Starpharma and Ansell get approval for HIV-killing condom

An Australian-developed virus-killing condom is a step closer to sale, following a key regulatory approval.

Australian biotech firm Starpharma has developed an antiviral compound called VivaGel that laboratory tests have shown can inactivate up to 99.9 per cent of HIV, herpes and some other sexually transmitted viruses, reducing the risk of transmission.

It has teamed up with the world’s second biggest condom maker, Australian-based Ansell, to come up with a range that incorporates this antiviral coating in the lubricant.

These condoms have now received Conformity Assessment Certification from Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

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AIDS researchers fighting to save lives killed in Ukraine crash

After a day of news saturated with images of smoking plane wreckage and reports that perhaps dozens of his fellow HIV researchers heading to the 2014 AIDS conference in Melbourne may have been on board Flight MH17, Richard Elion had to board a long flight from Los Angeles to Australia.

“I am about to leave for Melbourne,” Elion, an HIV specialist and clinical research director at Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, wrote from his iPhone Thursday night on his way to the airport in Los Angeles.

“It is hard to get excited about sharing information yet without a time to mourn,” he wrote. “It is very sad and will cast a pallor over the meetings.


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Nearly a third of HIV patients are diagnosed too late, data shows

About 30% of patients with HIV are diagnosed well after they should have begun treatment, according to the latest Australian data, suggesting early-testing initiatives have not worked.

Despite 88% of the country’s new infections occurring in gay men, unprotected sex in that group continues to be a key driver of infections, making falling HIV testing rates among young gay men a concern.

There were 1,235 new cases of HIV diagnosed in Australia last year – an increase of 70% since 1999 when diagnoses were at their lowest, figures from the annual HIV surveillance report by the University of NSW Kirby Institute show.

Many of those were not being diagnosed early enough, allowing their immune system to fail and potentially posing a risk to others, the report found.

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WHO urges healthy gay men to take HIV prevention drugs, cites ‘exploding epidemics’

The World Health Organization for the first time on Friday urged all men who have sex with men to take antiretroviral drugs to prevent HIV infection, which is seeing a massive increase in that demographic.

“We are seeing exploding epidemics,” warned Gottfried Hirnschall, who heads the U.N. agency’s HIV department, Agence France-Presse reported.

Today, gay and bisexual men are 19 times more likely than the general population to be infected by HIV, Mr. Hirnschall told reporters in Geneva.

For example, 5.7 percent of Bangkok men who have sex with other men have reported HIV infections, compared to less than 1 percent for the overall population, AFP reported.

In its new recommendations for combating the pandemic, WHO for the first time “strongly recommends men who have sex with men consider taking antiretroviral medicines as an additional method of preventing HIV infection.”

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Mississippi Girl Thought Cured of HIV Shows Signs of Infection

THURSDAY, July 10, 2014 (HealthDay News) — A Mississippi girl born with HIV who was thought to be cured by immediate and aggressive drug treatment has relapsed, with new tests showing detectable levels of the AIDS-causing virus in her bloodstream, disappointed federal officials announced Thursday afternoon.

The girl, now nearly 4 years old, had remained virus-free even though she stopped taking HIV medications when she was 18 months old. Doctors had hoped her remission would open the door to a functional cure for all children born with the virus.

But a blood test taken during a routine clinical care visit earlier this month uncovered detectable HIV levels in her blood. Additional testing found that the girl also had a decreased white blood cell count and the presence of HIV antibodies, both of which are signs that an actively replicating pool of HIV has established itself in her body.

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BBC News: HIV re-emerges in 'cured' Mississippi girl

A baby girl in the US born with HIV and believed cured after very early treatment has now been found to still harbour the virus.

Tests last week on the four-year-old child from Mississippi indicate she is no longer in remission, say doctors.

She had appeared free of HIV as recently as March, without receiving treatment for nearly two years.

The news represents a setback for hopes that very early treatment of drugs may reverse permanent infection.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told US media the new results were “obviously disappointing” and had possible implications on an upcoming federal HIV study.

“We’re going to take a good hard look at the study and see if it needs any modifications,” he said.

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Preliminary Findings from Project MedNet: A Study of the Social Networks of African American Men and Women Living with HIV

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This presentation will share preliminary findings from Project MedNet, which is a study that aimed to understand how social networks influence the health and wellness
of African American men and women living with HIV. The study sought to understand the social network factors that may lead to better or worse health outcomes, such as being on ART medication, adhering to medication, and regularly visiting one’s doctor. It found that experiencing HIV-related discrimination and stigma from close others was
associated with lower ART adherence. Those who were close to others who were on ART tended to have more positive outcomes (e.g. to take ART themselves and to visit their HIV doctor regularly). In contrast, people who were close to more drug partners were less likely to be taking ART and less likely to go to HIV care regularly.

Laura M. Bogart, PhD, is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Research Director in the Division of General Pediatrics, Department of Medicine, at Boston Children’s Hospital. She specializes in the application of social psychological theory to understanding and reducing HIV-related health disparities

Matt G. Mutchler, PhD, is Professor of Sociology at CSU Dominguez Hills and a Community- Based Researcher at AIDS Project Los Angeles. He has over 25 years of research experience investigating the social and cultural contexts of HIV prevention and treatment issues.

Treatment app for HIV to guide care

Durban – A first-of-its-kind HIV treatment guideline app has been launched.

The app, which has been made available by medical scheme Metropolitan Health, with The Open Medical Project of South Africa (Tompsa), is aimed at health care workers.

The HIV Clinical Guide reflects the latest developments in HIV medicine and care. The mobile app was designed for the use of health care professionals to accurately prescribe treatment for HIV-positive patients based on the patients’ individual condition.

Siraaj Adams, executive manager of the HIV YourLife programme at Metropolitan Health, said that because of the large numbers of HIV patients in developing countries, doctors and care workers had demanding workloads. “Clinical decision and support tools are extremely valuable.”

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HIV home-testing kits – which are similar to pregnancy tests – are coming to Australia

Australians will soon be able to test themselves for HIV after the federal government announced that restrictions preventing the manufacture and sale of oral home-testing kits have been lifted.

This will enable kits to be sold straight to customers in the hope it leads to early detection and treatment in a bid to stop the virus be spread.

The government unveiled its 2014-2017 national strategies on HIV, hepatitis B and C, sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and a special strategy on targeting blood borne viruses and STIs in the indigenous community.

The HIV strategy aims to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV by 50 per cent by 2015, as a key step towards a 2020 elimination target.

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Four babies born with HIV ‘cured’, fuelling hopes of AIDS vaccine

FOUR babies born with HIV were apparently cleared of the infection in a major breakthrough fuelling hopes of a cure for AIDS.

Details of the Canadian cases will be discussed at an AIDS conference in Melbourne this month.

Breakthroughs in the quest for an AIDS vaccine, the fight to cure people living with HIV of co-infections such as hepatitis C and tuberculosis, and the impact of discriminatory policies in other nations are also expected to announced.

AIDS 2014 co-chairman Professor Sharon Lewin said the significance of the findings would focus international attention­ on the July 20-25 gathering.

“It will be exciting for Melbourne and for the world to have this great meeting of minds to discuss the latest breakthroughs in science, politics and community action in all aspects of the global response­ to HIV,” Prof Lewin said.

The Canadian infants, born to HIV-positive mothers, were all given high doses of three antiretroviral drugs in the first few hours after birth.

The virus, which had been present in their systems at birth, could not be found later.

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