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HIV Infection Blog
Related terms: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), Acute HIV Infection, Acute Retroviral Syndrome, AIDS, AIDS-Related Complex, Chronic Symptomatic HIV Infection, HIV Infection, Acute, HIV Seroconversion Syndrome, Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection, Primary HIV Infection, HIV, ARC, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, HIV/AIDS
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Gene Therapy for Controlling HIV Shows Early Promise
Posted 6 days ago by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, March 5, 2014 – In an early step toward drug-free HIV therapy, researchers are reporting the first success in genetically "editing" T-cells in patients' immune systems to become resistant to the virus. The findings, published in the March 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, are based on only 12 patients. But experts were cautiously optimistic about what the study accomplished. Specifically, researchers were able to take T-cells from the HIV patients' blood, then "knock out" a gene known as CCR5, which controls a protein that allows HIV to enter a cell. The scientists then infused the genetically altered T-cells back into patients' blood, where they expanded in number. What's more, a few patients were taken off their HIV drugs temporarily and saw their virus levels decrease. "This is impressive," said Rowena Johnston, director of research for amfAR, the Foundation ... Read more
Related support groups: HIV Infection
Long-Acting HIV Drug May Offer Better Protection Against Infection
Posted 7 days ago by Drugs.com
TUESDAY, March 4, 2014 – A long-acting, injectable HIV drug could potentially protect people from infection with the AIDS virus for up to three months, new animal studies suggest. The experimental drug, called GSK744, protected macaque monkeys from repeated attempts to infect the animals with a hybrid simian/human AIDS virus called SHIV, scientists said. GSK744 is a reformulated, long-acting version of an HIV drug known as dolutegravir (Tivicay), which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment in people who have already been infected with HIV. While GSK744 hasn't been tested on humans, doctors hope that it will lead to a medication that could effectively protect people against HIV infection, mostly because it would only need to be administered on a quarterly basis. However, findings from animal studies often don't hold up in human trials. Such a ... Read more
Related support groups: HIV Infection, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, Tivicay, Dolutegravir
Kids Born With HIV May Face Heart Risks Later, Study Suggests
Posted 12 days ago by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Feb. 27, 2014 – Half of teens who were infected with HIV at birth may face a higher risk of heart attack and stroke when they're older, new research suggests. "These results indicate that individuals who have had HIV since birth should be monitored carefully by their health care providers for signs of cardiovascular disease," said study co-author Dr. George Siberry of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Other research has linked HIV infection and certain HIV medications to higher risk of heart disease. This study – published online in the journal Circulation – examines the potential long-term risk for teens, although it only estimates risk and doesn't track the teenagers over time. Siberry and colleagues came to their conclusions after examining results from from the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study, a long-term research ... Read more
Related support groups: HIV Infection
Higher HIV Infection Rates Seen in Mental Health Patients: Study
Posted 13 Feb 2014 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Feb. 13, 2014 – Americans seeking treatment for mental health disorders may be four to 16 times more likely to be infected with HIV than those in the general population, a new study reveals. The findings emphasize the need to provide testing for HIV – the virus that causes AIDS – in mental health care facilities, the researchers said. The study authors provided HIV testing to more than 1,000 people in Philadelphia and Baltimore who sought treatment for mental health problems such as depression, psychosis and substance abuse from January 2009 to August 2011. About 4.8 percent of these patients were infected with HIV. That's 16 times higher than the rate of 0.3 percent in the overall U.S. population, and about four times higher than the rates of 1.4 percent in Philadelphia and 1.3 percent in Baltimore. Both cities are HIV epicenters, the researchers noted. Thirteen of the 51 ... Read more
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Only 1 in 3 HIV-Infected Black Americans Gets Effective Treatment: Study
Posted 6 Feb 2014 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Feb. 6, 2014 – Even though drugs that can keep HIV at bay are available, only about one in three black Americans with the AIDS-causing virus have their infection under control, U.S. health officials said Thursday. According to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, many HIV-positive black patients are not getting the care and treatment needed to live healthy lives, keep the virus under control and prevent passing it on to others. "We know that treatment can help people with HIV live long and healthy lives and also prevent transmission of the virus to others," said Donna Hubbard McCree, associate director of CDC's Health Equity Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. The problem is particularly acute among black men, who have especially high rates of HIV infection, she said. According to CDC statistics, one in every 16 black men will become infected ... Read more
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Many Young Americans With HIV Delay Treatment: Study
Posted 4 Feb 2014 by Drugs.com
TUESDAY, Feb. 4, 2014 – A troubling new study finds that one-third to nearly half of American teens and young adults with HIV delay treatment until their infection is advanced, putting them at risk for serious health problems. These findings are especially disturbing as evidence increasingly suggests that starting HIV treatment as soon as possible helps keep the virus under control and can prevent the heart, kidney and neurological harm that occurs in patients with poorly controlled HIV infection, the researchers noted. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. The researchers analyzed the medical records of nearly 1,500 HIV-infected people, aged 12 to 24, who were seen at 13 clinics across the United States between 2002 and 2010. Of those, 30 percent to 45 percent sought treatment when their infection was at an advanced stage. Males and members of minority groups were most likely to have ... Read more
Related support groups: HIV Infection
Taking Drug to Prevent HIV Doesn't Seem to Encourage Risk-Taking
Posted 18 Dec 2013 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 18, 2013 – Should people in danger of contracting HIV because they have risky sex take a pill to prevent infection, or will the medication encourage them to take even more sexual risks? After years of debate on this question, a new international study suggests the medication doesn't lead people to stop using condoms or have more sex with more people. The research isn't definitive, and it hasn't changed the mind of every expert. But one of the study's co-authors said the findings support the drug's use as a way to prevent infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. "People may have more partners or stop using condoms, but as well as we can tell, it's not because of [taking the drug to prevent HIV infection]," said study co-author Dr. Robert Grant, a senior investigator with the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology in San Francisco. The medication in ... Read more
Related support groups: HIV Infection, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis
New HIV Strain May Move to AIDS More Quickly: Study
Posted 3 Dec 2013 by Drugs.com
TUESDAY, Dec. 3, 2013 – A recently discovered, aggressive strain of HIV leads to faster development of AIDS than other HIV strains, according to a new study. More than 60 epidemic strains of HIV-1 exist. This new strain has the shortest period from infection to the development of AIDS, at about five years, according to researchers at Lund University, in Sweden. The new strain is a fusion of the two most common strains in Guinea-Bissau, a small country in West Africa. It has been identified only in that region. When two strains join, they form what's called a "recombinant." "Recombinants seem to be more vigorous and more aggressive than the strains from which they developed," doctoral student Angelica Palm said in a Lund University news release. Previous research has shown that the global spread of different recombinants is increasing. Moreover, increasingly mixed and complex HIV ... Read more
Related support groups: HIV Infection
Multivitamins May Help Fight HIV Progression, Study Suggests
Posted 26 Nov 2013 by Drugs.com
TUESDAY, Nov. 26, 2013 – New research from Africa suggests that basic multivitamin and selenium supplements might greatly lower the risk that untreated people with the AIDS virus will get sicker over a two-year period. It's not clear how patients who take the vitamins and mineral might fare over longer periods. And the impact of the study in the United States will be limited because many Americans diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, immediately begin treatment with powerful medications known as anti-retroviral drugs. Those in the African study hadn't yet begun taking drugs to keep the virus at bay. Still, "it is incredibly useful to find new strategies to delay the progression of HIV disease," said Dr. Jared Baeten, an associate professor of global health at the University of Washington in Seattle who's familiar with the findings. "Not every HIV-infected person is ... Read more
Related support groups: Vitamins, HIV Infection, Multivitamin, Metanx, Cerefolin, Cerefolin NAC, Neurobion, Thera, Folbee, Daflon, StressTabs, Cod Liver Oil, Folbic, Foltanx, Therobec, Estroven, Poly-Vi-Sol, Vitaplex, Super B Complex, One Tab Daily
Talking Openly With Partner Linked to HIV Testing in Teens
Posted 26 Nov 2013 by Drugs.com
TUESDAY, Nov. 26, 2013 – Teens who are in committed relationships and have good communication with their partner are among those most likely to get tested for HIV, a new study finds. Researchers surveyed 980 sexually active teens aged 14 to 17 in the Bronx, where there is a high rate of AIDS. They found that 44 percent of the teens had been tested for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Further analysis showed that 60 percent of those who have good HIV-related communication with their partner had been tested. The same was true for 54 percent of those in committed relationships, and 48 percent of those who had good communication and were comfortable discussing sex with their partners. Overall, teens who had high HIV/AIDS-related communication with their parnters were 3.7 times more likely to have been tested for HIV than those with low levels of partner communication, according to the ... Read more
Related support groups: HIV Infection
New Clues to How Long-Term Drug Therapy Keeps HIV at Bay
Posted 26 Nov 2013 by Drugs.com
TUESDAY, Nov. 26, 2013 – A new study suggests that the replication of HIV may slow or stop altogether in patients who are on long-term treatment, although remnants can still lurk in the body. And the researchers now suspect that the virus is especially weak in those people who started treatment immediately after becoming infected. The study is very small, involving just eight patients. However, the findings add more evidence to the debate over how soon patients should begin drug treatment after they're diagnosed as being infected with HIV. One of the study authors is ready to say that treatment must begin immediately. "Patients should be started on therapy as soon as they are diagnosed to prevent the virus from hiding in large numbers of cells," said the researcher, Sarah Palmer, deputy director of the Center for Virus Research at Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research, in ... Read more
Related support groups: HIV Infection
Bisexual Men Aren't at Greater HIV Risk: Review
Posted 6 Nov 2013 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 6 – A review of previous research reveals that bisexual men aren't more likely than heterosexual men to have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The findings challenge a common assumption that bisexual men are more likely than heterosexual men to infect their female partners with HIV, said the researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. "Some observers have exaggerated the idea of viral 'bridging' – where a bisexual man contracts HIV from another man and then transmits it to a female partner," study leader Mackey Friedman, of the school's infectious diseases and microbiology department, said in a university news release. "But, at least in the United States, the data supporting the extent of this is quite limited." The researchers reviewed more than 3,000 scientific reports and found that bisexual men were only 40 percent as likely as ... Read more
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HIV Resistance Mapped by Gene Researchers
Posted 31 Oct 2013 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Oct. 31 – Researchers who created the first map of human resistance to HIV say their achievement could lead to improved treatments for the virus, which causes AIDS. When a person is infected with HIV, the immune system tries to destroy the virus. In order to thwart those attacks, HIV undergoes millions of genetic mutations a day. In most cases, this tactic enables HIV to defeat the immune system. However, some people's immune systems manage to hold HIV at bay without any treatment. "The virus survives but replicates more slowly, and thus its capacity for destruction is in some sense neutralized," study co-author Jacques Fellay, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, said in an institute news release. In this study, Fellay and fellow geneticists used a supercomputer to analyze immune system-triggered mutations in the genomes of a variety of strains of HIV ... Read more
Related support groups: HIV Infection
Early HIV Treatment a Win-Win, Researchers Report
Posted 30 Oct 2013 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 30 – Providing early antiretroviral drug treatment for recently infected HIV patients and their uninfected sexual partners is a cost-effective way to help patients stay healthy and prevent transmission of HIV, a new study finds. The study, published Oct. 31 in the New England Journal of Medicine, looked at HIV patients in India and South Africa. Some of the patients received early antiretroviral therapy while the start of treatment was delayed for other patients. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. During the first five years of the study, 93 percent of those who received early antiretroviral therapy survived, compared with 83 percent of those whose treatment was delayed. Life expectancy was nearly 16 years for those in the early treatment group, compared with nearly 14 years for those in the delayed treatment group. During the first five years, the potential costs of ... Read more
Related support groups: HIV Infection
Child 'Cured' of HIV Remains Free of Virus, Doctors Report
Posted 23 Oct 2013 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 23 – A 3-year-old Mississippi girl apparently cured of HIV infection by aggressive treatment right after her birth remains free of the virus, her doctors report. Early treatment with a combination of potent antiretroviral drugs appears to have kept the virus from successfully establishing a reservoir in the child's system, said immunologist Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, who is part of the research team tracking the case. Doctors are hesitant to declare the child fully cured, but in a case update reported in the Oct. 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine they said that no actively replicating HIV has been found in her system by even the most sensitive tests available. The girl stopped taking HIV medication when she was 18 months old. A couple of tests have found very low-level indications of HIV in the girl's blood, ... Read more
Related support groups: HIV Infection
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