The excitement over chemokines and their receptors has been snowballing since the International AIDS Conference in 1996. Virtually overnight, the new field of chemokine research was born and basic research of these molecules is progressing at a frenetic pace.
Over 400 HIV-positive women, out of an estimated total audience of 1,500 people, attended the National Conference on Women & HIV in Los Angeles. This meeting was vitally important because women comprise the fastest growing percentage of new HIV infections, but research into the epidemiology of and treatments for women with HIV lags seriously behind that of other groups impacted by HIV.
Joanne Maurice, MS, RD of the Madison Clinic & Sabina Beesley, MS, RD of Chicken Soup Brigade
When you commit to yourself to improve your health, big results can happen. This is especially true when you are living with HIV/AIDS. Make the commitment to yourself to help your body fight the virus by eating well, exercising and taking your medications as prescribed. Food, exercise and medication all work as a team to build your immune system. Our last nutrition column, (Perspective, Winter 1997), discussed the immune-boosting effects of food and exercise.
Matthew Meldorf, M.D., Staff Physician, AVEU and Lawrence Corey, M.D., Co-Principal Investigator, AVEU
Despite recent advances in antiviral therapy, there is no cure for AIDS or HIV infection. Drug therapy, although promising, remains problematic because of side effects, compliance, and expense. In addition, availability of such drugs is limited in developing countries where it is estimated that 90% of HIV infections will occur by the year 2000.
Despite President Clinton's failure to pass federal legislation significantly changing health care financing, delivery and access in his first term, the market has driven substantial changes in the delivery and financing of health care over the past decade. Due to the rapidly rising costs of health care, major changes have occurred in the market place resulting in an ever increasing shift to managed care.
Many people have invested millions of hours trying to find a cure for AIDS and it has been discouraging to find each step so difficult. Often the progress described in the scientific literature is masked in lingo and statistics that fail to encourage us as it should; perhaps a picture will help.
I arrived in Washington D.C. with high exceptions, remembering it was at this conference the year before that much of the good news around Protease Inhibitors had been presented. It quickly became apparent that this year's conference would not be a watershed event.
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.