Tag Archives: HAART

HIV Plus Magazine reports: After hundreds of other experts and HIV organizations have already signed on to a pledge that recognizes that people living with HIV whose treatment has brought their viral load to an undetectable level — which is nearly half of all HIV-positive people in the U.S. — cannot transmit HIV to any other person, the Centers for …

A fascinating development via ArsTechnica: As long as there’s lingering HIV, patients must keep taking the drugs, which cause side-effects, make for high prescription bills, and raise the threat of drug resistance. At least, that’s the case for now. In a new study, scientists reveal a possible way to literally hack those lurking viruses out of a person’s DNA strands. …

Via AIDS Map: The second large study to look at whether people with HIV become non-infectious if they are on antiretroviral therapy (ART) has found no cases where someone with a viral load under 200 copies/ml transmitted HIV, either by anal or vaginal sex. Statistical analysis shows that the maximum likely chance of transmission via anal sex from someone on …

The White House tonight issued a press release declaring that the National Institutes of Health has found that initial studies show gene therapy to be “generally safe” as a drug-free alternative for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Here is the press release in full. Scientists today report initial results from humans on the safety and tolerability of a novel strategy to …

The New York state Department of Health has officially endorsed daily use of the Gilead medication Truvada for the prevention of HIV infection. After months of anticipation, the Health Department’s AIDS Institute released thorough clinical guidelines for pre-exposure prophylaxis, commonly known as PrEP, which is a daily dose of HIV medication that people who are HIV-negative but at-risk of contracting …

Via AIDS Map: A study from the US has found that some groups of people with HIV, especially those treated before their CD4 count falls below 350 cells/mm3, now have life expectancies equal to or even higher than the US general population. However, it also finds that life expectancy for some other groups – most notably women and non-white people …

The hook-up site Manhunt today announced that they will begin promoting the usage of Truvada, which was recently approved by the FDA as a daily HIV preventive for high-risk populations. Via press release: Manhunt has partnered with Gladstone Institutes’ Dr. Robert Grant and The Fenway Institute to assure that the information conveyed is accurate and consistent with peer-reviewed published science. …

According to a study out of the UK, the life expectancy for HIV+ people on anti-retroviral therapy is nearing the national average for all. The latest forecasts of life expectancy in people with HIV in the UK, based on mortality data from the UK Collaborative HIV Cohort (UK CHIC) study, show that the average life expectancy of people on antiretroviral …

Gilead has announced the results of Stage 3 clinical trials of “the Quad,” which would be the world’s first four-in-one daily HIV pill. The Quad contains two new (and not yet FDA approved) drugs: the integrase inhibitor, Elvitegravir, and Cobicistat, which is meant to mitigate the side-effects of Elvitegravir. Via press release: “These data show that the Quad is as …

AIDS deaths and new HIV infections are plummeting in British Columbia. Experts say the decline is due to an aggressive policy of placing the newly infected immediately on a drug regimen and thus reducing their infectiousness. “We’re particularly pleased to see that our treatment-as-prevention strategy has taken off big-time,” said Dr. Julio S. G. Montaner, director of the British Columbia …

New York City continues its long trend of fewer new AIDS cases, thanks in part to the increasing ease of complying with HIV drug regimens. In a sign of progress against one of the great plagues of the last generation, a dwindling number of New Yorkers have been diagnosed with AIDS over the last eight years, according to new statistics …

Yesterday the FDA approved the second all-in-one daily combination pill for the treatment of HIV infection. The first such medication, Atripla, has been on the market for several years. Complera, a complete single-tablet regimen containing Janssen Therapeutics’ Edurant (rilpivirine) and Gilead Sciences’ Viread (tenofovir) and Emtriva (emtricitabine), was approved August 10 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according …

According to a story posted on AIDSmap.com, San Francisco is seeing a decrease in new HIV infections because HIV+ people are going on medication sooner and therefore have a reduced period of infectiousness. Dr Das presented more evidence from San Francisco to show a strong correlation between reductions in community viral load and the falling number of HIV diagnoses. The …

Last last year researchers announced some success in preventing HIV among gay men who were taking a daily dose of the HIV medication Truvada. The concept of warding off infection by pre-dosing with a medication is known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP.) But alarmed by the prospect for abuse, yesterday the CDC issued some interim PReP guidance as studies continue. CDC …

A just-released pre-exposure prophylactics (PreEP) study reveals that taking the HIV drug Truvada once a day reduces the incidence of HIV infection by about 44%. The result was even better among men who were the most compliant about taking the drug every day. The drugs tenofovir and emtricitabine, packaged as a once-daily pill and sold in drugstores as Truvada, reduced …

A study released at the AIDS 2010 conference in Vienna claims that using widely-prescribed HIV medications as a preventive for new infections (PrEP) is safe for HIV-negative men who have sex with men. Please note that effectiveness in preventing infection results have not yet been released on this study. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with tenofovir (found in Viread, Truvada and Atripla) …

Scientists at the University of Southern California say they succeeded in creating immune cells that ward off HIV in mice. The researchers tinkered with human stem cells and then inserted them into mice where they multiplied into immune system cells that provided protection against infection with HIV, according to a study released online July 2 in Nature Biotechnology. The results …

The terrible economy has been especially hard on the ADAP system, the AIDS Drugs Assistance Program that provides life saving medications to the HIV-positive. More people are now on ADAP waiting lists that at any time since the program began. Eleven states have closed enrollment in the federal program, most recently Florida, which has the nation’s third-largest population of people …

PrEP stands for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, the taking of a medication in advance of a possible exposure to a disease. Commonly used for decades in travelers to exotic locales, multiple PrEP trials are currently underway to examine to effectiveness of taking an HIV medication prior to exposure. Putting aside the worrisome aspect of long-term side effects, the prospect of a daily …

Here is the complete documentary from HBO about the miraculous effect of HAART therapy on Africans suffering from HIV. Clip description: Executive produced by Spike Jonze, this (RED), HBO & Anonymous Content 30-minute documentary follows the story of HIV positive people in Africa who were at death’s door and in as little as 40 days undergo a remarkable transformation to …