News (Updated August
7 2011)
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Aug 3 2011
By Amy Norton
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)
- Young gay and bisexual men who use methamphetamine are more likely to take
sexual risks that boost their chances of contracting HIV, a new study suggests.
Researchers say the
findings underscore the fact that meth, and its associated HIV risk, is not just
a problem of middle-aged white men.
Methamphetamine triggers a
massive release of the feel-good chemical dopamine in the brain, making users
feel disinhibited, energized -- and prone to sexual risk-taking.
Studies of gay and
bisexual men have found that roughly 43 percent have ever used meth, and that
the habit is strongly linked to their risk of contracting HIV, the virus that
causes AIDS.
But much less has been
known about meth use and HIV risk among teenagers and young men.
So for the new study,
researchers surveyed 595 12- to 24-year-old gay and bisexual males from eight
And young men who'd used
meth were more likely to report a range of risk factors for HIV.
Nearly 86 percent said
they'd had sex with at least two different partners in the past 90 days (versus
63 percent of non-drug users). Almost 52 percent had ever had sex with an
injection-drug user (versus 11 percent), and one-third had had sex with someone
who was HIV-positive (against 11 percent).
Despite all of that, meth
users were less consistent with condoms: one-third said they used them every
time they had sex, compared with 54 percent of young men who'd never used hard
drugs.
"In many ways, these
findings mirror what's been seen in older MSM (men who have sex with men),"
said Dr. Robert Garofalo of Children's
That's concerning, he told
Reuters Health in an interview, and it also points to a large public health
need.
"There are not a lot
of proven HIV prevention programs for this age group," Garofalo said. More
programs, including ones that target meth abuse, need to be piloted, according
to Garofalo and his colleagues.
"We shouldn't
wait," he said. "This is a real public health crisis."
The findings, which appear
in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, are not representative
of all young gay and bisexual men in the
But the researchers also
consider that a strong point of the study.
"It tells us
something about where to find these young men, and where we might be able to run
some type of intervention," said lead researcher Peter Freeman, who is also
with Children's Memorial.
For parents and teenagers,
he said, the findings highlight the importance of having open conversations
about both drug use and risky sexual behavior.
Garofalo said there still
may be many parents who do not know that methamphetamine is something they need
to worry about. So the current findings may be something of an eye-opener for
some, he added.
Finding effective ways to
curb HIV risk among young gay and bisexual men will only become increasingly
important, according to Garofalo and Freeman.
In 2004, Americans between
the ages of 13 and 24 accounted for 13 percent of new HIV diagnoses.
And gay and bisexual
males, especially minorities, have been particularly vulnerable. A study of
seven cities by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that
14 percent of African-American gay and bisexual males ages 15 to 22 had HIV. The
same was true of 7 percent of Hispanics.
SOURCE: bit.ly/qV4WTy
Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, August 2011.
29 Jul 2011
Source: member // World
Vision - MEERO
'The HIV situation in
Ingushetia has come to a dangerous stage', said the President's Advisor at a
recent press conference, referring to an increasing rate of HIV infection driven
by injecting drug use, lack of awareness and severe stigma around HIV in this
small republic of the Russian Federation where around half the population is
unemployed.
Azamat Nalgiev addressed government leaders, representatives of non-governmental
organisations and republican media outlets at a press conference organised by
World Vision in cooperation with the Republican HIV & AIDS Centre and the
Spiritual Center of Muslims � both of whom partner with World Vision in an
HIV advocacy project launched at the beginning of the year that reaches out to
vulnerable groups, particularly youth, with information around HIV prevention.
In response to joint efforts to highlight the urgency of the HIV response in
Ingushetia, including this press conference, the government commissioned an
inter-agency committee to curb the spread of HIV and promote acceptance towards
those living with HIV.
According to the Republican HIV & AIDS Centre, the number of people living
with HIV has increased to 900 today as opposed to 700 registered two years ago.
'This is a significant number for our small republic and we do not have enough
capacities to curb the spread of HIV alone', said Irina Malsagova, Head of the
HIV & AIDS Centre.
In this strictly conservative republic, speaking about HIV is taboo. People
living with HIV are pushed to the edge of society and people are less likely to
come forward for testing. Children and their HIV-infected parent/s say their
main struggle is against stigma and discrimination.
'The only place where I'm understood and accepted in this republic is the HIV
& AIDS Centre', said a woman in her thirties, who is living with HIV.
World Vision launched the HIV advocacy project to raise awareness about the
primary modes of transmission of HIV in the Republic � injecting drug use
and sexual transmission - and to start to break down the stigma that is
isolating women like this and preventing people from gaining the knowledge they
need to protect themselves against contracting HIV.
Recognising the need to reach out to the wider population, especially youth, in
a culturally relevant and sensitive way, World Vision began working with the
Spiritual Centre of Muslims of Ingushetia, which today continues to partner with
the HIV & AIDS Centre.
'To be honest, we did not have information about how serious the problems
related to the spread of the HIV infection in our republic were. I would like to
thank World Vision for the work in the area of HIV', said Ibragim Albakov,
Deputy Mufti of the Spiritual Center of Muslims of Ingushetia.
'The success of our initiative could not be achieved without the support of the
Ingush government and, especially, the Spiritual Center of Muslims whose imams
are very much respected in all communities. I believe together we can achieve a
lot and save thousands of lives', said Murad Tangiev, World Vision's HIV
Advocacy Project Coordinator in the
The inter-agency committee will comprise representatives from the ministries of
Health, Education, Labor and Social Development, Culture, Internal Affairs,
Youth Committee as well as deputies of Ingush Parliament, representatives of
Spiritual Center of Muslims, Ingush Department of Red Cross and representatives
of republican media agencies.
World Vision's work around HIV prevention is one key component of a health
programme in the
Tue, Jul 26 2011
By Bill Berkrot
NEW YORK, July 26
(Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc reported higher second-quarter profit as sales
of its most important HIV drugs topped Wall Street estimates, bouncing back from
a disappointing first quarter.
Sales of Atripla, which
combines
Sales of Truvada rose 11
percent to $711.3 million, also exceeding Wall Street estimates of about $708
million.
First-quarter sales of the
two drugs had missed analysts' estimates as they were hit by temporary cutbacks
in state-funded AIDS drug assistance programs in
Gilead is expected to
unveil key data on its Quad HIV pill later this quarter and said it plans to
file its application seeking
Quad, which will combine
four medicines, is considered to be
The company said it is
also planning to seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to amend the
Truvada label to include data from recent studies showing the drug can help
prevent new HIV infections.
The world's top maker of
HIV medicines posted net profit of $746.2 million, or 93 cents per share,
compared with a profit of $712.1 million, or 79 cents per share, a year ago.
Excluding special items,
"The sales were a
little bit above consensus and our estimates," said Cowen and Co analyst
Philip Nadeau, calling the results "solid."
"It looks like
business did bounce back from the first quarter," he said.
The company maintained the
full-year forecast it provided earlier this year for product sales of $7.9
billion to $8.1 billion.
Total revenue for the
quarter rose to $2.14 billion, exceeding Wall Street estimates of $2.07 billion.
Revenue from royalties and
collaboration fell 19 percent to $97.7 million, primarily due to a drop in
royalties from Roche Holding AG for its Tamiflu flu treatment. Tamiflu sales
have been lower as fears and flu pandemic preparation subsided from a year ago.
Jul 12 2011
By Ben Hirschler
The California-based group
is the first drugmaker to sign up to the new Medicines Patent Pool, whose
organizers now expect other major pharmaceutical manufacturers to join the
initiative.
Ellen 't Hoen, the pool's
executive director, told Reuters she was negotiating terms for similar deals
with ViiV Healthcare -- a GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer joint venture -- as well as
with Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, Boehringer Ingelheim and Sequoia
Pharmaceuticals.
"This is not just a
one-off. The whole field is changing ... there will be more to follow," she
said.
Around 33 million people
worldwide have the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. Most
live in Africa and
The Medicines Patent Pool,
launched by the UNITAID health financing system that is funded by a tax on
airline tickets, aims to address this problem by creating a system for patent
holders to license technology to makers of cheap generics in exchange for modest
royalties.
In the case of
Significantly, cobicistat,
elvitegravir and the Quad are still in clinical development, and their inclusion
in the deal should speed the flow of new treatments in poor countries.
"Through systematic
licensing of intellectual property related to HIV products, people in developing
countries will have access to low-cost versions of those products almost at the
same time that people in rich countries do," 't Hoen said.
Traditionally, patients in
developing countries have to wait for years before they can get access to new
drugs.
CHANGE IN ATTITUDE
The licenses will allow
for the supply of tenofovir and emtricitabine in 111 countries, for cobicistat
in 102 countries, and for elvitegravir and the Quad in 99 countries.
Assuming other companies
come on board, the patent pool could save poor countries more than $1 billion a
year in drug costs.
But the revenue stream to
Gilead and other patent holders is likely to be small, since generic drug prices
in
The decision by
Ten years ago, the world's
pharmaceutical industry took a very different stance when it sued
That battle proved a
public relations disaster, and since then individual companies have struck a
series of voluntary licensing deals, allowing generic copies of HIV products on
a case-by-case basis.
The patent pool system,
however, goes beyond this by providing an effective "one-stop shop"
for generic firms to secure rights to manufacture patent-protected drugs.
The U.S. National
Institutes of Health became the first organization to sign up to the pool last
September. The concept has been harder for some drugmakers to swallow.
ViiV, for example, was
initially unwilling to consider pooling its patents -- and Abbott Laboratories,
Merck & Co and Johnson & Johnson have yet to enter formal negotiations,
although 't Hoen said her team was now discussing the idea with all three
companies.
(Reporting by Ben
Hirschler; Editing by David Hulmes)
Aug 1 2011
By Amy Norton
Syphilis is a sexually
transmitted bacterial infection that can be easily cured with antibiotics in the
early stages. But many people do not have symptoms early on, or don't recognize
the symptoms, and continue to transmit the infection.
In the
That increase has been
largely among men, who had a rate of just under 8 cases per 100,000 in 2009
(versus 1.4 cases per 100,000 women), according to the CDC. And studies have
suggested that gay and bisexual men now account for a majority of new syphilis
cases.
Health officials are
concerned about the resurgence not only because of syphilis itself, but also
because the infection makes people more vulnerable to contracting HIV, the virus
that causes AIDS.
Now the new findings,
reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine, show that minorities -- and young
men, in particular -- are being hit hardest by syphilis.
Using data from 27 states,
CDC researchers found that between 2005 and 2008, the syphilis rate among black
gay and bisexual men rose at an 8-times faster clip compared with their white
counterparts.
Hispanic gay and bisexual
men, meanwhile, had more than twice the increase of white men.
By 2008, the syphilis rate
among black gay and bisexual men was 19 per 100,000. Those figures were just
over 7 per 100,000 among Hispanic men, and 4 per 100,000 among white men.
What's more, the CDC says,
there has been a shift in the age group most affected by syphilis. Ten years
ago, outbreaks of the STD were largely reported among gay and bisexual men in
their 30s.
But since 2005, teenagers
and men in their 20s have shown the biggest increase in syphilis cases. And 20-
to 29-year-olds had the highest rates in 2008 -- at around 12 cases per 100,000.
Racial disparities in
syphilis and other STDs have long been seen among
But the magnitude of the
racial gap in this study is concerning, said lead researcher Dr. John R. Su, a
medical epidemiologist at the CDC.
It's hard to pin down the
precise reasons, Su told Reuters Health in an interview.
But he said it could
reflect factors like lower incomes and education levels, and poorer access to
healthcare -- in other words, some of the same race-related disparities seen
among Americans in general.
As for young gay and
bisexual men, some recent studies suggest that they are increasingly engaging in
risky sex, including having unprotected intercourse and multiple partners.
The bottom line for gay
and bisexual men is awareness, according to Su.
"First, you have to
know you're at risk," he said. "Then have a frank discussion about it
with your healthcare provider."
It's recommended that all
sexually active gay and bisexual men be tested at least once a year for syphilis
and other STDs, including HIV and gonorrhea, Su said. Staying in a monogamous
relationship with a partner whose been tested, and using condoms consistently,
reduce the chances of contracting syphilis and other STDs.
But the recent
re-emergence of syphilis may require "novel" public-health responses,
according to an editorial published with the study.
"For example, many
MSM (men who have sex with men) with newly diagnosed syphilis or HIV met their
sexual partners recently on the Internet," write Dr. Kenneth H. Mayer and
Matthew J. Mimiaga of the Boston-based Fenway Institute, which specializes in
healthcare for gay, bisexual and transgender patients.
So education and screening
efforts, they say, need to target men where they go: online, and at clubs, bars
and bathhouses.
Su agreed that
more-innovative steps, like using the Internet or text-messaging to spread
health messages, are promising.
He also pointed to
programs that use "peer educators" -- lay people who are trained to
help get health messages out to their local community.
Along with getting regular
screening, at-risk men should know the potential signs of syphilis infection.
The first is usually a single painless sore on the genitals, rectum or mouth
(wherever the bacterium entered the body). Some weeks after that, a non-itchy
rash may develop on different parts of the body. Some people also have flu-like
symptoms such as a fever, sore throat, body aches and swollen glands.
About 15 percent of people
with untreated syphilis eventually develop long-term complications, according to
the CDC. Those include damage to the brain, nerves, heart and blood vessels that
can prove fatal.
SOURCE: bit.ly/an7XRm
Annals of Internal Medicine, online August 1, 2011.