a great source of protein.
GMHC Treatment Issues: January - Volume 15, Number 1
Last year, the AIDS world was rocked when news came that the South African Medicines Control Commission had halted a study of an experimental HIV drug after two women in the trial died and several others developed severe liver disease.
Living with HIV is a constant learning process. Not only are we forced to learn about the disease itself, but in many instances we must learn the medical jargon that is associated with it.
The 8th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections is being held in Chicago, IL during the first week of February this year. As we went to press, a Monday morning session on antiretroviral chemotherapy offered an update on the progress of several "new generation" drugs in the development pipeline.
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.