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Tuesday, May 06, 2008 |
In this issue: |
Canadian Government Committed 'Breach' of Scientific Standards by Interfering in Vancouver's Supervised Drug-Injection Site, Researchers Say(Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report) Canadian government officials committed a "serious breach of international scientific standards" by intervening in an independent scientific review of the supervised drug-injection facility Insite in Vancouver, British Columbia, according to an article recently published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, Toronto's Globe and Mail reports (Picard, Toronto's Globe and Mail, 5/2). Insite, which is funded by the British Columbia provincial government and has received research funding from the Canadian government, includes 12 booths for injection drug users to inject drugs as well as a "chill-out" room, in which users can be monitored for overdoses. At the site, drug users receive clean needles, tourniquets, water and cotton balls, and a nurse supervises their activities and provides them with referrals to detox centers and homeless shelters. Vancouver has one of the highest illegal drug use rates in North America, with as many as 12,000 IDUs in the Vancouver metropolitan area, 30% of whom are HIV-positive and 90% of whom have hepatitis C.
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Researchers Develop Breath-Monitoring Device To Monitor Treatment Adherence Among HIV-Positive People(Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report) Researchers at the University of Florida and Xhale have developed a breath-monitoring device that can detect whether people living with HIV/AIDS adhere to their treatment regimens, ANI/Thaindian News reports. According to Richard Melker, a professor of anesthesiology at the University of Florida College of Medicine and chief technology officer at Xhale, the shoebox-sized device makes a beeping sound when it is time for HIV-positive people to take their antiretroviral drugs. If patients do not press a button to signal that they have taken their medication after five minutes, the device begins to beep at an increasingly louder volume until the button is pressed, Melker said. He added that if the button is not pressed after a set amount of time, the device can contact treatment coordinators to indicate that patients did not follow their treatment regimens.
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The Body Pro - Two UpdatesIn this issue, we have put together two of the latest HIV news from The Body Pro. These updates include HIV/AIDS treatment and complications, living with HIV, HIV Prevention, HIV and the World, etc. It is a long document packed with interesting and relevant information on the latest developments in HIV/AIDS. Hope you find it useful. >> Click Here for The Body Pro News
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Mandatory HIV Testing in North Carolina Prisons Will Not Stem Spread of Virus, Opinion Piece Says(Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report) Given that HIV/AIDS prevalence among prison inmates in North Carolina is "several-fold higher than that of the general population," mandatory HIV testing "of inmates on face value seems attractive," David Wohl -- associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina Center for Infectious Diseases and co-director of HIV Services for the Department of Correction -- and David Rosen of the UNC School of Medicine write it a Raleigh News & Observer opinion piece. According to the authors, requiring individuals to undergo HIV tests denies them "basic autonomy that should not be lost with incarceration."
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PosorNot
New York, NY — mtvU, MTV’s Peabody and Emmy Award-winning college network, and the Kaiser Family Foundation, in partnership with POZ Magazine, today unveiled "Pos or Not" (www.PosorNot.com): an online game that challenges stereotypes and breaks down the barriers that may prevent people from talking openly about HIV/AIDS, getting tested, and using protection. People from across the U.S. — half of whom are living with HIV and half who are not — share parts of their lives for "Pos or Not" by divulging their HIV status to help dispel myths and misconceptions about HIV and AIDS. Players confront their own HIV stereotypes as they guess whether a profiled participant is positive or negative based only on a photo and a few personal details, such as what they do on the weekends or their favorite kind of music. >> Click Here for Media Release
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U.S., British HIV/AIDS Researchers Pessimistic About Prospects of Vaccine, Survey Finds(Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report) Leading HIV/AIDS researchers in Britain and the U.S. are pessimistic about the prospects of developing an HIV vaccine following the recent failure of a Merck vaccine candidate, according to a survey conducted by London's Independent, the Independent reports (Connor/Green, Independent, 4/24). Merck in September 2007 announced it had halted a large-scale clinical trial of its experimental HIV vaccine after the drug failed to prevent HIV infection in participants or prove effective in delaying the progression of the virus to AIDS. The vaccine candidate also might have put some trial participants at an increased risk of HIV (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 3/26). To determine the sentiments of researchers, the Independent surveyed more than 35 leading HIV/AIDS scientists in the U.S. and Britain. The survey found that two researchers responded that they are now more optimistic about the prospects for an HIV vaccine than they were last year, and four said that they were more optimistic now than they were five years ago. About two-thirds said that a vaccine will not be developed within the next decade, and some respondents said it would take at least 20 years to develop a vaccine.
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Suppression of Human Protein Reduces HIV's Ability To Enter T Cells, Replicate, Study Finds(Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report) Researchers have found that suppressing the human protein ITK in CD4+ T cells reduces HIV's ability to enter the cells and replicate, according to an NIH study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Reuters reports. For the study, Pamela Schwartzberg of Boston University and colleagues used human cells in a laboratory to test two methods of inactivating ITK.
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Specific Adverse Events of Antiretroviral Therapy Vary Depending on Race, Gender, Study SaysKaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report) Although the overall rate of adverse events among HIV-positive people initiating antiretroviral treatment does not differ significantly among different races and genders, there are significant differences for specific adverse events, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, Reuters Health reports. For the study, Ellen Tedaldi of Temple University's School of Medicine and colleagues compared the frequency and types of adverse events among 1,301 patients who were initiating antiretroviral therapy. The study included 701 black participants, 225 Latinos and 273 women. The study did not find significant differences among races or gender in regard to death from any cause or treatment withdrawal rates because of drug toxicity (Reuters Health, 4/30).
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WORLD LEADERS: STOP THE FOOD CRISIS(Avaaz.org) "We've plunged into a world food crisis-- soaring crop prices sowing inflation and squeezing households round the world, 100 million more facing starvation and food riots flaring from Egypt to Bangladesh. In Sierra Leone alone rice prices have doubled, leaving 90% of the country unable to provide food for their family--so we're joining with their foreign minister Zainab Bangura (right) to press world leaders to act" Both rapid emergency action and fundamental reform are needed to end this crisis, so we'll deliver the campaign in the coming days and weeks to a string of key political meetings and summits--add your name urgently to the petition then watch Zainab’s video message and spread the word: >> Click Here to Sign the Petition
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Body Mapping Workshops
Please contact HIV Edmonton by June 16th, 2008 to express interest in participating in this unique learning experience. Available only to people living in Edmonton Click Here for Full Poster
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Dynamics of HIV
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