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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...
According to researchers from Lund University in Sweden, they have opened the way for new methods to slow the development of AIDS in HIV-1 infected patients. The authors hope that their study, published in New England Journal of Medicine, can improve treatment methods and preventive measures to fight HIV and AIDS.
HIV-1 is the most common type of the virus that causes AIDS, and when it infects someone who already struggles with the milder HIV-2, it is less aggressive. In this study, the experts examined how the disease developed in people infected with HIV-1 and those who were infected with both HIV-1 and HIV-2.
Joakim Esbjörnsson, a virologist at Lund University, said:
"The moderating effect of HIV-2 was extremely strong. The time it took to develop AIDS was around 50 percent longer for those infected with both strains than for those only carrying the HIV-1 virus. The unusually large difference makes me, as a researchers, very optimistic that it will be possible to identify new and significant approaches that can be taken to combating the development of AIDS."
The unique thing about their research, explained Hans Norrgren, researcher at Lund University and Skåne University Hospital and doctor in infectious diseases, is that not only has the investigation been carried out for more than 20 years, but they have also followed healthy people from when they were first infected with HIV-1, or both HIV-1 and HIV-2, through the development of the disease which allowed them to compare how the infection in each individual has progressed over time.
Investigations showed that there was a difference in the genetic diversity of the HIV that was linked to an early stage of HIV infection. During the development of an infection, different strains of HIV co-exist; and the closer to AIDS the infection gets to, the larger the genetic difference between them.
CD4+ T cells, which are helper cells that play a key role in the immune system that are destroyed by the HIV virus, were also examined. Participants infected with both HIV-1 and HIV-2 had an advantage with these cells. In the course of infection, dual infected patients had a higher number of CD4+ T cells making it take longer to reach low levels of those cells. This meant that it would take longer for the infection to develop into AIDS.
Patrick Medstrand, Professor of Virology at Lund University, said:
"Our results suggest that HIV-2 can activate cellular reactions which naturally check the development of AIDS. If we can map these, I think we can also uncover entirely new mechanisms that are key to the slower development of the disease. In the long run, this could lead to better preventive measures and treatments."
A unique 20-year study of 4,700 infected people in Guinea-Bissau in West Africa lies behind the discoveries.
Fredrik Månsson, a doctor in infectious diseases in Malmö and one of the researchers in the study, explained:
"Our work is the result of many people's work over many years, in particular the staff of the National Public Health Laboratory in Guinea-Bissau and the police health station in the capital Bissau, who have carried out the practical work of examining the study participants, taking samples and conducting laboratory analyses."
Like HIV-1, HIV-2 can also lead to AIDS
HIV-2, the milder strain of HIV, is found on a large scale only in West Africa. More people are infected with HIV-1 than HIV-2, and know that it is more aggressive. However, HIV-2 can also lead to AIDS. Fewer people infected with HIV-2 develop AIDS, and only about 25-30 percent of those who have received no treatment.
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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