Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) kicked off this Sunday session by noting that advances in our knowledge mean: “finally we have the upper hand and are in a position to outsmart HIV.” But she also added that the challenges didn’t end with unlocking the biological mysteries of the virus, but [...]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the antiretroviral drug Truvada, to be used as a preexposure preventive measure by people who, uninfected, may be exposed to the virus through HIV-positive partners. The drug previously was approved to treat people living with HIV. As a preventive measure the drug would be taken daily, by [...]
This week’s New England Journal of Medicine showcases the results of clinical trials testing the use of antiretroviral drugs to prevent HIV acquisition in uninfected individuals. The results, which have been widely reported at major conferences, are mixed. An article by Lut Van Damme and colleagues reports on the primary results of the Preexposure Prophylaxis [...]
It was a global health Catch-22: Women’s ability to prevent unintended pregnancies is pivotal to the fight against HIV, but researchers had deduced that one of the most widely used and effective methods of contraception in areas hardest hit by the epidemic could increase transmission of the virus. Research released last year, following earlier studies [...]
The potential for antiretroviral medicine to reduce transmission of HIV and tuberculosis has been demonstrated, but the challenges of using treatment to prevent infection will need to be tackled country by country, and with focus on people for whom it will have the biggest impact, the latest bulletin on HIV treatment from the World Health [...]
Conference program online: The program for the July 22-27 International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC is online, listing, among the speakers: Bills Clinton and Gates, Elton John, South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, and, by video, Myanmar democracy leader and parliament member Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Conference organizers say about 25,000 people will attend [...]
There is a pervasive pattern of stockouts of condoms, both male and female condoms, in African countries confronting HIV/AIDS, according to Carolyn Ryan, MD, MPH, director of technical leadership at the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC).
She called the condom gap “really quite disturbing,” given that condoms are a crucial tool for HIV prevention. While HIV incidence has fallen in recent years, in 2009 there were an estimated 2.6 million people newly infected with HIV, meaning that about 7000 people are acquiring the infection each day.
Global AIDS: `An inevitable mismatch of resources and need’ Ambassador Eric Goosby, MD, the US global AIDS coordinator who assumed his position a little more than a year ago, will be a significant presence at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, which kicks off Sunday night. John Donnelly interviewed him Wednesday about his expectations for [...]
Here at the Microbicides 2010 conference in Pittsburgh I got a chance to talk with Dr. Gita Ramjee, one of the top researchers in the field, about the most exciting scientific challenges being discussed at the meeting. Dr Ramjee is the Director of the HIV Prevention Research Unit at the South African Medical Research Council. [...]
This posting is by Rabita Aziz, Program Associate at the IDSA/HIVMA Global Center The new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Commission on Smart Global Health Policy calls for the U.S. to double contributions to better maternal and child health, to $2 billion a year. Such investments should be focused on [...]
HIVWith pregnant women facing higher chances of acquiring HIV and greater dangers of life-threatening complications as a
Research & DevelopmentWhat would people living with HIV do differently if they knew that they could be infected again, with a new strain, that
