Tag Archives: HIV

Via the Washington Post: The Food and Drug Administration during a two-day meeting starting today will consider lifting the ban that was put into place in 1983 amid fears — and little understanding — of the AIDS virus. An FDA advisory committee last month recommended that the agency lift the restriction, but only for men who hadn’t had sex with …

Via Reuters: Rapid evolution of HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, is slowing its ability to cause AIDS, according to a study of more than 2,000 women in Africa. Scientists said the research suggests a less virulent HIV could be one of several factors contributing to a turning of the deadly pandemic, eventually leading to the end of AIDS. “Overall we …

Via Bloomberg News: A U.S. advisory panel recommended for the first time that the 31-year ban preventing gay and bisexual men from donating blood should be partially ended, placing the nation’s policy in line with other countries. Men who had sex with men anytime since 1977 are barred from giving blood in the U.S., a policy that dates back to …

Researchers have long believed that HIV first jumped from apes to humans nearly a century ago in central Africa. Today comes a more conclusive report. Bustling transport networks, migrant labor and changes to the sex trade in early 20th-century Congo created a “perfect storm” that gave rise to an HIV pandemic that has now infected 75 million people worldwide, researchers …

“Here are your options: the blue pill or the red pill. Take the one-pill-a-day Truvada and never get HIV; take the often one-pill anti-retroviral pill, and you will never give someone HIV. To make doubly sure, you can always use a condom. Except almost every man who ever had sex hates condoms – and, unlike a pill you take every …

Acting out of “desperation,” a doctor in Liberia is reporting success in treating ebola with the HIV medication marketed as Epivir. Dr. Gobee Logan has given the drug, lamivudine, to 15 Ebola patients, and all but two survived. That’s a 7% mortality rate. Across West Africa, the virus has killed 70% of its victims. Outside Logan’s Ebola center in Tubmanburg, …

The Centers For Disease Control has launched a new PSA series titled “HIV Treatment Works.” More than 1.1 million people in the United States are living with HIV. This campaign features people from across the United States who are living with HIV talking about how sticking with care and treatment helps them stay healthy, protect others, and live longer, healthier …

The top level domain .HIV has launched as the first-ever cause-related web suffix. Via press release: dotHIV, the new initiative that combines digital innovation and the concept and spirit of the Red Ribbon begins today. The Berlin based organization will provide web addresses with the ending .hiv to companies and non-profits in an effort to raise awareness and funds for …

The combative and controversial AIDS Healthcare Foundation is launching a print ad campaign against the use of Truvada as a daily HIV preventive. Via press release: AHF’s ‘PrEP Facts’ ad campaign educating the public about adherence issues and PrEP initially started running this week in a few newspapers, magazines and online outlets in California and will continue and expand to …

A new study on the efficacy of Truvada as an daily HIV preventive was released yesterday at the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia. According the research, which was simultaneously published in The Lancet, missing an occasional daily dose does not increase the chance of infection, but the drug must be taken at least four times a week in order …

Josh Barro writes for the New York Times: The sample size (2,500 subjects, half taking a placebo) wasn’t large enough to establish that Truvada is 100 percent effective when taken daily, especially because only 18 percent of subjects who were given Truvada actually had the medication in their blood at levels that were consistent with daily use. But by looking …

A stunning declaration from the World Health Organization: The World Health Organization has suggested for the first time that all men who have sex with men should take antiretroviral medicine, warning that HIV infection rates among gay men are exploding around the world. In guidelines published Friday, it said that it “strongly recommends men who have sex with men consider …

Another setback: A Mississippi baby scientists thought was “functionally cured” of HIV now has detectable levels of the virus in her blood, her doctors say. The news is disappointing for a case the scientific community hailed just last year as a potential game changer in the fight against AIDS. “It felt like a punch to the gut,” Dr. Hannah Gay, …

Via the Independent: A controversial American Church which is coming to Ireland this weekend is promising a “miracle” cure for patients – but it is, in fact, industrial-strength bleach. The Genesis II Church will hold an event in Monkstown in Dublin over the weekend. On its website it is advertising the event as including access to its “miracle mineral solution” …

Via press release from Lambda Legal: Today the Iowa Supreme Court set aside the conviction of Nick Rhoades, an HIV-positive Iowan who was initially sentenced to 25 years in prison, with required registration as a sex offender, after having a one-time sexual encounter with another man during which they used a condom. In reversing the conviction, the Court recognized that …

Two HIV advocacy groups filed a federal complaint yesterday over four insurance companies that have placed anti-retroviral medications in their highest payment tiers. Via the New York Times: The complaint asserts that the four insurers — CoventryOne, Cigna, Humana and Preferred Medical Plan — placed H.I.V. drugs on the highest payment tier for midlevel, or silver, plans on the federal …

“While The Normal Heart is a product of a specific time, it is not an artifact. There is still an AIDS crisis — not only in sub-Saharan Africa, but right here in the America, in your state, in your community. And, just as in 1985, it is silence, fear and stigma that continue to drive the epidemic. Today, African-Americans represent …

Writing for the New York Times, Donald McNeil speculates that the use of Truvada as an HIV preventive might trigger a new “sexual revolution.” The piece begins: Pretend it’s 1960, and the Food and Drug Administration has just done something startling. It has taken a drug it had previously approved for infertility — brand name Enovid — and approved it …

“Again, our country’s most well educated professionals will subvert common sense, the results of research, and any inclination to do what’s objectively right, to political correctness. Abstinence is off the table. And the joke is on us, the adults, because we are sacrificing our precious children as a result. Especially at risk from a protocol like PReP are young minority …

The Centers for Disease Control has launched a new series of 30-second PSAs on HIV prevention, some of which mention “new options like medicines that prevent HIV” – a reference to Truvada. The Human Rights Campaign applauds: “We commend the CDC for launching this campaign and look forward to working with them and others to raise awareness about HIV prevention …