Hetrosexuals highest risk group for HIV infection in Bali

Professor Nyoman Mangku Karmaya, Indonesia's National AIDs Control Commission, 75% of Bali's HIV/AIDS cases due to heterosexual activity.

Indonesia’s National AIDS Control Commission says 75 per cent of people known to be living with HIV in Bali are heterosexuals and aged between 20 and 29-years-old. According to Indonesian government’s newswire, Antara, there are a known 3,832 people infected by HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and 3,459 known cases of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). Quoting Indonesia’s AIDs Control Commission coordinator Professor Nyoman Mangku Karmaya, Antara reports that HIV infection in Bali though heterosexual encounters the next highest risk group of HIV infection in Bali is intravenous drug users at 11.08 per cent, followed by homosexual HIV transmission in Bali at 4.16 per cent, with almost 10 per cent of Bali HIV infections attributed to other causes. Antara quotes Professor … Continue reading

HIV “Functional Cure” Found in Thai Red Cross Trial

92% of people who commence antiretroviral drug treatment witin two weeks of infection receive "functional cure" Thai Red Cross study finds.

A human HIV trial conducted as part of a Thai Red Cross Society (TRCS) research project has produced promising results for those who commence a course of antiretroviral drugs within two weeks of being infected by the HIV virus. The study, part of a “search 0101” research project by the Thai Red Cross, commenced in 2009 and involved 96 people. Lead researcher on the Thai Red Cross project, Dr Jintanat Ananworanich, said antiretroviral drugs were given to 26 people who had been infected with the virus for no more than two weeks. Blood tests taken after two weeks of treatment revealed that the white blood cells of 24 people, or 92 per cent of participants, contained no HIV virus. Describing … Continue reading

New data from Thailand RV144 HIV vaccine trial spurs hope

Schematic render of the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)

An analysis of the modestly successful Phase III RV144 clinical HIV vaccine trial in Thailand between 2003 and 2006 involving more than 16,000 people has produced new information that may assist in the development of a broadly protective HIV vaccine. The RV144 HIV vaccine trial led by Supachai Rerks-Ngarm, MD., of the Thai Ministry of Public Health’s Department of Disease Control and supported by the U.S. Army in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), tested the safety and effectiveness of a prime-boost regimen of two vaccines, a modified canarypox vaccine, ALVAC-HIV (the primer dose), and a glycoprotein 120 vaccine, AIDSVAX B/E (the booster dose), on volunteers aged between 18 and 30 years of age in … Continue reading

HPTN 052 trial finding antiretroviral drugs cut HIV transmission by 96% the most important science breakthrough of 2011

HPTN 052 trial that finds antiretroviral drugs cut HIV transmission by 96% lauded as Science Breakthrough of 2011

A clinical trial by the University of North Carolina’s School of Medicine at Chapel Hill that found HIV infected people who took anti- retroviral drugs (ARVs) are 96 percent less likely to transmit the HIV virus to their partner(s) has been proclaimed as the most important scientific breakthrough in 2011 by the prestigious journal Science. Led by distinguished Professor Myron S. Cohen, the HPTN 052 trial, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and others, puts an end to long-standing speculation as to whether ARVs provide a double benefit – treating the HIV virus in infected people while simultaneously cutting transmission rates. The HPTN 052 trial began in 2007 with 1,763 predominantly heterosexual couples from Botswana, Brazil, … Continue reading

New drug extends life of men with advanced prostate cancer

There’s good news for men’s health today with trials in the UK of a new prostate cancer drug, radium-223 chloride – also known as Alpharadin TM – being halted because the results were so successful. Doctors at at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London found that the experimental treatment relieved pain while causing only minor side effects, leading them to decide it would be unethical not offer the drug to all 922 prostate cancer volunteers taking part in the study. The UK trials, part of a wider Phase III trial of Alpharadin TM conducted in more than 150 hospitals in 19 countries, saw a 30 per cent lower death rate in those receiving the experimental drug record than those receiving … Continue reading