On July 8, 1996, a few physicians attending the International AIDS Conference in Vancouver gathered to reflect on what the lifesaving anti-HIV drugs meant for the millions who, by circumstance, would never benefit from them. “Fifteen years ago, we were all in the same boat,” Jonathan Mann told National Public Radio. “Now some are leaving in lifeboats and others are left behind.” The statistics Mann used to illustrate the watershed conference remain accurate a decade later: 93% of the epidemic occurs in poor countries, while most of the resources for prevention and care are spent on the affluent. Information about the disease — and later, how to treat it — accompanied those in the lifeboats.
The advent of the internet greatly expanded access to health information. Sites like WebMD and chat rooms dedicated to specific maladies, coupled with the barrage of pharmaceutical advertisements, are putting Americans in the driver’s seat when it comes to their health. But for millions who are considered illiterate in the US, accurate health information may remain hard to find and even harder to understand.
"Condoms and condom users have been demonized," over the past several years, said Planned Parenthood’s Susanne Martinez. This is old news to people who have followed the political dogfight playing out in Washington and the media. For example, the Bush administration has proposed doubling the budget for federally supported abstinence-only education programs next year.
From a quirky website animated with a bouncing yellow condom man, Global Protection Corporation peddles sexual protection of the zaniest sort. Glow-in-the-dark condoms, the US’s only patented pleasure condom, and lollipops where candy is substituted with rubber and adorned with smiley faces are among the company’s leading products. Condoms of all colors and flavors are made to look friendly, and even fun. But don’t be fooled: safe sex is the top priority at Global Protection.
In 1990, one of Albrecht Ulmer’s HIV-positive patients was suffering from recurrent high fever. He tried all sorts of medications to lower it, but nothing helped; his patient could barely get out of bed. In frustration, Ulmer added a common anti-inflammatory drug called prednisone to his antiretroviral drug regimen. The patient quickly improved. This was the general practitioner’s first clue that prednisone might help treat people with HIV.
Highly burdened regions for malaria and HIV overlap geographically, yet researchers know little about treating both diseases simultaneously. In Africa, the impact of this coinfection on children and pregnant women — the two high-risk groups for malaria — is of particular concern. Several studies evaluating HIV transmission from coinfected mothers to their babies have produced conflicting results. But a recent study concluded that babies of coinfected mothers are much more likely to contract HIV, regardless of maternal viral loads.
After years of complacency bred widespread resistance to its most accessible treatments, malaria has reappeared on the Western world’s radar screens. When researchers discovered the drug chloroquine in the 1950s, they hailed it as a cheap solution to the disease. For decades it was widely distributed; some nations even added it to salt supplies. Now the parasite is resistant to the drug. According to clinical trials, up to 64% of East Africans taking chloroquine fail their treatment. And the parasite developed similar resistance to second-line regimens.
Abbott Laboratories recently announced a 400% price increase for its seven-year-old HIV drug, ritonavir (Norvir), setting off a firestorm of harsh criticism from physicians. Abbott remains resolute about the increase, but patients, clinicians, and third party providers believe this represents another instance of greedy pharmaceutical companies interested in profits above patients.
For people who have exhausted their treatment options and have even become resistant to the salvage drug T-20 (Fuzeon), a glimmer of hope still shone in phase II clinical trials. This was T-1249, an injectable peptide similar to T-20 that could suppress T-20-resistant virus. Like T-20, T-1249 prevented HIV from fusing with cells.
December 2003 — By location alone, the 9th European AIDS Conference (EACS) in Warsaw, Poland instantly set itself apart from other HIV/AIDS conferences this year. Dr. Andrzej Horban — co-chair of the conference and director of the Hospital of Infectious Diseases in Warsaw — delivered the opening comments and welcomed delegates from around the world to the first AIDS conference ever to be held in Eastern Europe.
The field of hepatitis C therapy received a welcome boost with the arrival of two new forms of the drug interferon alfa — Schering-Plough’s Peg-Intron and Roche’s Pegasys. A process called pegylation allowed the injectable drugs to be used once a week, instead of the thrice-weekly injections required by standard interferon. Moreover, when combined with ribavirin, the makers of pegylated interferons boasted success rates of over 50% in sustaining undetectable HCV viral load levels, equating to a probable cure. Marketing materials touted “the power of pegylation.”
Disclaimer: The editors have taken all such care as they consider reasonable in preparing this database, but they cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies or mis-statements of fact contained herein. Inclusion in this database of any information on any treatment, therapy, or clinical trial in no way represents an endorsement of that treatment, therapy, or trial by ÆGiS or any of its sponsors. This data should always be used in conjunction with professional medical advice.