HIV/AIDS infected children can now benefit from a European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership funded trial

In August, the United States (US) Federal Drug Administration (FDA) gave a tentative approval to a fixed-dose anti-HIV drug specifically formulated for paediatric use. The fixed-dose combination scored tablet of lamivudine 30mg, stavudine 6mg and nevirapine 50mg (Triomune Baby) and double this strength (Triomune Junior) is manufactured by CIPLA pharmaceuticals.

EDCTP, the funder of the pharmacokinetic study leading to this tentative approval, congratulates Professor Chifumbe Chintu from the School of Medicine and Department of Paediatrics, University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka and his Zambian team, along with research collaborators from the Netherlands and the Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Trials Unit, United Kingdom on their work. Triomune Baby and Junior have already been approved in Zambia and are currently being used to treat children there.

Treatment of HIV/AIDS in children is a great challenge in resource-constrained settings. One of the reasons for this is the difficulty and cost of giving paediatric formulations, particularly syrups, of anti-HIV drugs to children. The absence of appropriate paediatric formulations often necessitates administering divided adult tablets to HIV-infected children. This can lead to incorrect dosing, especially under dosing, and increases the risk of the rapid development of resistance to the drugs. The problem is compounded by underlying malnutrition in these children, and the lack of knowledge about how malnutrition affects drug levels in the body. read more

Decline In Blood Platelet Count Associated With Increased Risk Of HIV-related Dementia

HIV patients with declining platelet counts appear to be at increased risk for HIV--associated dementia, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Neurology.

"Human immunodeficiency virus--associated dementia (HIV-D) is a syndrome encompassing a spectrum of cognitive, behavioral and motor deficits that usually has an insidious onset and a chronic progressive course," the authors write as background information in the article. Therapies leading to longer life for HIV patients have paradoxically increased the prevalence of this condition. Identifying biological markers for the development of HIV--associated dementia is critical both for diagnosing the disorder and for understanding its underlying mechanisms.
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'HIV attack' to go to court

KLAIPEDA - Police and prosecutors in the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda have announced that they are ready to launch a prosecution in a case with no precedent in Lithuania – an attempt by a man to infect his former partner with HIV.

The man, 36, is suspected of convincing an associate to inject HIV-infected blood into his former common-law wife as a revenge for seeing another man.

The accused reportedly obtained from a man with HIV and gave a syringe to his accomplice, who waited for the woman near her home and tried to inject her with it when she came outside. The woman managed to avoid the attack by hiding in a car. The incident is alleged to have taken place in May. read more

New Enzyme Therapy Destroys HIV?

I write this post knowing full well that this may not pan out. Still, I like to highlight those things that at least hold a hint of a promise for eradicating this awful disease.

From IBNlive:


Bangalore: Dr Indrani Sarkar has has every reason to be excited. Her PhD thesis, which started in 2002 at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden, Germany, has thrown open the doors for developing enzymes that can destroy the dreaded Human Immuno-deficiency Virus or HIV within infected cells permanently.

Indrani and a team of scientists have developed an enzyme called Tre. Tre is a custom enzyme capable of detecting, recognising and destroying HIV, much like a pair of molecular scissors.

“In laymans terms, it’s an engineered enzyme which recognises sequences in the HIV genome that is duplicated, integrated virus and by the process of recombination, it cuts out the virus from the genome,” says she.

Trials are starting immediately, but this won’t hit the market for a while.
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New drug will give hope to HIV positive children

HIV positive children can now benefit from an anti-retroviral drug designed specially for them. Triomune Baby and Junior were developed with funding from the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP).

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently gave its tentative approval for the drug, paving the way for it to receive prequalification status from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and making it available for distribution under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and Clinton Foundation programmes. read more

PAKISTAN: Roadside dentists pose HIV, hepatitis threat

The problem has gone now. I will be able to sleep properly and eat again in a few hours," Jawad told IRIN.

But while the roadside tooth removal - carried out without anesthetic and with only the most primitive, unsterilised tools - was obviously painful, there could be dire consequences for those who use the services of roadside dentists.

Recent studies in Pakistan have shown that roadside barbers, dentists and doctors are responsible for the rapid spread of diseases such as hepatitis, as well as HIV/AIDS. read more

Peru: 7 Children Infected with HIV - Mother Demands Indemnification

Peru's La Republica newspaper reported this morning that out of the seven children that were infected with HIV in 2004 at a public hospital in Lima (Maternidad de Lima), 4 have already died due to the illness.

In addition, La Republica reported that the children's deaths had been in vain because Peru's government has not done anything to change or improve the situation since then.

It was also reported that the victims' families have not received any type of indemnification. read more