Category Archives: HIV news

HIV news

Oral HIV rapid tests unlikely to be sold in Australia

Posted on by December 10, 2012
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Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is not allowed to evaluate applications to supply HIV home-testing kits.

Australian consumers are unlikely to see oral HIV rapid tests on sale in the near future with the country’s regulating body, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), saying by law it is not allowed to evaluate applications to supply HIV home test kits. At the same time Levinia Crooks, chief executive of the Australasian Society for HIV Management, says that while the OraQuick rapid HIV instant test kit by OraSure Technologies is relatively easy to self-administer, it is not a highly sensitive test. Earlier this week the US-FDA approved the OraQuick rapid HIV instant test kit for over-the-counter (OTC) sales in the USA, despite researchers finding that in home HIV testing use the oral HIV rapid tests returned a Specificity of … Continue reading →

Rapid home HIV instant test kit gets US-FDA approval

Posted on by December 10, 2012
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OraQuick test by OraSure Technologies the first rapid home HIV test approved by the US-FDA.

The US-FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has approved the OraQuick rapid HIV instant test kit by OraSure Technologies as the first rapid HIV home test kit available for OTC (over the counter) purchase in the United States. The approval will enable Americans to purchase the OraQuick rapid HIV instant test and ascertain their HIV infection status in the privacy of their homes, with the OraQuick rapid HIV home test providing results in between 20 and 40 minutes from a saliva mouth swab. AIDS researcher and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, said the freer availability of rapid HIV instant test kits for home HIV testing could help bring the 30-year-old epidemic under … Continue reading →

New data from Thailand RV144 HIV vaccine trial spurs hope

Posted on by December 10, 2012
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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 →

Rapid HIV instant test kit shortage halts Kenya HIV testing

Posted on by December 10, 2012
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Trinity Biotech's Uni-Gold rapid HIV instant test kit

Kenyan government officials are blaming congestion at the Mombasa port for a rapid HIV instant test kit shortage that has all but put a halt to testing throughout the country. A report in PlusNews, the global online HIV and AIDS news service of the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), says HIV/AIDS counseling and testing centers across Kenya are turning people away due to the rapid HIV instant test kit shortage. The rapid HIV instant test kit shortage follows Standard Diagnostics’ Bioline® HIV 1/2 3.0 Rapid HIV Test Kit being suddenly removed from the UN World Health Organization’s list of approved rapid HIV instant test kits in December 2011, after the South Korea manufacturer failed quality assurance tests. There has … Continue reading →

Microsoft founder throws The Global Fund a $750 million lifeline

Posted on by December 10, 2012
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have thrown The Global Fund a $750 million lifeline

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has thrown The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (The Global Fund) a $750 million lifeline coinciding with the group’s 10th-anniversary. Describing The Global Fund as one of the most “effective entities” the Gates Foundation supports, the former Silicon Valley tycoon and world’s second wealthiest man said he was disappointed at the focus on reports last year which detailed the misappropriation of some funds in Africa, saying “if you’re going to do business in Africa, you’re going to have some losses”. Mr Gates said it is “disappointing” to see some people focus on a “small misuse of funds. The internal checks and balances have worked … Continue reading →