Feature Channels: AIDS and HIV

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Panel discussion on PrEP for HIV prevention and its role in the HIV epidemic

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adults ages 55 and older accounted for 19 percent of the estimated 1.1 million people living with HIV infection in the United States in 2010. Sept. 18 is National HIV/AIDS Aging and Awareness Day. Funded by a CDC research grant in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), patients in the Loyola Emergency Department and select immediate care centers are offered a free HIV test.

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Researchers at the Technion say a protein found in both the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) - which causes AIDS in cats - and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) might inspire new anti-HIV drugs.

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The study, “Addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic among Puerto Rican people who inject drugs: the Need for a Multi-Region Approach,” published in the American Journal of Public Health (on-line ahead of print, September 11, 2014) described the epidemic and the availability of HIV prevention and treatment programs in areas with a high concentration of Puerto Ricans, in order to provide recommendations to reduce HIV in the population.

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HIV infection is no longer a fatal condition, thanks to newer antiretroviral medications, but a phenomenon has surfaced among these patients — non-AIDS complications. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine scientists have resolved the mystery, discovering the leaky gut as the offender.

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The news in July that HIV had returned in a Mississippi toddler after a two-year treatment-free remission dashed the hopes of clinicians, HIV researchers and the public at large tantalized by the possibility of a cure. But a new commentary by two leading HIV experts at Johns Hopkins argues that despite its disappointing outcome, the Mississippi case and two other recent HIV “rebounds” in adults, have yielded critical lessons about the virus’ most perplexing — and maddening — feature: its ability to form cure-defying viral hideouts.

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Applying the benefit of hindsight, researchers at Duke Medicine have reanalyzed the findings of two historic pediatric HIV vaccine trials with encouraging results. The vaccines had in fact triggered an antibody response -- now known to be associated with protection in adults -- that was previously unrecognized in the infants studied in the 1990s.

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Being involved in a gang poses considerable health-related risks for adolescent African American girls, including more casual sex partners and substance abuse combined with less testing for HIV and less knowledge about preventing sexually transmitted diseases, according to a new study.

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Many African-Americans may not be getting effective doses of the HIV drug maraviroc because they are more likely than European-Americans to inherit functional copies of a protein that speeds the removal of the drug from the body.

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Ever since Florence Nightingale, “The Lady With the Lamp,” took it upon herself to care for the sick and the wounded in the Crimean War in the 1850s, nurses have proven their value and their valor where care is most daunting and risky.

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As part of an ongoing effort to reduce HIV transmission in South Africa, RTI International and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) are co-hosting a policy forum to address the state of key populations at risk of HIV in the Western Cape and discuss findings from two recent prevention studies funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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According to recommendations resulting from a multidisciplinary conference sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, scientists and physicians in low- and middle-income countries should build on existing HIV research to study and treat chronic conditions.

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Normal microorganisms in the intestines appear to play a pivotal role in how the HIV virus foils a successful attack from the body’s immune system, according to new research from Duke Medicine.

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As effective treatments for HIV become more widely available in low- and middle-income countries, there's an urgent need to assess and manage health risks in the growing number of people living with HIV. An update on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among HIV-positive populations in LMICs appears as a supplement to in JAIDS: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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Scientists try to stay a step ahead of HIV in order to combat drug resistance and to develop better treatments.

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Researchers from the University of Louisville will lead an international effort to utilize tobacco plants to develop a gel containing a specific protein that will prevent the transmission of HIV. The project is being funded by a five-year, $14.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

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Student Q&A Ashley Blocker, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer

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The study, “Injection and Sexual HIV/HCV Risk Behaviors Associated with Nonmedical Use of Prescription Opioids Among Young Adults in New York City, published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment (JSAT) explores within a social context the drug-use and sexual experiences of young adult (ages 18-32) nonmedical PO users as they relate to risk for HIV and HCV transmission.

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Medical education in sub-Saharan Africa is being revitalized and expanded through a U.S.-funded effort that is dramatically increasing enrollment, broadening curricula, upgrading Internet access and providing cutting-edge skills labs and other technologies.

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Medical education in sub-Saharan Africa is being revitalized and expanded through a U.S.-funded effort that is dramatically increasing enrollment, broadening curricula, upgrading Internet access and providing cutting-edge skills labs and other technologies.

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University of Washington bioengineers have discovered a potentially faster way to deliver a topical drug that protects women from contracting HIV. Their method spins the drug into silk-like fibers that quickly dissolve when in contact with moisture, releasing higher doses of the drug than possible with other topical materials.

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Hopkins Assistant Professor Jason Farley and his crew chart a course toward a future where nurses lead HIV/AIDS care. Their vessel is now accepting first-class passengers.

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Hopkins Nursing Magazine Summer 2014 issue features the innovative HIV and Master's Entry into Nursing curricula, faculty publications, efforts on patient safety, community building, and plenty of color.

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Scientists at Duke Medicine have found an immunologic mechanism that makes broadly neutralizing antibodies in people who are HIV-1 infected.

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The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital VOICES project is the focus of the “A Piece of My Mind” column in the July 22 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The project uses contemporary technology to tap an ancient and powerful clinical tool—the patient’s own story—as a way to empower and inspire patients, teach empathy and improve health care.

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Chemclin’s HIV kits are available for in-vitro qualitative determination of Antibody to Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 and Type 2 (Anti-HIV 1+2) and P24 antigen of HIV in human serum or plasma by a sandwich chemiluminescent assay method.

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Men do not engage in riskier behaviors after they are circumcised, according to a study in Kenya by University of Illinois at Chicago researchers.

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Among uncircumcised men in Kenya, compensation in the form of food vouchers worth approximately U.S. $9 or $15, compared with lesser or no compensation, resulted in a modest increase in the prevalence of circumcision after 2 months, according to a study published by JAMA.

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The annual HIV diagnosis rate in the U.S. decreased more than 30 percent from 2002-2011, with declines observed in several key populations, although increases were found among certain age groups of men who have sex with men, especially young men, according to a study in the July 23/30 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on HIV/AIDS.

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Among adults in the African country of Malawi offered HIV self-testing, optional home initiation of care compared with standard HIV care resulted in a significant increase in the proportion of adults initiating antiretroviral therapy, according to a study in the July 23/30 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on HIV/AIDS.

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HIV-infected patients also infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) who received a combination of the medications sofosbuvir plus ribavirin had high rates of sustained HCV virologic response 12 weeks after cessation of therapy, according to a study in the July 23/30 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on HIV/AIDS.

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Among heterosexual African couples in which the male was HIV positive and the female was not, receipt of antiretroviral pre-exposure preventive (PrEP) therapy did not result in significant differences in pregnancy incidence, birth outcomes, and infant growth compared to females who received placebo, according to a study in the July 23/30 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on HIV/AIDS.

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In a preliminary study, HIV-infected patients with excess abdominal fat who received the growth hormone-releasing hormone analog tesamorelin for 6 months experienced modest reductions in liver fat, according to a study in the July 23/30 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on HIV/AIDS.

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A multicenter team of researchers report that in a phase III clinical trial, a combination drug therapy cures chronic hepatitis C in the majority of patients co-infected with both HIV and hepatitis C.

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New research from UC San Francisco found that 60 percent of the city’s homeless and unstably housed women who are HIV-infected or at high risk to become infected have endured a recent experience of some form of violence.

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Douglas Nixon, chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, was published in the Cutting Edge section of the Journal of Immunology for his discovery of an antibody that can neutralize the HIV-1 fossil virus. This may lead to finding a viable immunotherapy option for HIV-1.

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The study describes factors believed to contribute to these critical public health issues, with a focus on African American and Latino/Hispanic PLHAs, the racial/ethnic groups most affected by HIV/AIDS.

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A study to be released Thursday by Health People shows an astounding health crisis---defined by 58% of releases having major chronic conditions which may include mental health and substance abuse problems and Hep C or HIV/AIDS HIV--- among releases sent to the Bronx from state prisons. Furthur, 58% said they were released without a Medicaid card.

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HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has the ability to integrate into the human genome, making it extremely difficult to cure the infection. A new study by scientists at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found that when HIV integrates into genes involved with cancer, these cells tend to reproduce to a greater extent than others HIV-infected cells. The study entitled “Center for Global Infectious Disease Research,” was published on July 10, 2014 in the online edition of the journal Science.

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Research led by the University of Adelaide has provided new insights into how the HIV virus greatly boosts its chances of spreading infection, and why HIV is so hard to combat.

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Study finds social/behavioral intervention vastly increased the number of African American and Latino individuals living with HIV/AIDS who enrolled in HIV/AIDS medical studies. Nine out of ten participants who were found eligible for studies decided to enroll, compared to zero participants among a control group.

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A new meta-analysis published online in PLOS ONE by infectious disease and epidemiology specialists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania highlights significant gaps in hepatitis C care that will prove useful as the U.S. health care system continues to see an influx of patients with the disease because of improved screening efforts and new, promising drugs.

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Building upon their earlier research on the biology of fat metabolism, Joslin scientists discovered that microRNAs –small RNA molecules that play important roles in regulation in many types of tissue – play a major role in the distribution and determination of fat cells and whole body metabolism.

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HIV-infected people diagnosed with cancer are two to four times more likely to go untreated for their cancer compared to uninfected cancer patients, according to a new, large retrospective study from researchers in Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute published online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

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Now, a newly reported study by researchers affiliated with New York University’s Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) in the journal PLOS One, shows that HIV infection among heterosexual non-injecting drug users (no hypodermic syringe is used; drugs are taken orally or nasally) in New York City (NYC) has now surpassed HIV infection among persons who inject drugs.

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While many HIV prevention interventions have traditionally been delivered face-to-face, a study from Columbia University School of Nursing suggests that digital outreach efforts delivered via text messages, interactive games, chat rooms, and social networks may be an effective way to reach at-risk younger men who have sex with men.

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June 27 is National HIV Testing Day and Loyola University Health System will celebrate as they do every day – by offering free HIV testing to patients in the emergency department and at select immediate care centers. “We currently offer HIV testing at our Maywood emergency department and also at Loyola Burr Ridge immediate care” says Beatrice Probst, MD, medical director of the immediate care centers at Loyola University Health System. Expanding testing to the Loyola Park Ridge immediate care center starts Friday, June 27, which is National HIV Testing Day. “In 2014 alone, Loyola’s testing program identified three new HIV-infected patients. One was acute HIV, meaning the individual had recently acquired the infection and is at the most infectious stage,” says Probst

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A new study of NYC deaths of people with HIV/AIDS shows the portion of AIDS deaths increased significantly in the Bronx and Brooklyn while tumbling in Manhattan from 2005 to 2012. This major change in death patterns occurred after the Bloomberg Administration "reallocated" almost 60% of federal AIDS funny for community-based outreach and support to Manhattan while de-funding some 60 local support programs in the Bronx and Brooklyn.

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Family and cultural pressures to conform to prescribed masculine behaviors create social isolation and distress that may drive young gay black men to seek approval and acceptance through perilous sexual behaviors, according to research led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. This dangerous “compensatory” mechanism, the researchers say, may contribute to the disproportionately high HIV infection rate seen in this population.