Health Features
HIV protection: Could pills work wonders against HIV? (Feature)
By Gisela Ostwald Nov 28, 2008, 1:09 GMT
New York /Bethesda, Maryland - Anti-HIV medicines have rescued tens of thousands or perhaps even millions of people from what was once certain death from AIDS.
Now researchers are testing whether the pills available since the middle of the 1990s to slow down the progress of the HIV virus that causes AIDS might also deliver another miracle - prevention of the
disease in high risk populations.
Clinical trials are underway to see whether the pills could preventively block the virus and protect people who are not infected yet by the virus.
Depending on the results, they could offer another arrow in the quivers of those on the forefront of fighting the disease that has claimed 25 million lives and left another 32 million people infected with HIV since the 1980s.
The top US AIDS warrior, Anthony S Fauci, says he is 'cautiously optimistic' and even 'somewhat enthusiastic' about the new approach.
In fact, world scientists have been frustrated by the extremely tricky and deceptive virus which has eluded more than a decade of efforts to find a vaccine. Thus any new ideas to prevent the spread of HIV gain quick traction.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, spoke with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa this week.
So far, there are no concrete results, but animal testing, including with non-human primates, has offered some hope for the antiretroviral (ARV) medications to be used for prevention. Fauci hopes for interim results sometime next year at the earliest.
Two pills are being tested. One contains the substance Tenofovir, the other one includes Emtricitabine. The medications, which when taken together are known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), have been effective in preventing the HIV virus from spreading through the body by lowering the HIV count in the blood, semen and vaginal mucous.
Researchers have concluded that patients on HAART therapy are less infectious, and believe the same pills might protect someone who is not yet infected.
Fauci's institute, NIAID, is participating in a study (HPTN 052) to test whether adults could benefit from the same phenomenon that protects babies from HIV infections who are given medicine before and after delivery, and are protected even though their mothers are HIV positive.
Rape victims have also been shown to benefit from the potent combination of anti-HIV drugs shortly after their exposure.
The new tests are focused on delivering ARVs prior to exposure to HIV, an an idea known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The tests involve 1,750 couples in the US, Brazil, Thailand, India and South Africa. In each couple, one partner is HIV positive and the other is healthy.
In separate tests, scientists are looking at how such medicines can protect high risk groups such as homosexuals, drug addicts and prostitutes.
'The best case scenario would be that PrEP works in people who adhere to it in a way that really does prevent infection, and that does not give them the impetus to be even more risky in their behaviour,' Fauci said.
The research holds out hope especially for women, and particularly in Africa, where having sex with an infected partner who is often unwilling to use condoms is a daily game of roulette.
And the downside of such a new approach to prevention?
'The worst case scenario is that people do not regularly take their medication and would feel that because they take it some of the time they are protected and then increase their risky behavior,' Fauci said.
Often, people who feel protected 'subconsciously or consciously take more risks than otherwise,' Fauci said.
Fauci says the PrEP possibilities do not represent a 'breakthrough' as such - but rather would only offer another weapon to complement the battery of methods now being used to fight the disease: condom use, abstinence, behavior modification, circumcision, topical microbicides, needle exchange and treatment for the ill.
He points out that the HAART drugs are quite expensive. There are 2.7 million new infections every year worldwide, and only 30 per cent of infected people in lower income countries receive treatment.
PrEP could however help bridge through the period until an effective vaccine is developed.
'For every person we put on therapy, two to three people become newly infected,' Fauci noted. 'The big Holy Grail of scientific work is getting a successful vaccine.'
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in Health
- 1. US Supreme Court to decide fate of healthcare law
- 2. Obama's health law hangs in balance with skeptical court
- 3. Supreme Court begins hearing on Obama's landmark health law
- 4. China vows to end transplants from executed prisoners
- 5. Nordic walking a simple way to get fit
Older Talkback
page: 1
i believe God will help our generation against HIV, and other desise.
Greak news. I am tired of condoms.
i cant believe this. who does the reporting?
'Clinical trials are underway to see whether the pills could preventively ( 'preventively' isnt a word) block the virus and protect people who are not infected yet by the virus.'
give the drugs to healthy people!?!?!?!? are you kidding me?!?!?!
it drives me crazy. always with the aids, non stop. jesus christ.
let me give you a little lesson in economics...
then look at what took me 1 minute to pull up. what does it all amount to? MONEY.
Number of deaths for leading causes of death a year. Source:CDC
Heart disease: 652,091
Cancer: 559,312
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 143,579
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 130,933
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 117,809
Diabetes: 75,119
Alzheimer's disease: 71,599
Influenza/Pneumonia: 63,001
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 43,901
Septicemia: 34,136
then...
Funding for each... in millions..2008 Numbers.
HIV/AIDS 1/ - 2,913
Heart Disease: Coronary Heart Disease - 381
Stroke - 340
Respiratory Disease - 48
Unintentional Accidents? REALLY? OOOOK.
Diabetes - 1,035
Alzheimer's Disease - 644
Influenza - 271
nephrosis not on the list. not sure what it even is.
Septicemia - 49
curious where aids even is?
14,627 deaths in the US in 2007.
total since 1981? 565,927. less than all the heart disease deaths in a single year.
epidemic? hardly.
some other in interesting facts...
Worldwide, coronary heart disease kills more than 7 million people each year.
People living with HIV/AIDS in 2007 worldwide: 33.0 million
this is just living with, not deaths. over a quarter die from heart problems than are even currently infected with hiv. sad.
Matteos Moolia:
You may not know this, but they don't like to list AIDS as the cause of death on the coroner's reports, they still list the opportunistic infection they died from a lot of the time.
Just for fun, see how many people died of Pneumonia in 1981 as an overall percentage of the population, vs. 2007.
Thats just one of the diseases they list AIDS deaths as, they don't want anyone to know how many people are truly infected, or there would be a public outrage and demand for proper funding to research and combat it.
AIDS is largely a social disease, whether the government designed it, or just lets it run rampant, it is being used to wipe out 'social undesirables' as they mark up the medications to treat it by a factor of 25,000% or more (often $250 a month per bottle of meds, and you'll need at least 2 or 3 bottles of different meds), if only rich people can afford to live, then:
Drug companies make a bloody fortune.
The government wipes out the excess population of the underclass.
The government can wage war on gay men and not have to lift a finger or look like they're doing it.
If we put 10% of the budget that we give our military murderers at the Pentagon every year towards AIDS research, we'd have wiped it from the face of the Earth already.
I read somewhere that the number of women infected with HIV was increasing.
And I read another report about female teens thinking oral sex was somewhow 'not sex'.
Connect the dots..
One thing that worries me is who makes the cash.
Normally people only take medicine when they are sick, then they get better and stop buying it. Oooops that's no good for profits. But the profits will roll in if they can make all the well people take a medicine every day forever.
Anyway, poor people can't afford prophylactic drugs taken every day for the rest of their lives! Who's going to pay for this? why the taxpayer of course, people like me.
This looks like a monopoly, captive market, creation scheme.
Like an Orwellian 'permanent war' economy where the tax money goes from me to the Military/State apparatus. Only this time the taxes go from me to the Drugs industry/State apparatus.
Hey let's get real here. Stop injecting drugs and having unprotected sex with multiple partners or you will probably get sick and die. Just try to live a good decent life and you'll probably live a long and fruitful life too. It's that simple.
There's a lot of funding for AIDS because (1) it kills young and otherwise healthy people and results in a high productive years of life lost, (2) because it is a new disease, so there's a lot of room for improvement in treatment, (3) there's a lot of money to be made, (4) it's fairly easy to do research on and get results relative to other diseases, and (5) it's actually quite interesting from a research point of view and has contributed greatly to our understanding of other diseases and the immune system.
Most of the other preventable causes of death you list are also lifestyle-related, so you can get off your high moral horse: gluttony is just as much of a sin as lust. And the Republicans have been blocking progress on those other diseases: we know what to do, we just can't implement it. Heart disease and many other diseases require stem cell research, cancer and heart disease require public health messages, restrictions on advertising, healthy food standards, and tobacco restrictions. Septicemia and infections require restrictions on industrial antibiotic abuse. Accident reductions require changes in transportation policy and gun policy. Why bother develop any new medicines for those diseases either if the solutions are known, but people like you block implementing them?
'Yeah, What About Teens And Oral Sex:'
Yeah, what about them? At least oral sex doesn't get them pregnant, and the risk of disease transmission is a lot less. Sure, it's better if teens abstain (it doesn't take bible thumping religious extremists to realize that), but if they are going to have sex (and teens do), they should at least reduce the risk and harm from it.
'That pig [Clinton] has caused more harm to the moral standards of this country than anything in recent history.'
That's perhaps true according to the moral double standards of the religious right. Bush lied to the American people in order to go to war, caused the death of thousands of American soldiers, trampled all over the Constitution, and made torture (including sexual torture) an official part of US government policy. And the fact that you think that a blow job is worse than torture and the deaths of American soldiers shows that 'that pig' Bush has done more to harm the moral standards of this country than anything in recent history.
IF there wasn't somebody making a bunch of money AIDS drugs, I seriously doubt they would even exist.
Thankfully someone sees that lifestyle choices are a key downfall in the health of people all over the world. Cheers to Mike Nov 28th, 2008 - 10:11:18!!! Obesity is an epidemic in our country, and combined with smoking, they are the root causes for so many health concerns and ultimately premature death. However, being fat isn't viewed as morally wrong? Smoking isn’t seen as morally wrong? Why not??? For you religious folks... Gluttony IS a sin and from what I recall in Sunday school, a sin is a sin is a sin. That means fat people are going to hell too. Correct? If you want to rank the severity of sins, then parents who allow their children to get fat are one of the true sinners/criminals of today. It pains me to see fat children, especially when they're under the age of 5!!! Talk about something that is morally wrong! But I digress...
Let me take a step back- really, in the end, I will not be tried for your sins. You will not be judged for my sins. So, why don't we stop trying to force our beliefs on each other and stop being so judgmental? Let's be good people and try to help and educate people (without the opinionated, morally judgmental slant) so they are empowered and will hopefully make choices that are BEST FOR THEM. We may be against his or her choice, but as long as we help people help themselves, isn't that the whole point?
You can own the web address www.TheHIVpill.com. Buy it at that address.
How many Billions of dollars have the people who knew that they were engaging in risky behavior? How many people could have been cured of diseases that they could have not foreseen or prevented had the same amount of money been spent on them? Such a shame that some people could choose to do what is right and the rest of have to pay for their choices.
AIDS patients need food too. A problem faced by many AIDS sufferers in Africa is that while they have access to anti-HIV medication, they have no food. Medications taken on empty stomach often cause sickness.
Accusing AIDS sufferers as being responsible for their disease is pretty bigoted: most costly diseases (chronic heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, cognitive decline, etc.) are self-inflicted and far more costly than AIDS.
Worse yet, not only do people do this to themselves, the bad nutrition and bad lifestyles that are responsible for all these diseases are government-subsidized, in the form of subsidized meat, corn, and other farming.
Unlike Parkinson's Disease, MS, Cancer and various other disease, AIDS is 100% completely preventable. Here are some tips:
1. Don't share needles.
2. Don't have casual sex.
3. Stay in a monogamous relationship in which you are both HIV free.
That's it. That's all you have to do in 3 easy steps.
It's now 25 years into the AIDS situation and 3 the things I listed will guarantee you will never get AIDS. It's so easy but people would rather hook up or shoot up with strangers, and then wake up the next morning wondering what happened.
I have compassion, but after 25 years of this, I'm growing weary. We all know what to do in order to NOT get AIDS, and those who play dumb are are just that--dumb.
Vaccines and miracle pills may never happen, folks. Don't get your hopes up. Keep shooting up, keep the bathhouses open, keep swinging. Do what you want to do, but when you get it, don't say you didn't know and start begging the government for more AIDS research.
more steps to avoid AIDS.. (cos the fugwit above didn't mention)
avoid blood transfusions
avoid being raped
avoid having sex in a loving monogomous relationship with somone who has been cheating on you or has a history of having sex prior to meeting you, or receiving blood transfusions or has been raped..
Maybe we can think of some other SURE ways to stay AIDS free...
Make sure when you are being born that you don't catch it from your mother!!! Or otherwise its your own fault!! Its an easily avoidable disease, no one else to blame if you didn't follow these wise tips..
Getting AIDS these days via blood transfusions is extremely rare. All blood is tested, unlike the early 80's. Who can forget Ryan White.
Getting AIDS from a rape is also rare. First of all, the man has to have the HIV virus, and transmit it to the victim. HIV doesn't automatically transmit every time you're exposed to it.
If you're in a monogamous relationship and you get AIDS, then it's obviously not a monogamous relationship.
Most pregnant women with HIV can meds which will prevent their baby from getting AIDS.
People seem to put AIDS above everything else. It's not. There are children at St Judes hospital and all over the world with brain tumors and leukemia. My mom is a breast cancer survivor. I know a woman who got lung cancer and never smoked. Yes, AIDS for the most part is preventable. It doesn't just magically appear in your body one day.
Wake up you idiot. The universe does not end at the borders of the developed nations and its a bitch if these rare events happen anyway, isn't it????
Of course it's a bitch if people get AIDS. It's also a bitch if they get heart attacks, strokes, neurological diseases, cancer, or struck by lightening. There are things we can do to prevent getting struck by lightening. Maybe stay inside during a storm. A heart attack could be prevented by possibly living a healthier lifestyle.
AIDS is spread from sex and needles, and those other rare cases, like rape and mother to child. People try to live healthy lifestyles in some ways, but when it comes to sex they suddenly lose control.
We can only do so much for the US, for Africa, and for every other place on the planet who has people out of control. We can give out condoms from now until eternity, but if people don't use them each and every time, the latex is useless. We can give people clean needles to shoot up, but again, are they going to use them every time? No. Why? Because people are stubborn. They don't believe it's going to happen to them.
We've known about the dangers of smoking since the surgeon general's report in the 1960's. Guess what? People are still smoking.
Getting HIV/AIDS by mother to child transmission is rare if the mother knows she is HIV positive and takes her HAART medication because it will prevent it, but thats in the US other countries such as africa arent as lucky to have access to meds like we do so over there it is NOT RARE
also getting HIV/AIDS through rape is rare in the US and developed countries if the victim seeks medical treatment and goes on HAART prophylactically to prevent possible infection if the victim doesnt do this she/he is at risk. and rape is extremely common in africa and the victims cannot seek help so getting HIV/AIDS through a rape is very common there it is NOT RARE
and about the monogamous relationship thing... even if it is monogamous were both partners tested for HIV before they had sex with each other and after their last partner so there was a 3 month window period of no sex and then an HIV test saying theyre negative because thats the only way to know for sure. you cant get an HIV test once in your life and then assume everything is ok from then on. And you can go by looks, or just trusting someone because it takes up to 10 years to develop symptoms so someone could get a negative HIV test then get in new monogamous relations with someone who they think is clean and healthy but isnt and a few years later oops!
Ive known cases where woman only had one partner their whole life, their husband, and been diagnosed because he never knew he had it or never got tested even though while they were together it was monogamous.
page: 1
Rev. Mark JamesNov 28th, 2008 - 05:15:56
How about doing an article on how many people HAART has killed. How may cases of 'AIDS deaths' are due to these highly toxic drugs.
Report this comment