HIV can be cured by cancer drug - Researchers

#anticipate

Researchers say the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) can be flushed out of its hiding places in the body using a cancer drug.

Already, the anti-retroviral therapy, destroys the virus residing in the bloodstream, but leaves “HIV reservoirs” untouched.

This latest study shows that the cancer drug is “highly potent” at reactivating hidden HIV.

Experts say the findings are interesting, but it is important to know if the drug is safe in patients, to aviod complications.

A strategy known as “kick and kill” is thought to be key to curing HIV. The kick would wake up the dormant HIV, allowing the drugs to kill it.

This is good news!

KEY STATS AND INFORMATION ON HIV/AIDS

* An estimated 35 million people are living with HIV globally. 3.2 million of people living with HIV are children under 15 years old.

* AIDS is the leading cause of death among women of childbearing age (18-49).

* AIDS is the leading cause of death among adolescents (10-18) in Africa.

* Despite progress in reducing new infections, four countries still account for half of all new infections among children: Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania.

*AIDS related deaths and new HIV infections are preventable.





Source: Unicef

Early HIV treatment : key to survival

The risk of death or serious illness was halved in HIV-positive people who received immediate treatment, according to a trial with global implications.

The trial's interim results were so clear-cut that the international study, co-ordinated by the Kirby Institute at UNSW, has been terminated ahead of schedule.

Receiving immediate antiretroviral therapy (ART) was proved to be clinically superior to a generally recommended approach.

This involves deferring treatment until CD4 cells, the key immune cells targeted by HIV, dropped, from the healthy range of above 500, to 350 cells or less per microlitre of blood.

The recommended threshold should be scrapped and everyone with HIV infection should be treated, the Institute's Professor Sean Emery told a media briefing.

The Strategic Timing of AntiRetriviral Treatment (START) study involved 4685 HIV-positive people, from 35 countries, whose CD4 count was above 500 cells.

They were randomly allocated to receive treatment immediately or when their CD4 count dropped to around 350 cells and, on average, were followed up over three years.

Overall 127 people died or became ill with Aids or other serious illnesses such as cancer or liver disease, with 41 of those having received immediate treatment and 86 deferred treatment.

'These findings have global implications for the treatment of people living with HIV,' Prof Emery said.

'As a result of this trial, we now know that treatment at all stages of disease extends survival and prevents serious disease complications in people with HIV infection.'

Previous studies have shown a reduced risk of HIV transmission among people on ART.


AAP


Know your HIV status, the earlier, the better...

Hepatitis: A very dangerous Virus

A lot of people are scared of HIV, Ebola Virus, etc .Hepatitis virus should be added to your list of dangerous viruses.

Hepatitis B is the most common and can cause severe liver disease (including liver cancer). There is a vaccine for Hepatitis B, however it can only be given if you are not infected with the virus. If infected highly effective anti-viral drugs and interferons are available. The trouble with this disease is that many people are unaware they have it, making it a huge problem globally.

A few facts:
-There are 5 forms of the virus (A, B & C being most common with D & E being more rare)
-10 million drug users worldwide have Hepatitis C
-1.3 million drug users worldwide have Hepatitis B

So, Hepatitis should not be forgotten and can be transmitted, like HIV, via bodily fluids, such as intraveneous drug users and sexual intercourse (however hepatitis is 50 to100 times more infectious than HIV).

Be AWARE of Hepatitis, get vaccinated, get tested, get treated!!!

Microbiologist

NEW VACCINE MIGHT PREVENT HIV INFECTION

A new study has found that an experimental vaccine completely prevented HIV infection in half of monkeys given the jab.

The monkeys were given the vaccine and then exposed to high doses of an aggressive virus that is the equivalent of Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in humans.
The results were so positive they spurred Johnson & Johnson to test the vaccine in people.

The research was published online in the journal Science.
The international trial is underway in 400 healthy volunteers in the United States, East Africa, South Africa and Thailand.

It is the first time since Merck’s failed 2007 trial that a major pharmaceutical company has sponsored clinical development of an HIV vaccine, said Dr. Dan Barouch, a vaccine researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard.
Some 35 million people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Since it began spreading 30 years ago, AIDS has killed 40 million people worldwide.
Despite progress in treatments, experts believe a vaccine is the best hope for eradicating the disease.

In a pair of studies Barouch and colleagues at Johnson and Johnson and elsewhere tested a two-step vaccine, which involves priming the immune system using a weakened version of the cold virus to sneak HIV genes into the body.

The second phase involves injecting individuals with a purified HIV surface protein designed to provoke a strong immune response.
Johnson & Johnsons’s chief scientific officer and worldwide chairman, pharmaceuticals, Dr. Paul Stoffels, told Reuters: “The company is using the same prime-boost strategy in its Ebola vaccine, now in early-stage human trials.”
Stoffels said the HIV vaccine trial in monkeys was designed to test the limits of the vaccine, exposing the animals to high levels of an aggressive virus that attacks non-human primates known as simian immunodeficiency virus, a close cousin to HIV.

The virus was potent enough to infect 100 per cent of unvaccinated animals after six exposures. Even so, half of the animals who got the vaccine were completely protected.

Stoffels said the infection rate per exposure in the trial is about 100 times greater than what is typically seen in humans.
Stoffels said: “Johnson & Johnson expects the vaccine to prove even more effective in people, but even if the vaccine only protects half of those people who get it, ‘it will still have an enormous public health impact.”
If all goes well with the early-stage trial, he expects a larger, phase 2b study to start in the next 18 to 24 months. Phase 2b studies test how well drugs works at the prescribed dose.

Source : The Guardian