PozLiving

All of us who were in the trenches of the AIDS war are today dealing with the grief and the survivor guilt. Many are grappling with deeper scars and something akin to post-traumatic stress. But unlike for veterans of other wars, there isn’t any built-in support system for us.

Venture capital is drying up for early-stage medical devices. Experts say that American patients are already “missing out” on the most innovative treatment options.

The refusals for elvitegravir and cobicistat on a standalone basis were triggered after inspectors were left shaking their heads following a checkup on Gilead’s “documentation and validation of certain quality testing procedures and methods.”

The April issue of Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics features an excellent open access review by Thomas Rasmussen and colleagues describing approaches to eliminating HIV reservoirs that are advancing into clinical trials. Prominently featured are histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, which have…

Breakthrough could come “within months”, according to researchers conducting clinical trials of new treatment.

A Peruvian father faces allegations that he doused his son with gasoline and set him on fire after learning the 22-year-old was gay and HIV-positive.

This is horrible.

“A Peruvian father faces allegations that he doused his son with gasoline and set him on fire after learning the 22-year-old was gay and HIV-positive.

According to the Peruvian daily newspaper La Región, Hitler Baneo Núñez, 49, allegedly tried to burn the victim (identified in reports only by his initials R.B.P.) alive after becoming tired of neighbor’s jokes about his son’s sexuality.

Though neighbors helped save R.B.P., the young man ended up with his face, arms and parts of his legs burnt, according to the report. Not only is R.B.P. HIV positive, he also reportedly has tuberculosis…”

via Huffington Post

“The grandson of Elizabeth Taylor, Quinn Tivey, is carrying on her legacy with GenerationCURE, a campaign aligned with amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research…”

via BuzzFeed LGBT

“The United States is on course for some much-needed economic relief from the crippling cost of HIV treatment, with the anticipated arrival of generic versions of guidelines- preferred antiretrovirals. However, much preparation is required to maximize price competition, maintain patient choice, and ensure that savings are used to the advantage of people living with HIV.

With the patent expiration of efavirenz sometime this year, a generic-based regimen comparable to Atripla is on the horizon: efavirenz combined with lamivudine and branded tenofovir (Viread). According to recent mathematical modeling conducted by Rochelle Walensky of Harvard Medical School and colleagues, the U.S. health care system savings associated with this regimen could be up to $560 million in the first year alone; a regimen containing three generics would save up to $920 million.

The study has stirred up a much-needed dialogue on coming generics, but it has also come under criticism for its projection of reduced efficacy using efavirenz/lamivudine/Viread: a switch could shorten life expectancy by 4.4 months. The model based this projection on data showing lamivudine to be not as potent as emtricitabine in Atripla, though a recent analysis by the World Health Organization suggests this is likely unfounded, particularly when powerful agents like efavirenz and tenofovir are used. Another concern is that a switch from a single-tablet regimen to a three-tablet (albeit once-daily) regimen will affect adherence, yet as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and others have noted, there are surprisingly few data to confirm this hypothesis…”

read more at Treatment Action Group

“amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, on Wednesday welcomed the President’s fiscal year 2014 budget proposal, which includes increases in funding for AIDS research and domestic programming, and a significant increase for the Global Fundto Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, compared to the fiscal year 2012 budget.  But the Foundation raised concern about the President’s continued proposed reductions for bilateral HIV/AIDS funding through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)…”

read more at amfAR

“South Africa’s Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced a new affordable single dose treatment that could possibly revolutionize treatment of HIV/AIDS in the country. The three-in-one anti-retroviral combination will cost each patient a record low $10 per dose…”

read more at Queerty

“In what may be an important step toward a long-elusive AIDS vaccine, American researchers have minutely tracked one person’s powerful immune response to the virus to see how a series of mutations led to an antibody that can defeat many H.I.V. strains.

A vaccine still remains far off, but the research lighted up one complex path that may someday be followed to that distant goal.

Thirty-four million people in the world are H.I.V.-positive, and 2.5 million are newly infected each year, 50,000 of them in this country…”

This is so wrong.

“Legislators in Kansas are considering a bill that could lead to people with HIV or AIDS being quarantined.

House Bill 2183, which has passed in the state Senate, amends Kansas’ public-health regulations to allow for the isolation of people with ‘infectious diseases.’

Lawmakers refused to add an exemption for people with HIV/AIDS , which AIDS Healthcare Foundation director Michael Weinstein says ‘either shows how little they understand about HIV and how it is transmitted… or it shows that they want the ability to quarantine people, and/or discriminate against them in other ways as they see fit.’ Weinstein says either rationale reveals ‘a real lack of understanding about public health and safety.’”