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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...
By late this summer, the Food and Drug Administration could approve a widely used AIDS drug as the first pill to prevent transmission of HIV, the AIDS virus. The drug, Truvada (pronounced tru-VAH-duh), made by Gilead Sciences of Foster City, Calif., already is commonly used in combination with other drugs to treat patients with HIV infection. If approved for HIV prevention, as an FDA advisory panel recommended in May, it can be prescribed to healthy patients who are at high risk, such as partners of people who have HIV/AIDS and non-monogamous gay and bisexual men. Experts offer their thoughts on the drug.
Q: How effective is Truvada as a prevention tool?
A: Two large clinical trials involving couples and individuals found that Truvada significantly reduced the risk of transmission of HIV from a low of 44% to more than 90%. The greatest benefit came for patients who took the medicine as directed, as confirmed by blood tests.
Q: Are there dangers associated with use of this medicine?
A: If not taken properly, drug resistance could develop. In people already infected with HIV, Truvada is always taken in combination with other anti-retroviral drugs to avoid that problem. But taken alone, there's a risk, so doctors will need to be sure patients are free of HIV when they begin preventive treatment.
Making sure anyone who is prescribed Truvada is tested first is a critical step, says Howard Jaffe, president of the Gilead Foundation, a non-profit arm of Gilead Sciences. Truvada is an important tool, he says, but it doesn't mean other prevention strategies — free condoms, free HIV testing, counseling and other health services — aren't needed. "We're lucky we have airbags in cars," he says, "but they don't make seat belts obsolete."
Q: What are the obstacles to using this widely to stop the spread of HIV?
A: Price is one. The cost of Truvada has been placed between $11,000 and $14,000 per year. Jaffe says the drug has been "deeply discounted" for government health programs and clinics for use as treatment, and the same discounts will apply for its use in prevention.
"Cost is a hurdle, no doubt about it," says Carlos del Rio, co-director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research and a board member at HIVMA (the HIV Medicine Association). But "I think the price will come down." And, he says, it's cheaper than treating HIV.
Cost is only the beginning, though, del Rio says. Questions remain about who will prescribe the drug and how long it should be taken. "The implementation challenges we're going to face with this new approach are not insignificant."
Q: Can it be used to reduce the spread of HIV in developing countries?
A: "That's the promise," says James Loduca of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. "In the U.S., if current prevention strategies were enough, we wouldn't be seeing the spread (of HIV) we do. It's the same in other countries," he says. "I can't imagine anyone saying individuals shouldn't have access to a tool that, when used appropriately, has 90% efficacy."
But del Rio, who also chairs the Department of Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory, has doubts. "I don't think, honestly, in the short term, this is going to have much impact in the U.S., much less globally," he says. "It's a tool, but at the current price of up to $14,000 a year per individual, it's simply not possible to think this will have an immediate impact in the epidemic globally."
Q: What has been the reaction from the AIDS community?
A: Marjorie Hill, CEO of Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York City, says that overall, there is a sense of "cautious optimism and a great deal of interest in this as another option people can pursue as far as HIV prevention. The concern is about cost and access."
Loduca of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation says the FDA advisory committee's recommendation to allow Truvada to be marketed for HIV prevention is a "watershed moment" in the 30-year fight against HIV/AIDS. Despite all efforts to prevent HIV transmission, he says, the rate of new infections remains high, estimated by federal health officials at between 48,000 and 56,000 each year.
"We know this is no silver bullet, and this isn't going to be the right prevention strategy for everyone," Loduca says. "Here's what we as a community know to be true: Truvada won't end AIDS by itself. But we can't end AIDS without it."
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.
HIV Haven is kindly hosted by 
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