Scientist's Find Way to Disarm AIDS Virus.....

[Mister D]

Well he is white, so I figure he must be guilty of something.

O0

[waltky]

AIDS can be a chronic, manageable disease, if caught early...

Knowing HIV Status First Step in Controlling AIDS
July 02, 2016 | WASHINGTON—The 21st International AIDS Conference starts in a few weeks in Durban, South Africa. Perhaps the greatest achievement in the long fight against HIV/AIDS is that it's no longer a death sentence. Instead, AIDS can be a chronic, manageable disease, if people receive treatment.

Testing is the first step toward that goal. It is as simple as swabbing the inside of the mouth or getting a finger $#@!. In the latter, the blood is then put on a test stick that shows results within minutes. One line is negative; two lines, positive. VOA went to Nova Salud, an organization whose mission is to reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS and common sexually transmitted diseases, or STD's. A man who identified himself only as "Rigo" said he encourages all Latinos to get tested because, "You don't know the past of your partners, and you can be living with the (HIV) virus and you don't know it." He was followed by a woman with a toddler named Zoey. Zoey's mother said she gets tested because she has children and has to know her status because of her family. HIV is both treatable and preventable. People who have the virus can live normal lives, as long as they stay on treatment, and, those at risk of getting HIV can go on treatment to keep themselves from getting it.

In most parts of the U.S., HIV/AIDS is declining, according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who spoke to VOA by Skype. "We've seen huge decreases in heterosexual transmission -- more than two-thirds - 80 percent reductions, generally. We’ve seen the huge decreases in injection drug use as a cause of transmission, but among young men who have sex with men, we’ve seen increases in HIV infections." The groups in the U.S. that are most at risk are Hispanics and African-Americans, especially men between the ages of 24 and 35. Rodney McCoy, at Nova Salud, says he sees that in his work in these communities. "When we look at who progresses from HIV on to AIDS, again blacks and Latinos are most at risk for that." Still, progress has been made among these groups, too.

In the latest study from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, death from HIV ranks sixth among black men ages 25 to 34, and seventh among Asian/Pacific Islander men and Hispanic men of the same age group. HIV does not rank in the top ten leading causes of death for white men ages 25 to 34. In his Skype interview, Frieden said, "We're going to have to try more intensive approaches including testing...and some use of treatment of PrEP or pre-exposure prophylaxis for high-risk individuals." Pre-exposure prophylaxis means putting those at high risk of getting the disease on treatment, because it's been shown to keep them virtually HIV-free.

Nova Salud works with African-American and Hispanic communities in the metro-Washington area on health issues involving HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs. But, sometimes it hard to get people tested because of the stigma. McCoy says they take a different approach at Nova Salud. "The first thing we do is we acknowledge that there is stigma." And, he says, there's a way to normalize HIV testing and that's during routine medical checkups. If you go to the doctor to get your blood work for cholesterol, for high blood pressure, why not start including HIV and STDs? The goal everywhere is to get to the point where 90 percent of those with HIV know it, and that 90 percent of those who are positive get treatment and, finally, that 90 percent of those in treatment the virus in their blood to un-detectable levels. The theory is that this will end the AIDS epidemic as a global public health threat by 2030.

http://www.voanews.com/content/knowi...s/3401404.html

[waltky]

End of AIDS not easy to reach...

Optimism About Ending AIDS Misplaced, Some Experts Say
July 16, 2016 — As experts converge on Durban for the International AIDS Conference that begins Monday, even optimists say such goals won't be easy to reach

Everyone agrees it sounds like a wonderful goal: The U.N. AIDS agency aims to end the deadly epidemic by the year 2030. The agency’s “90-90-90” treatment plan, using 2020 as a target date, aims for 90 percent of people living with HIV to know their HIV status; 90 percent of HIV-positive people to receive treatment; and 90 percent of people on treatment to show suppressed viral loads. The plan, in theory, would prevent nearly 28 million new HIV infections and 21 million AIDS-related deaths worldwide.

A man has his blood taken before being tested for HIV in Harare, Zimbabwe

It won't come cheaply, UNAIDS said. In the next five years, low-income countries will need as much as $9.7 billion, and lower-middle-income countries will need $8.7 billion. That means the bill will fall on wealthier international donors, like the United States and other Western nations. As experts from around the world converge on Durban, South Africa, for the International AIDS Conference that begins Monday, even the optimists say such goals won't be easy to reach.

Data look promising

That doesn’t mean it's not possible, said Matthew Kavanagh, senior policy analyst for the U.S.-based Health Global Access Project. The health statistics look promising; some countries, he said, have reached the 90-90-90 goals and others are close. That’s what makes it maddening, he said: The end of AIDS could be within reach if donors invested more money and governments showed more political will to fight the disease. He sharply criticized major donors, including the U.S. and European nations, for giving greater priority to other problems.

A doctor draws blood from a man to check for HIV/AIDS at a mobile testing unit in Ndeeba, a suburb in Uganda's capital, Kampala.

Speaking to VOA from Durban, Kavanagh said he was worried that talk about the end of AIDS might overshadow problems at the conference. “I am deeply disturbed that we don’t hear the emergency in the voice of UNAIDS and the United Nations," he said. “I hope that I don’t hear a lot of happy talk about how we’re on track to end AIDS, because we’re not. We could be, but the world is not showing a political will. "We’re halfway to a goal. If we get the rest of the way to the goal, we could actually be in the space to talk about the end of AIDS. But given that we’re not on not on track, we need to be hearing about how there’s an emergency, how donors need to step up, how affected countries need to step up, how there needs to be a radical change in how we do business — or we won’t end AIDS.”

Scientists' warning

See also:

WHO: Suspected Congo Yellow Fever Cases Up 38 Percent in Last 3 Weeks
July 15, 2016 — Government last month declared an epidemic in capital Kinshasa and two provinces that border Angola, health officials will launch a vaccination campaign next week

The number of suspected yellow fever cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo has jumped 38 percent in the last three weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, as health officials prepare to launch a vaccination campaign next week. Congo's government last month declared a yellow fever epidemic in the capital Kinshasa and two provinces that border Angola, where the worst outbreak of the disease in decades has killed about 350 people.

Staff members of the Teaching Hospital receive the first vaccination treatment for yellow fever in El Geneina, West Darfur

As of July 11, Congo had recorded 1,798 suspected cases since the start of the outbreak in January, WHO said in a weekly report, up from 1,307 on June 24. Seventy-five people are believed to have died from the disease in Congo, it said. Officials have confirmed 68 cases. But they have not been able to confirm or rule out any additional cases for the last three weeks due to a technical problem shipping a chemical used in the tests, said WHO's resident representative in Congo, Yokouide Allarangar. However, the issue has now been resolved and new test results will be available in the coming days, Allarangar added.

Health authorities plan to administer 1 million doses of yellow fever vaccine during a 10-day campaign beginning on Wednesday in the Kinshasa district of Kisenso and the neighboring Kwango province. Due to a global shortage of vaccines, plans to inoculate some 10 million more people in Kinshasa and along the Angolan border have been put on hold until August, when newly-manufactured doses from Brazil are expected to begin arriving.

http://www.voanews.com/content/who-s...p/3420867.html

[waltky]

No vaccine for AIDS in the near term...

No Vaccine in Sight for HIV/AIDS, Scientists Say
July 20, 2016 — Scientists attending the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban say there is still no vaccine in sight to prevent HIV/AIDS infections.

While it is impossible to predict when such a goal will be reached, says Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, he is optimistic about researchers' progress. "It is impossible to say exactly how far we are, but one thing we can say is that over the last seven years we have made important strides in the direction of getting a vaccine,” he said, “but getting an HIV vaccine will probably be one of the most important and difficult scientific challenges in all of HIV research."

Graca Machel, right, wife of former president Nelson Mandela makes a point about the rights of young adolescent women as actress Charlize Theron looks on at the 2016 AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa

Although no specific vaccine has become the sole hope, scientists are vigorously pursuing tests and trials called HVTN 702. The vaccine being tested was developed from a trial in Thailand several years ago, and showed a modest degree of effectiveness. The trial of the vaccine is set to start in South Africa and other African countries later this year, but Fauci says it could be quite some time before results are known. "It will take at least a couple of years to determine if that vaccine works,” he said. “If it does, then hopefully we will be closer to where we need to be."

Civil rights activists march in Durban, South Africa, at the start of the 21st World Aids Conference

The Vaccine Research Center at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in South Africa is testing the ALVAC gp120 vaccine, according to Fatima Laher, who leads the center. "The vaccine work that we do is to prevent HIV infection from happening in people who are negative,” she said. “We are only a few months away from opening that trial that will show whether or not this vaccine will prevent people from getting HIV."

http://www.voanews.com/content/no-va...s/3427675.html

[waltky]

Gay, bisexual men over-represent those living with HIV...

CDC: Gay, Bisexual Men Are 2% of U.S. Population, but 55% of Those Living With HIV
August 17, 2016 – Gay and bisexual men comprised about 2 percent of the U.S. population in 2013, but they accounted for more than half of all Americans living with HIV, according to new data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A fact sheet posted on the CDC website on August 10 also shows that although the rate of HIV diagnoses have decreased 19 percent in the U.S. between 2005 and 2014, infections among gay and bisexual mean have increased, especially among African American and Hispanic/Latino gay and bisexual men. “A 2016 analysis estimated that there are nearly 4.5 million gay and bisexual men in the United States and that 15% are living with HIV infection (11% diagnosed),” the agency noted. “If current diagnosis rates continue, 1 in 6 gay and bisexual men will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime, including 1 in 2 black/African American gay and bisexual men, 1 in 4 Hispanic/Latino gay and bisexual men, and 1 in 11 white gay and bisexual men,” the CDC warned. Other CDC statistics for HIV diagnoses in 2014 include:

· “Gay and bisexual men accounted for 83% (29,418) of the estimated new HIV diagnoses among all males aged 13 and older and 67% of the total estimated new diagnoses in the United States.

· "Gay and bisexual men aged 13 to 24 accounted for an estimated 92% of new HIV diagnoses among all men in their age group and 27% of new diagnoses among all gay and bisexual men.

· "Gay and bisexual men accounted for an estimated 54% (11,277) of people diagnosed with AIDS. Of those men, 39% were African American, 32% were white, and 24% were Hispanic/Latino.”

Under “Prevention Challenges”, CDC noted that 1 in 7 gay and bisexual men with HIV do not know they are infected. “Most gay and bisexual men acquire HIV through having anal sex with an HIV positive person without using a condom or without taking daily medicine to prevent HIV called PrEP or without their partner taking medicine to treat HIV called PEP,” according to the CDC. However, the agency says, “homophobia, stigma and discrimination may place gay and bisexual men at risk for multiple physical and health problems and affect whether they seek and are able to obtain high-quality health services.”

The CDC says that since 2012, it has invested a total of $394 million over five years to provide HIV prevention services for more than 90,000 gay and bisexual men at local health departments. Although the agency’s “tool kit” for prevention states that abstinence is the only sure way to avoid HIV infection, it also states that “in addition to abstinence, limiting your number of sexual partners, never sharing needles, and using condoms the right way every time you have sex, you may be able to take advantage of newer medicines such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)."

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/...ose-living-hiv

[waltky]

Pediatric non-progressors help in study of HIV...

Clues for Treatment From HIV-Infected Children Who Do Not Develop AIDS
September 29, 2016 - Not everyone who is infected with HIV goes on to develop AIDS.

A tiny fraction of HIV-positive adults holds the line against AIDS by mounting a very strong immune response; but, research has found that such an approach often contributes to the development of other illnesses, such as heart disease and cancers.

Kids look on in the Republican Hospital for Infectious Diseases, which specializes in treating HIV-positive children in Ust-Izhora outside St. Petersburg, Russia

Scientists at Oxford University looked at so-called pediatric non-progressors, the 5 to 10 percent of children infected with HIV who don't develop AIDS, even without treatment. Their study of 170 HIV-positive South African children revealed that their immune systems were behaving differently than adults'. Like non-human primates that harbor the simian version of HIV without becoming sick, there was very low immune activation even with high levels of the virus in their blood. Lead researcher Philip Goulder said, "(The) lack of HIV disease here seems to result from avoiding making strong immune responses against HIV."

Experts said the findings, published in Science Translational Medicine, could be the first signs of people co-evolving with HIV and eventually lead to new therapies for all patients infected with the AIDS virus.

http://www.voanews.com/a/clues-for-t...s/3530396.html

[waltky]

Fewer people dying from AIDS due to more people being on treatment...

Report: More People with HIV on Treatment, Fewer People Dying from AIDS
November 21, 2016 — In advance of World AIDS Day on December 1, a new report finds that more people with HIV than ever before are receiving life-saving treatment, leading to fewer deaths from AIDS-related illnesses around the world.

The report says just over 1 million people died from AIDS-related causes last year, compared to twice that number a decade ago. UNAIDS says this is because of the large number of people with HIV — 18.2 million — who now have access to antiretroviral treatment. The agency also says the world is on track to reach the target of 30 million people with treatment by 2020.

The disease can be conquered if the necessary investment is made in scaling up HIV treatment and prevention programs, according to Peter Ghys, director of the UNAIDS Strategic Information and Evaluation Department. "We estimate that if, indeed, the funding is there and the coverage targets that are set out to be achieved by the year 2020, then that will lead to ending the HIV epidemic by 2030,” Ghys said. “If the money is not there, then it is almost impossible to achieve that end." Currently, the agency has $19 billion to spend on HIV-AIDS annually. UNAIDS estimates it will need $26 billion for each of the next seven years to achieve its goal of ending the epidemic by 2030.

As in previous years, sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the highest prevalence of HIV-AIDS. Ghys says young girls transitioning to womanhood, particularly in that part of the world, are at high risk of becoming infected with the virus that causes AIDS. "There is evidence presented in the report that shows that young women between the ages of 15 and 19 represent a very large majority of new infections in that age group, ranging up to 90 percent in some studies in southern Africa,” he said.

These young women usually do not know they are HIV-positive, Ghys says, so they do not get treatment and are likely to spread the disease to others. The report finds that nearly 37 million people are living with HIV and, worldwide, 2.1 million people became newly infected in 2015. There have been no declines in new HIV infections among adults since 2010 but, the report notes, new HIV infections among children have decreased by 50 percent since 2010, to 150,000 last year.

http://www.voanews.com/a/report-more...s/3605875.html

[waltky]

Hope for an AIDS vaccine... Antibodies Offer Hope in Battling AIDS November 29, 2016 - As World AIDS Day approaches Dec. 1, new research is offering hope for further treatment options and, perhaps, even a vaccine.

When the first World AIDS Day was held in 1988, infection was a death sentence. Today, there is lifesaving treatment. In Thailand, researchers eliminated mother-to-child HIV transmission, the first country in Asia to do so. In South Africa, a major clinical trial of an experimental AIDS vaccine aims to reduce the risk of HIV infection by 50 percent. In the United States, researchers are working to use the body's own immune system to keep the virus in check. One study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania shows promise. "We infuse antibodies into the patients, the participants in the study, and we want to see if those antibodies will control the HIV virus … keep it quiet, and prevent the virus from coming back when we stop anti-retroviral therapy," said Dr. Pablo Tebas, an infectious disease specialist.

Volunteers take part in an event to mark World AIDS Day in Chongqing, China

Tebas said the research in controlling HIV with antibodies is similar to immunotherapy being done in the field of cancer. HIV, he explains, hides in cells. If a patient stops taking anti-AIDS drugs, the virus comes back. The new technique aims to work as cancer therapy works, where antibodies are used to attack cancer cells. "When you think about oncology and cancer therapy with these immune-based therapies, what people are doing now in that field is to try to boost the immune system to eliminate the cancer cells,” he said. “The problem of eliminating the HIV hideout is similar. You want to eliminate the cells that harbor the virus and, by making the immune system more active, in finding and eliminating those cells." Researchers have found that the antibodies suppressed the HIV virus for 21 days. The goal is to find a combination of antibodies that can suppress the virus for six months to a year. A new trial using two antibodies is to start in the next couple of months. http://www.voanews.com/a/antibodies-...s/3617048.html

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Caught the infection at birth...

South African child 'virtually cured' of HIV
Mon, 24 Jul 2017 - The nine-year-old has no active HIV in the body after catching the infection at birth.

A nine-year-old infected with HIV at birth has spent most of their life without needing any treatment, say doctors in South Africa.[ The child, whose identity is being protected, was given a burst of treatment shortly after birth. They have since been off drugs for eight-and-a-half years without symptoms or signs of active virus. The family is said to be "really delighted". Most people need treatment every day to prevent HIV destroying the immune system and causing Aids.

Understanding how the child is protected could lead to new drugs or a vaccine for stopping HIV. The child caught the infection from their mother around the time of birth in 2007. They had very high levels of HIV in the blood. Early antiretroviral therapy was not standard practice at the time, but was given to the child from nine weeks old as part of a clinical trial. Levels of the virus became undetectable, treatment was stopped after 40 weeks and unlike anybody else on the study - the virus has not returned. Early therapy which attacks the virus before it has a chance to fully establish itself has been implicated in child "cure" cases twice before.

The child caught the infection from its mother around the time of birth

The "Mississippi Baby" was put on treatment within 30 hours of birth and went 27 months without treatment before HIV re-emerged in her blood. There was also a case in France with a patient who has now gone more than 11 years without drugs. Dr Avy Violari, the head of paediatric research at the Perinal HIV Research Unit in Johannesburg, said: "We don't believe that antiretroviral therapy alone can lead to remission. "We don't really know what's the reason why this child has achieved remission - we believe it's either genetic or immune system-related."

'Virtual cure'

Some people are naturally better at dealing with an HIV infection - so-called "elite controllers". However, whatever the child has is different to anything that has been seen before. Replicating it as a new form of therapy - a drug, antibody or vaccine - would have the potential to help other patients. It is worth noting that while there is no active HIV in the child's body, the virus has been detected in the child's immune cells. HIV can hide inside them - called latent HIV - for long periods of time, so there is still a danger the child could need drug treatment in the future. The team in Johannesburg performed the study alongside the UK's MRC Clinical Trials Unit.

'One child'

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A cure for AIDS on the horizon?...

New antibody attacks 99% of HIV strains
22 September 2017 - Scientists have engineered an antibody that attacks 99% of HIV strains and can prevent infection in primates.

It is built to attack three critical parts of the virus - making it harder for HIV to resist its effects. The work is a collaboration between the US National Institutes of Health and the pharmaceutical company Sanofi. The International Aids Society said it was an "exciting breakthrough". Human trials will start in 2018 to see if it can prevent or treat infection. Our bodies struggle to fight HIV because of the virus' incredible ability to mutate and change its appearance. These varieties of HIV - or strains - in a single patient are comparable to those of influenza during a worldwide flu season. So the immune system finds itself in a fight against an insurmountable number of strains of HIV.

Super-antibodies

But after years of infection, a small number of patients develop powerful weapons called "broadly neutralising antibodies" that attack something fundamental to HIV and can kill large swathes of HIV strains. Researchers have been trying to use broadly neutralising antibodies as a way to treat HIV, or prevent infection in the first place. The study, published in the journal Science, combines three such antibodies into an even more powerful "tri-specific antibody".

Dr Gary Nabel, the chief scientific officer at Sanofi and one of the report authors, told the BBC News website: "They are more potent and have greater breadth than any single naturally occurring antibody that's been discovered." The best naturally occurring antibodies will target 90% of HIV strains. "We're getting 99% coverage, and getting coverage at very low concentrations of the antibody," said Dr Nabel. Experiments on 24 monkeys showed none of those given the tri-specific antibody developed an infection when they were later injected with the virus. Dr Nabel said: "It was quite an impressive degree of protection." The work included scientists at Harvard Medical School, The Scripps Research Institute, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

'Exciting'