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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...
Introduction.
Effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) can greatly decrease HIV-1 transmission risk from treated individuals to their sexual partners [1]–[3]. These dramatic reductions in sexual transmission likely reflect decreased genital shedding of infectious HIV-1 [4]. While models suggest that widespread ART could help curb the global pandemic [5], it is important to understand how quickly, to what extent, and for how long different ART regimens suppress genital HIV-1 shedding in different populations.
Previously, we documented the decrease in genital HIV-1 shedding as women initiated World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended first-line therapy containing two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) plus a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), primarily nevirapine [6]. Because transmission from men to women accounts for many infections in sub-Saharan Africa [7], the effect of NNRTI-based therapy on seminal HIV-1 RNA levels is likely a key determinant of ART’s preventive impact. We hypothesized that initiation of efavirenz-based ART would produce a rapid decrease in seminal HIV-1 RNA during the first month of therapy, but that the time course and magnitude of decay in semen might differ from events observed in blood.
Abstract.
Objectives.
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) decreases HIV-1 RNA levels in semen and reduces sexual transmission from HIV-1-infected men. Our objective was to study the time course and magnitude of seminal HIV-1 RNA decay after initiation of efavirenz-based ART among 13 antiretroviral-naïve Kenyan men.
Methods.
HIV-1 RNA was quantified (lower limit of detection, 120 copies/mL) in blood and semen at baseline and over the first month of ART. Median log10 HIV-1 RNA was compared at each time-point using Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests. Perelson’s two-phase viral decay model and nonlinear random effects were used to compare decay rates in blood and semen.
Results.
Median baseline HIV-1 RNA was 4.40 log10 copies/mL in blood (range, 3.20–5.08 log10 copies/mL) and 3.69 log10 copies/mL in semen (range, <2.08–4.90 log10 copies/mL). The median reduction in HIV-1 RNA by day 28 was 1.90 log10 copies/mL in blood (range, 0.56–2.68 log10 copies/mL) and 1.36 log10 copies/mL in semen (range, 0–2.66 log10 copies/mL). ART led to a decrease from baseline by day 7 in blood and day 14 in semen (p = 0.005 and p = 0.006, respectively). The initial modeled decay rate was slower in semen than in blood (p = 0.06). There was no difference in second-phase decay rates between blood and semen.
Conclusions.
Efavirenz-based ART reduced HIV-1 RNA levels more slowly in semen than in blood. Although this difference was of borderline significance in this small study, our observations suggest that there is suboptimal suppression of seminal HIV-1 RNA for some men in the early weeks of 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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