PORT MORESBY, PNG ---- Two United Nations agencies have expressed concern over the recent reports that people living with HIV/AIDS have been buried alive in the Southern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea ( PNG), reports Post Courier
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have sent a joint statement expressing their concerns that gross violations of human rights may have been committed against HIV positive people.
They were responding to the Post-Courier report two weeks ago, quoting Margaret Marabe, a person living with HIV/AIDS and active HIV advocate who said she had seen three HIV people buried alive.read more
Monday, September 3, 2007
HIV drug shows cancer promise
BETHESDA, Md. (UPI) -- U.S. researchers said a drug used to treat HIV can slow the growth of cancer cells.
Researcher Phillip Dennis and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute began testing HIV drugs on cancer cells after noticing that the toxic effects the virus has on cells are similar to the changes seen in cancerous cells, Nature said Friday in a release.
Cancer scientists said repositioning drugs approved as HIV therapies could help to save lives by reducing the wait and cost of getting a cancer drug from the laboratory to the patient.
read more
Researcher Phillip Dennis and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute began testing HIV drugs on cancer cells after noticing that the toxic effects the virus has on cells are similar to the changes seen in cancerous cells, Nature said Friday in a release.
Cancer scientists said repositioning drugs approved as HIV therapies could help to save lives by reducing the wait and cost of getting a cancer drug from the laboratory to the patient.
read more
Government in dock as HIV couple sue US drug firms in blood scandal
Lawyers for a couple infected with HIV through contaminated blood products are hoping to reopen the issue of government responsibility for the scandal in the British courts.
Writs against the American pharmaceutical companies that supplied the blood products have been issued in the names of Haydn Lewis from Cardiff, a haemophiliac given contaminated blood who was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 and with hepatitis C in the early 1990s, and his wife Gaynor Lewis, whom he unwittingly infected with HIV.
The couple, with six other claimants, have been trying to pursue their case against the American companies for five years in the US courts. Recently, however, a US judge ruled that the cases should be heard in Britain. One of the reasons cited was that it would be easier for bodies such as the Department of Health to be joined in the action as defendants along with the drug companies.read more
Writs against the American pharmaceutical companies that supplied the blood products have been issued in the names of Haydn Lewis from Cardiff, a haemophiliac given contaminated blood who was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 and with hepatitis C in the early 1990s, and his wife Gaynor Lewis, whom he unwittingly infected with HIV.
The couple, with six other claimants, have been trying to pursue their case against the American companies for five years in the US courts. Recently, however, a US judge ruled that the cases should be heard in Britain. One of the reasons cited was that it would be easier for bodies such as the Department of Health to be joined in the action as defendants along with the drug companies.read more
Pill box organizers increase HIV patients' adherence and improve viral suppression
Incomplete adherence to HIV therapy is the most common cause of incomplete viral suppression, drug resistance, disease progression, and death among people living with HIV/AIDS. The subjects of this study, who were recruited from homeless shelters, free food programs, and single-room occupancy hotels, are thought to be at elevated risk for poor adherence partly because of the high rates of substance abuse, untreated mental illness, and unstable housing.
Patients in this difficult-to-treat population were given inexpensive pill box organizers to use with their antiretroviral medications. Study organizers made a total of 3,170 unannounced visits every three to six weeks to the subjects' places of residence and compared the number of pills remaining in the patients' possession with the number that would be expected to remain if the patients were perfectly compliant with the treatment regimen.
Pill box organizers were associated with a 4 percent improvement in adherence, 0.12 log reduction in HIV viral load, and an estimated 11 percent reduction in the risk of progression to clinical AIDS. At only $5 per pill box, this intervention was highly cost-effective.read more
Patients in this difficult-to-treat population were given inexpensive pill box organizers to use with their antiretroviral medications. Study organizers made a total of 3,170 unannounced visits every three to six weeks to the subjects' places of residence and compared the number of pills remaining in the patients' possession with the number that would be expected to remain if the patients were perfectly compliant with the treatment regimen.
Pill box organizers were associated with a 4 percent improvement in adherence, 0.12 log reduction in HIV viral load, and an estimated 11 percent reduction in the risk of progression to clinical AIDS. At only $5 per pill box, this intervention was highly cost-effective.read more
Council to view HIV contract, landmark
LONG BEACH - The City Council's mixed bag of issues Tuesday includes authorizing a hefty contract for HIV/AIDS health services, designating a home as a historic landmark and approving funding for a bluff-erosion problem.
At the regular 5 p.m. meeting, the council will be asked to authorize the city manager to enter into contracts with the state Department of Health Services for nearly $5.6 million in funding for clinical preventive HIV/AIDS health services.
The contracted health services - for a period of three years - will include HIV counseling and testing, education and outreach.
The HIV education and prevention program aims to reduce transmission of the disease, to change attitudes about risk behaviors, to promote risk-reduction skills, and to change people's sanctioning of unsafe sexual and drug-abuse behaviors, according to the staff report.
read more
At the regular 5 p.m. meeting, the council will be asked to authorize the city manager to enter into contracts with the state Department of Health Services for nearly $5.6 million in funding for clinical preventive HIV/AIDS health services.
The contracted health services - for a period of three years - will include HIV counseling and testing, education and outreach.
The HIV education and prevention program aims to reduce transmission of the disease, to change attitudes about risk behaviors, to promote risk-reduction skills, and to change people's sanctioning of unsafe sexual and drug-abuse behaviors, according to the staff report.
read more
Hong Kong sees rise in HIV infections
HIV infections soared to a record high in Hong Kong in the second quarter of 2007 and government doctors said they found a worrying cluster of new infections among homosexual men.
The government reported 111 new HIV infections between April and June this year, up from 91 in the first quarter.
Of the new infections uncovered from April to June, 35 were homosexual men, underlining the vulnerability of the group which has seen a steady rise in new infections since 2004.read more
Help bike race against AIDS in Madagascar
Madagascar could win the race against AIDS. With a seropositivity rate of under 3 percent, people still have the opportunity to protect themselves and their families from HIV/AIDS. How can we make this happen? Well, first people need to believe that AIDS exists and is a serious illness, then people need to believe it exists in their country, then their region and, eventually, that it may well exist in their community. Once people know it exists, they need to know how to protect themselves and how and where to get tested. Then they need to have available testing. Education, education, education -- it may well be the most vital component in the race against AIDS.
To that end, we're organizing the Hazakazaka Bisikileta sy Posi-Posy Ady Amin'ny SIDA; for those who don't speak Malagasy, that's the Bike and Rickshaw Race Against AIDS.read more
To that end, we're organizing the Hazakazaka Bisikileta sy Posi-Posy Ady Amin'ny SIDA; for those who don't speak Malagasy, that's the Bike and Rickshaw Race Against AIDS.read more
Vietnam to produce cheaper HIV/AIDS medicine
A Vietnamese-German joint venture has been licensed to supply locally-produced HIV/AIDS medicines in Vietnam at a fraction of imported drug costs.
Stada Vietnam will produce three types of new economical AIDS medicines - Stavudine Stada, Lamzidivir Stada and Nevirapine Stada - which could reduce the average annual cost of AIDS treatment in Vietnam from $3,000-4,000 to just $180.
HIV/AIDS treatment has been steadily improving in Vietnam recently, said an official from Ministry of Health, but he added that the number of infections has also been rising.
read more
Bulgaria To Sign Over Libyan Debt
Bulgaria will officially sign over the debt it is owed by Libya, a total USD 56,6 M, to a fund that will treat Libya's HIV-infected children, the Bulgarian foreign ministry said on Monday.
The agreement will be signed on Monday by Bulgaria's deputy foreign minister Feim Chaushev and the chairman of the Benghazi International Fund, Mark Pierini.
Bulgaria's cabinet agreed to write off the debt owed by Libya after six Bulgarian medics were returned to home soil from the North African country.
The medics have spent more than eight years in jail on charges of deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.read more
The agreement will be signed on Monday by Bulgaria's deputy foreign minister Feim Chaushev and the chairman of the Benghazi International Fund, Mark Pierini.
Bulgaria's cabinet agreed to write off the debt owed by Libya after six Bulgarian medics were returned to home soil from the North African country.
The medics have spent more than eight years in jail on charges of deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.read more
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