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How many times have you started to have a conversation with someone about Hepatitis C only to have it blow up in your face? Have you ever heard someone say something about Hep C that didn't seem quite right to you? You were probably right something was amiss. A discussion about Hepatitis C can...
As per Wikipedia, the definition of a stigma is as follows: "Stigma is a word that originally means a "sign", "point", or "branding mark"." Wikipedia goes on to call stigma "A badge of shame, a physical mark of infamy or disgrace." Damn that w...
Recently, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) issued a statement that all Baby Boomers should be tested for Hepatitis C. The question often comes up as to why this particular segment of people is so vulnerable. What does being born between 1945 and 1965 have to do with Hepatitis C? What was di...
Buyer Beware! There are several snake oil salesmen out there who are claiming to have cured their own Hepatitis C with herbs, supplements and parking lot gravel. Okay, maybe not the parking lot gravel but it might as well be. What you need to remember is that there are two different types of...
Most every adult woman (and an occasional man) has enjoyed a manicure and a pedicure at a nail salon or spa. That 30 minute pedicure can be so relaxing but are you aware of the danger lurking in that nail salon? Although few individuals recognize the medical risks associated with this common pr...
President Ernest Bai Koroma has re-affirmed his commitment to ensure that HIV/AIDS is on his priority list.
He made this commitment last Thursday whilst addressing the National AIDS Council (NAC) members at State House when they convened to discuss the Country Progress Report on HIV/AIDS.
Koroma said that HIV/AIDS is “part of the Agenda for Prosperity document we are currently developing.”
He added that government will continue to increase its investment in HIV/AIDS both in terms of political and financial support, maintaining that every Sierra Leonean, whether in good health or ill health is at risk of contracting the virus.
“The infection rate among our adolescent girls is three times higher (1.4%) than boys (0.5%) while our youths aged 23-24 years is 1.4%”. These statistics President Koroma says, are disturbing for a country that is hoping on this particular group of future leaders.
“I therefore appeal to our development partners to help Sierra Leone mitigate and avert this tragedy from becoming worse”, he said.
He thanked the United Nations agencies, the US government, German government, and others, noting that “we do firmly recognize the importance of committing our own resources as a nation to the fight against the disease.”
Addressing Journalists last Friday at the National HIV/AIDS Secretariat (NAS) after the State House meeting, Dr Brima Kargbo said that the President and members of NAC were briefed on three important issues; the country progress report, global fund grant and the partnership forum.
He reiterated that in the past four to five years HIV/AIDS was prioritized in the Agenda for Change and with the new Agenda for Prosperity which is being prepared, HIV/AIDS is also being prioritized.
Dr Kargbo asserted that the government has shown its commitment by providing the 5% Counterpart funding which the Global Fund is requesting countries to provide before ever they disburse resources.
The Director stated that according to the progress report, our prevalence still stands at 1.5%, adding this has been so for the past four years because we normally conduct national stereo prevalence survey after every three to five years.
He said that because the survey is costly “what we do is that we monitor the trend using pregnant women as proxy. The prevalence rate among pregnant women is also reducing”, he stated, pointing out that it has moved from 4.4% to 3.2%.
“One of the key issues that we presented to the Council is the first National Strategic Plan which ended in 2010,” he said. Dr Kargbo disclosed that “if you look at what we achieved in 2010 compare it to the New Strategy Plan that we developed for 2011 to 2015 we have seen an increase in the number of testing sites of what was available in 2010.
“The number of people tested in 2010 was about 217,000, whilst in 2011 we tested about 347000. This shows that there is an increase in the number of people who are actually accepting the testing facilities”, he added further noting that testing is the gateway to HIV prevention, treatment and care.
The Director further stated that Sierra Leone is doing well in the area of prevention of Mother to Child Transmission because the number of infected children born to HIV affected mothers has reduced from 9% to 5%; and that is the acceptable level in which a country is identified for possible elimination of the Mother to Child Transmission.
This year again, he disclosed that Sierra Leone has been identified by the United Nations to serve in the Panel of the Programme Coordinating Board of the UN that controls HIV/AIDS, because of the achievement we have made as a country.
In her presentation on the Partnership Forum, Mrs. Dilys Thompson, Coordinator Children and HIV said that the Forum was formed to actualize President Koroma’s clarion call in the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan (NSP) 2011-2015 to engage partners on the implementation of the NSP and to constantly re-shape strategies that would help achieve the three zeros by 2015.
She added that the overall objective is to support NAS in accelerating the national response to HIV/AIDS in Sierra Leone based on the 2011-2015 NSP.
Mr. Maxin Kanu, Admin and Finance Coordinator Global Fund said in the past we had the World Bank SHARP project on HIV/AIDS and activities were done randomly; It was not properly coordinated.
He added that with the coming in of the Global Fund in 2005, NAS developed the Comprehensive National Response to the disease.
The Admin and Finance Coordinator stated that we have four grants moving. The HIV SS Grant which is the Round 9, the TB Round 7, Malaria Round 7 and Malaria and TB Round 10.
Please sign the ATC Salvage Therapy Petition Join us in asking Congressman Alcee Hastings and Congresswomen Maxine Waters to send a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter to Anthony Fauci, Director of NIAID, asking for the federal facilitation of apricitabine (ATC). ATC is a phase III nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) that has been shown to be safe and effective in treating people with HIV. It works against viruses that are resistant to several other nukes and could ...
Researchers from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the University of Massachusetts Medical School announced today at CROI2013 the discovery of the first infant functionally cured of HIV. The baby, a female now two and a half years old, received 3 HIV medications when brought to the hospital at 30 hours old. Viral load tests were performed during the first few weeks that showed a rapidly decreasing viral load which reached ...
At the 19th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington D.C., the CDC reported that only 1 out of 4 HIV patients in the U.S. have HIV under control, which is defined as complete viral suppression. Warning bells should be ringing in the scientific and HIV advocacy communities. While much progress has been made in the last three decades in the treatment of HIV, tens of thousands of people living with HIV (PLWH) are currently struggling to construct viable treat...
Paige Rawl is 17 and HIV positive, but while her life has been shaped by HIV it isn't ruled by it. When Paige Rawl starts her senior year at Indianapolis’s Herron High School next month, she'll be cheer captain and a member of the student government and prom committee. This summer, the 17-year-old held down a part-time job at Hollister, hawking the popular Southern California-inspired clothing brand. The all-American girl — who happens to be HIV positive. Paige was in...
The HIV community has been abuzz with the August FDA approval of what had been termed “the Quad”, the second one-pill-once-a-day combination antiretroviral drug. Marketed by Gilead under the name Stribild, the drug contains two NRTIs (tenofovir and emtricitabine), an integrase inhibitor (elvitegravir) and an integrase booster (cobicistat) and is approved for use in treatment naïve patients with either drug resistant or wild type virus. In comparison to Atripla, the first...
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) for SUSTIVA® (efavirenz), including dosing recommendations for...
California and other states would be pressured to amend or repeal criminal laws that single out HIV-positive people under a bipartisan bill co-authored and introduced this week by Rep. Barbara...
Mission Statement
At HIV Haven we wish to provide our readers with vital cutting edge information to help expand HIV knowledge and promote activism, particularly that which works towards an end to the HIV pandemic. It is our desire to bring to you the scientific, medical and social advances that given the appropriate attention and support, could change the course of the HIV pandemic, lessen the devastating effects of HIV and AIDS, better the quality and quantity of life for people living with HIV and even yield an eventual end to the HIV pandemic. We also provide the basics of HIV transmission and treatment.
We will focus on issues such as innovative drug development, strategic activist campaigns, HIV relationships and novel HIV and HIV cure research. We also will bring you advances in Hepatitis C (HCV), a common HIV co-infection. Whether you are living with HIV/AIDS, HIV and HCV, love someone who is, are an activist, advocate, researcher, physician or just an interested party, we hope here at HIV Haven we can help you find what you are looking for.
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Makerere University Walter Reed Project (MUWRP) is this July launching another third Phase I trial to develop an HIV vaccine since 1999 when the first trial was launched. Phase I is the first...
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The attorney for a New York man imprisoned amid accusations he infected 13 young women with HIV in the 1990s says his client doesn't have the virus. Nushawn Williams' lawyer says Williams' blood...
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AUSTRALIA is way behind the US and Europe in protecting medical workers from sharp objects, says a former US nurse who contracted HIV and hepatitis C through a needle injury. Dr Karen Daley, in...
Background: The resurgence of infectious syphilis in men who have sex with men (MSM) has been documented worldwide; however, HIV coinfection and syphilis reinfections in MSM in inner Sydney have not...
'Your Body Blueprint', a new campaign for people living with HIV has just been launched by AFAO. Based around an interactive website, the campaign is designed to encourage and support people...
DESPACHO GERAL, a Santos-based custom clearance agency for over twenty years, has successfully navigated the protocols for shipping the Spirit of Malabo to New York. The vessel departs today on...
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Top AIDS scientists are in Paris to mark the 30th anniversary of the detection of HIV. One of them is Sharon Lewin. Her work on latent HIV cells could lead to a cure, but she warns it's a "tough...
There was no fanfare on May 20, 1983 when Science published what is undoubtedly among the most important medical papers of the 20th century. In the usual dry prose, researchers from the Institut...
“It will take 10 years.” That is what researchers usually say when asked how much longer it will take to develop a safe and effective HIV vaccine.Some of the world’s brightest minds have been on...
Bottling up emotions is thought to harm both mind and body, but a new study suggests that the opposite extreme may be no better. In a study of thousands of heart attack patients, those who...
An explosion of cheap generic substitutes for widely used prescription drugs last year helped drive the first decline in pharmaceutical spending in the U.S. in nearly six decades. Drug makers...
An antibiotic-resistant strain of gonorrhea—now considered a superbug—has some analysts saying that the bacteria's effects could match those of AIDS. "This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the...
