While other antiviral drugs against HIV work inside the immune cell to stop some phase of the virus s replication process, a new drug receiving favorable attention in recent weeks is one that works to block the virus from entering the cells. The new drug is T-20 (the T stands for its manufacturer Trimeris), and it is i
One of the area s largest private health insurance providers, Kaiser Permanente, announced changes to some of its benefit packages this month that some people with HIV/AIDS say will spell death for them. While some AIDS service organizations said that the changes would not impact large numbers of people with AIDS, the
The Washington Blade Inc. - Friday, November 6, 1998
Lisa Keen
The results of two recent studies have further dimmed the hopes that people with HIV might eventually be able to reduce the number of drugs they have to take or stop taking drugs altogether. The studies, involving almost 600 patients, were published in the Oct. 29 New England Journal of Medicine. One, in San Diego, inv
Provocative posters for a new HIV prevention campaign raised eyebrows this month in Washington, D.C., when they appeared on city bus shelters, then disappeared only to reappear again. The ads are now up in at least some bus shelters, and whatever disagreement sparked their removal appears to have been resolved. But whe
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala released preliminary statistics Oct. 7 indicating an unprecedented decline in AIDS deaths occurred between 1996 and 1997. The news wasn t really a surprise, since public health officials began, at the start of 1998, reporting dramatic declines in the numbers of dea
The Washington Blade Inc. - Friday, October 9, 1998
Lisa Keen
A team of researchers from Australia told a scientific conference in San Diego last week that triple-drug therapy started in a group of 13 people before their bodies began producing HIV antibodies was not able to eliminate HIV. This is discouraging news for the possibility of eradicating HIV by treating during acute in
While the National Institutes of Health and others plan studies to test the possibility of stopping combination therapy in people with HIV who have been able to drastically reduce their viral loads and maintain them under the level of detection, one practical problem has become paramount: finding participants. Richard
The Washington Blade Online - Friday, September 18, 1998
Rhonda Smith
Some say it s time to renew call for declaring state of emergency among African Americans A preliminary proposal that the U.S. Health and Human Services Department is developing calls for shifting between $35 million and $45 million of Ryan White AIDS funds for the current fiscal year to AIDS programs specifically desi
The Washington Blade Online - Friday, September 18, 1998
Lisa Keen
Researchers at Johns Hopkins report this month that 21 percent of people with HIV develop anemia and that the anemia, in and of itself, decreases the patients survival time. In the Sept. 1 issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology, the researchers report that they observed 2,3
There have been a couple of reports recently suggesting caution around the use of the spermicide nonoxynol-9 in AIDS prevention efforts. A report in the New England Journal of Medicine on the use of nonoxynol-9 among female sex workers found it had no apparent ability to prevent the transmission of HIV, gonorrhea, or o
In a study which supports a recent trend toward using more than three drugs simultaneously to suppress HIV replication, a team of doctors from the Netherlands report that a five-drug regimen appears to be more effective in suppressing HIV than the current standard three-drug regimen. In an article published in the
A group of researchers in London are recommending that renal specialists begin looking for HIV infection in patients who come to them with renal disease, particularly if the patients are black. According to Reuters, the researchers report in the June issue of Sexually Transmitted Infections that a small retrospective s
Researchers in California added new urgency to the search for immune boosters last week when they reported finding that the AIDS virus is able, even after it has been rendered noninfectious by certain antiviral drugs, to arrest the body’s immune cells. The finding, reported in the July 10 issue of Science magazine, cam
Diego Uriburu jokingly describes his childhood in Argentina as consumed by a focus on life s existential dilemmas - his favorite having been death and dying. And as he eagerly leads the conversation in his tiny office in La Clinica del Pueblo s third-floor walk-up Adams Morgan facility, it doesn t appear he s lost his
A phone survey of 665 people with HIV taking protease inhibitor combinations revealed that 43 percent had not adhered to their therapy during the previous week; 26 percent had not adhered in the previous day. The reasons cited varied considerably. Asked what the number one reason why adherence to the drug therapy was s
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released on April 24 an updated report on the recommended standard of therapy for people with HIV and AIDS. Spencer Cox, a member of the panel of experts who prepare the recommendations, said the revisions contain very few substantive changes. The guidelines stick wit
**Household contact is still safe Experts have been saying for many years that casual household contact with a person with HIV is not risky. A study in the March issue of the journal Clinical Pediatrics provided additional documentation for that advice. The study, by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
**CD4 increase may be enough to fight OIs A letter published in the April 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that just boosting the number of CD4 cells in a person with HIV helps the patient fight off opportunistic infections, even if his or her viral load remains very high. Dr. Stuart Levitz at th
A triple-drug combination of nevirapine , AZT , and ddI dropped viral loads below 20 particles per milliliter after only two months for 51 percent of patients in a study group, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
Famed AIDS researcher Robert Gallo announced this week that his team of researchers are getting very close to identifying a natural substance that appears to be able to fight off the AIDS virus, restore immune-fighting cells, and shrink Kaposi s sarcoma tumors. The substance, they report, is produced in the urine of wo
One of the biggest challenges to emerge in the past year on the journey to HIV eradication has been the discovery that, while current antiviral drugs seem able to stop the virus from replicating, the virus is still able to hide out in certain immune cells. HIV can apparently sit safely in those hiding places, resting
The results of a study of more than 1,000 people with HIV suggests that the protease inhibitor ritonavir is safe and effective in slowing disease progression in patients with already advanced disease and who have been heavily treated with other antiviral drugs. According to a report in the Feb. 20 issue of the Brit
Last fall, researchers in France and Germany reported having three patients who had taken a combination of ddI-Hydroxyurea for a period of one year or less and yet had their viral loads stay below the level of detection for as much as a year without taking any other medication. Skeptics noted at the time that other stu
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports in the January issue of the medical journal Blood that anemia is a frequent complication of HIV infection that often goes undetected and untreated, and has potentially dangerous consequences. According to CDC, people who develop anemia that is not resolved hav
AIDS researchers have turned a lot of their attention in recent months to trying to understand what happens to the immune system s CD4 cells after infection. These are the cells that fight off infections in the body. When HIV strikes, many are killed off every day. But shortly after treatment with triple-drug protease
An article in Poz magazine s February issue cautions people with HIV infection against taking steam baths and sharing bath towels. People with HIV are more susceptible to the human papilloma virus (HPV) and molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV), notes the article, and these contagions, which cause warts that are both disfi
About 1.5 percent of people who test negative for HIV antibodies are HIV-infected. That was one finding of a study of people visiting two clinics in India last month, reflecting an increasing need for medical science to find more readily available ways to detect early HIV infection. In the
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