NEW YORK: Elton John Raises $2 Million at Annual AIDS Benefit; Remembers Ryan White

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 - http://www.washingtonpost.com

Sir Elton John remembered AIDS sufferer Ryan White on the red carpet of his annual AIDS foundation benefit on October 15. He called the teenager’s death a major turning point in his own life, which John described as “out of whack” at the time. Ryan White, a hemophiliac, contracted AIDS in 1984 because of a blood transfusion and was expelled from middle school. Elton John was with the boy and his family when White died in 1990. After White’s death, Elton John decided to become sober and, within the next two years of achieving sobriety, started the foundation. John said that while “great strides” are being made in research and behavior, there is still a long way to go. “The stigma involved in people coming out and saying they’re HIV-positive is still an underground thing; it’s still a shame-based thing until we can get everybody tested and people to come out and be role models to people who have HIV, then we’re still battling against this disease,” stated John. In 1992, John established the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which continues its global humanitarian efforts to raise money for a variety of services, including campaigns to end the stigma and discrimination, prevention programs, and treatment, care, and support services for people with HIV/AIDS. The foundation presented Enduring Vision awards to Diana Jenkins, the chairman, CEO, and founder of the beverage company Neuro; New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft; and Joseph Blount, an ardent benefactor to the foundation since its beginning. Celebrities at the benefit included Stevie Nicks, who performed; Brooke Shields; Lance Bass; Courtney Love; and Alan Cumming. The Elton John AIDS Foundation raised $2 million at the October 15 event.

VIRGINIA: Wait List for AIDS Program Eliminated; Boost in Funds Helps Spur End

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 - http://www.washingtontimes.com/

Virginia's first waiting list for its AIDS drug assistance program for low-income individuals has been eliminated in less than two years due to an increase in funding, a host of cost-saving maneuvers, and partnerships among local, state, and federal groups. Due to budget constraints, new enrollment to the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) was closed in November 2010 to everyone except pregnant women, children, and people being treated for potentially fatal infections that exploit weakened immune systems. Before the eligibility restrictions took effect in November 2010, there were more than 3,500 enrolled. Approximately 2,700 people were enrolled in the program as of June of 2012. Nearly 600 were on the waiting list, which ended in August. The monthly cost per patient also decreased—from $2.9 million in June 2010 to an average of $1.7 million this year. The state found approximately $10.3 million in program savings through Medicare rebates and removing inactive clients. During 2011, state contributions of about $4.8 million also helped keep 451 clients—with average monthly client costs of $906—on the program. However, nearly all of the funding for the program comes from the federal government through Part B grant funds from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009. Virginia competed for—and won—$3 million in emergency relief funding in 2011 and 2012. As more funding became available, the state gradually loosened its eligibility requirements. From November 2010 through this June, nearly half of the wait-listed people could enroll in the program. Others found coverage through Medicaid or private insurance, were no longer eligible, or could not be contacted. “I think that the ability to eliminate the wait list is critically important both to individual and public health,” said Diana L. Jordan, director of the Virginia Department of Health's Division of Disease Prevention. "I think the key is that earlier treatment reduces HIV transmission as well." Some, however, such as Brandon M. Macsata, CEO of the nonprofit ADAP Advocacy Association, states that while the elimination of waiting lists is welcome news, he believes that Virginia has created what he calls an “invisible waiting list,” by removing more expensive drugs from the program and tightening eligibility requirements over the last two years.

INDONESIA: Indonesia in Bold Move to Obtain Cheap Drugs for HIV

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 - http://www.guardian.co.uk

On September 3, Indonesia’s government quietly issued an order to override patents on seven important medicines used to treat individuals with HIV and hepatitis B, which will allow more inexpensive versions to be manufactured by local pharmaceutical companies. There appeared to be no protest from the pharmaceutical giants, who in the past would have defended their patents very aggressively. The drug patents belong to Merck, GSK, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott, and Gilead. The drugs include Glaxo ’s Abacavir, Abbott’s Kaletra, and Gilead’s tenofovir (Viread) which treats hepatitis B as well as providing the primary prevention treatment for those whose partners are HIV positive. Indonesia’s HIV incidence rate is not particularly high—UNICEF estimates that nearly 310,000 individuals are infected—but it does have the fourth highest population in the world and the virus continues to spread. Only approximately 23,000 of the 70,000 individuals infected with HIV who need drug treatment are getting it.

SOUTH AFRICA: Rising TB Rates Lead to Call for New Vaccines

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 - http://www.ireland.com

Oxford-based scientists have called for more and better vaccines ahead of the publication of new World Health Organization statistics on the rising incidence of tuberculosis (TB). Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) was the first vaccine used against TB beginning in 1921. It is still the only vaccine in use against a disease that kills nearly 1.5 million people each year. TB is becoming increasingly resistant to the drugs that now combat it. After World War II, BCG saved millions of lives in Eastern Europe after eight million children were vaccinated; thus, the much-feared epidemic of TB was controlled by widespread vaccination. Though effective in preventing tuberculous meningitis in infants, BCG has a much worse record fighting off pulmonary TB, especially in adolescents and adults, scientists in London said October 15. Professor Helen McShane, Oxford University Professor of Vaccinology, has developed a vaccine of great promise called MVA85A. It is the first new TB vaccine to have begun clinical trials since BCG did so 81 years ago. Work on MVA85A has been under way for more than 10 years. In the spring of 2013, Professor McShane and her team will learn the results of the first efficacy trial in South Africa—where half of the babies chosen were given the vaccine, and the other half received a placebo. The MVA85A vaccine will attempt to improve the effectiveness of BCG, not replace it. However, the team still does not know what responses it must provoke in a patient’s immune system to ensure that TB can be held at bay, explained McShane at a Wellcome Trust briefing. There have been no new TB drugs for more than 50 years, notes the United Kingdom’s Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology. Today, 10 drugs—as distinct from vaccines—are in clinical trials. Bedaquiline, one of these drugs, has already been cleared for use on patients with drug-resistant TB. AIDS and HIV patients are particularly at risk and make up nearly one in seven of all TB cases worldwide. They are 21 to 34 times more likely to develop infection from the mycobacterium that causes TB.

UNITED STATES: Abbott Hepatitis C Regimen Suppresses Virus in Study

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 - http://public.wsj.com/home.html

On October 14, the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases posted a summary of the results of a new clinical trial showing that an experimental all-oral drug regimen developed by Abbott Laboratories suppressed the hepatitis C virus in most patients. These results helped Abbott decide on a regimen based on three experimental drugs that the company is moving into late-stage clinical trials. Abbott hopes to sell the new hepatitis therapy in 2015. Abbott, Gilead Sciences Inc., and others are accelerating the race to introduce the next generation of drugs to treat hepatitis C—those that can be taken orally without the injection component of the current standard, a treatment that patients have difficulty tolerating. The new study tested three experimental Abbott drugs in a midstage clinical trial of 571 individuals with hepatitis C. The trial tested various combinations of these drugs for varying durations up to 24 weeks of treatment in patients, some of whom had undergone prior treatment and others who were new to treatment. The study tracked the virologic response—SVR12— in patients 12 weeks after the end of treatment. Sustained virologic response is roughly equivalent to being virus-free or having nearly undetectable viral levels. Hepatitis C affects approximately 180 million people world-wide, with more than 4 million in the United States, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

GLOBAL: H.I.V./AIDS: Methadone Treatment for Addicts Is Linked to Lower H.I.V. Risk

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 - http://www.nytimes.com/

A new study, published October 4 online by the British journal BMJ, has found that treating drug addicts with methadone significantly reduces the risk that they will get HIV or give it to anyone else. The study combined data from studies done in nine countries, and concluded that making methadone available reduced HIV risk by 54 percent. Many countries, including Russia, have large HIV epidemics among addicts; nonetheless, these countries outlaw methadone and buprenorphine treatment for religious, political, or other reasons. Methadone alone does not affect the virus. Scientists believe it works because addicts on treatment become better able to cease selling sex for drugs and stop sharing needles. The addicts are also more likely to stay on antiretroviral drugs, which lower the chance that they will infect others. The authors suggested that opiate-substitution therapy was effective because addicts who are motivated enough to pursue treatment are also smart about protecting themselves in other ways. The study estimated that contaminated needles cause 5 to 10 percent of all the world’s HIV infections. The problem is the most serious in Eastern Europe and Central and Southeast Asia, regions that are located on the fringes of opium-growing areas.

NORTH CAROLINA: Free STD Services Offered at Sampson Health Department

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 - http://www.clintonnc.com

Although there has been an overall decline in most sexually transmitted diseases in the state of North Carolina, Sampson County has experienced a 124 percent increase in the number of chlamydia cases from 2010 through 2011 with almost 300 cases reported last year. Individuals with chlamydia usually do not present symptoms so they are unaware that they are infected and are potentially spreading the disease with unfortunate consequences, such as reproductive problems, without appropriate treatment. Gonorrhea has also increased by more than 143 percent in the county over the past two years. Men are more likely than women to exhibit symptoms but both can be asymptomatic and continue to spread the disease through lack of treatment. Sampson County has also seen an increase from last year in the number of HIV/AIDS cases (a 133 percent increase) and syphilis cases (a 125 percent increase). A pregnant woman who is infected with STDs can potentially pass along the disease to her unborn infant, who may develop a variety of infections and diseases as a result, including eye and ear infections, pneumonia, birth deformities, or fatalities. The Sampson County Health Department offers outreach and educational presentations as well as STD screening services by appointment or walk-in. For more information, call (910) 592-1131 ext. 4972. To schedule an appointment, please call (910) 592-1131, ext. 4001, 4220, or 4960.

KENTUCKY: AIDS Walk Raises Highest Total in a Decade

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 - http://www.kypost.com

Attracting more than 3,000 people despite gusting winds and the threat of rain on October 14, the annual Louisville AIDS Walk raised a preliminary total of $206,819—its largest sum in a decade. Donations are accepted through the end of the year with proceeds designated for services to individuals with HIV/AIDS in the Louisville area. Approximately 2,500 individuals live with HIV/AIDS in Louisville, with a few hundred more in southern Indiana, according to Walk director Brad Hampton.