HIV tests not yet as routine as cholesterol checks

news.yahoo.com — Two years after the government urged making HIV tests as common as cholesterol checks, there are small gains but still one in five people infected with the AIDS virus doesn't know it, scientists said Thursday. Eleven states that once required special consent for HIV testing have changed their laws, a key step to making an HIV test part of the standard battery that patients expect. But HIV specialists meeting Thursday said other barriers include physician confusion about the ease of today's rapid tests, which can cost as little as $15 — although many patients seem to accept them. No more than 100 of the nation's 5,000 emergency rooms routinely test for HIV in patients who aren't critically ill, said Dr. John Bartlett of Johns Hopkins University, who co-chaired the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research meeting. Yet because so many HIV patients are poor or uninsured, ERs are the health-care setting most likely to find them. read more...

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Doctors say marrow transplant may have cured AIDS

news.yahoo.com — An American man who suffered from AIDS appears to have been cured of the disease 20 months after receiving a targeted bone marrow transplant normally used to fight leukemia, his doctors said. While researchers — and the doctors themselves — caution that the case might be no more than a fluke, others say it may inspire a greater interest in gene therapy to fight the disease that claims 2 million lives each year. The virus has infected 33 million people worldwide. read more...

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Inflammation, Coagulation Tied to Non-AIDS Deaths in HIV Cases

health.yahoo.com — An increased risk of death from diseases other than AIDS has possibly been tied to a therapy designed to help HIV-positive people, a new study says. The results, stemming from an international study published in PLoS Medicine, found that patients receiving either of two methods of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV had increased risk of death from conditions such as cardiovascular complications linked to three biomarkers: high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and D-dimer. "The magnitude of the association between these biomarkers and mortality is clinically relevant and reasons for it require further study," the researchers from the University of Minnesota concluded. read more...

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AIDS vaccine focus shifts after disappointments

news.yahoo.com — A global AIDS vaccine conference this week will seek fresh strategies against the HIV virus, with experts weighing the value of basic laboratory research against large-scale human clinical trials after a string of disappointments. Approaches focusing on "neutralizing antibodies" that would allow the human immune system to block infection completely, are likely to take precedence over existing models that seek to manage infection after it occurs, experts said. "There's a real redirection and rethinking," said Lynn Morris, co-chair of a world AIDS vaccine conference that starts in Cape Town, South Africa, on Monday. read more...

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New HIV infections up 45% in Philippines: official

health.yahoo.com — AIDS-related infections are rising rapidly in the Philippines although the ratio of those afflicted out of the total population remains low, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said Tuesday. An average of 29 cases a month of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) have been reported in 2007 and 2008, compared with 20 cases a month in previous years, he told a news conference. read more...

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Global AIDS prevention gives short shrift to gays

health.yahoo.com — Jorge Saavedra's moment of truth came in the middle of an impassioned speech to 5,000 people about the paltry amount of money being spent to stop the spread of AIDS among gay men. The Mexican federal official paused, then said publicly for the first time that he was gay. As he held up a photo of himself with his partner, the crowd applauded wildly. Afterward, men from Africa and India congratulated him with tears in their eyes. "They told me that I was a hero, and that they wished they could do the same in their countries," said Saavedra, who is infected with HIV and also heads the AIDS prevention program in a country where many gay men live in denial. Saavedra's coming out on Tuesday at the International AIDS Conference sent a powerful message to the world: Homophobia must be stamped out if AIDS is to be controlled. Fewer people are dying from AIDS, but new HIV infections among gay and bisexual men in many countries are rising at alarming rates. Yet less than 1 percent of the $669 million reported in global prevention spending targets men who have sex with men, according to UNAIDS figures from 2006, the latest available data. UNAIDS says these men receive the lowest coverage of HIV prevention services of any at-risk population. And experts say discrimination has driven gay and bisexual men in developing nations underground — turning them into one of the epidemic's hardest groups to reach. From Mexico to India, a surprising number of men who have sex with men insist they are not gay, and in many countries, governments still refuse to admit homosexuality exists. read more...

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Medicinal Marijuana Eases Neuropathic Pain in HIV

health.yahoo.com — Medicinal marijuana helps relieve neuropathic pain in people with HIV, says a University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine study. It included 28 HIV patients with neuropathic pain that wasn't adequately controlled by opiates or other pain relievers. The researchers found that 46 percent of patients who smoked medicinal marijuana reported clinically meaningful pain relief, compared with 18 percent of those who smoked a placebo. The study, published online Aug. 6 in Neuropsychopharmacology, was sponsored by the University of California Center for Medical Cannabis Research (CMCR). "Neuropathy is a chronic and significant problem in HIV patients as there are few existing treatments that offer adequate pain management to sufferers," study leader Dr. Ronald J. Ellis, an associate professor of neurosciences, said in an UCSD news release. "We found that smoked cannabis was generally well-tolerated and effective when added to the patient's existing pain medication, resulting in increased pain relief." The findings are consistent with and extend other recent CMCR-sponsored research supporting the short-term effectiveness of medicinal marijuana in treating neuropathic pain. "This study adds to a growing body of evidence that indicates that cannabis is effective, in the short-term at least, in the management of neuropathic pain," Dr. Igor Grant, a professor of psychiatry and director of the CMCR, said in the UCSD news release. read more...

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New Technology Reveals Higher Number of New HIV Infections

cdc.gov — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today that an estimated 56,300 HIV infections occurred in the United States in 2006. That estimate differs from the agency′s previous estimate of 40,000 because CDC is now using a more precise method for estimating annual HIV incidence, which is the number of individuals who become newly infected with HIV in a given year. The new estimate is published today in a special HIV/AIDS issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, released at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. “These data, which are based on new laboratory technology developed by CDC, provide the clearest picture to date of the U.S. HIV epidemic, and unfortunately we are far from winning the battle against this preventable disease,” said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. “We as a nation have to come together to focus our efforts on expanding the prevention programs we know are effective.” read more...

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