We’ve all known for ages that there are essentially two HIV epidemics in the world: a heterosexual epidemic in East and Southern Africa (some would say all of sub-Saharan Africa) and an epidemic driven by drug injection, sex between men and commercial sex in the rest of the world. Now there’s another distinction, too. There [...]
The First Lady of Uganda, Janet Museveni, thinks that increasing access to HIV treatment is making Ugandans more promiscuous, according to a story in Sunday’s The New Vision. We’ve certainly seen evidence of that in rich countries, and there doesn’t seem to be any reason it wouldn’t be the same in poorer parts of the [...]
Two of the Republican senators accused of holding to ransom some US$ 50 billion in US funding for HIV in Africa are fighting back. They are also ill-educated, badly confused, or lying through their teeth.
After a Washington Post editorial accused them of foot-dragging on AIDS funding in part because they worried that money might be [...]
India’s sprawling railway network will from next week allow HIV-infected people to travel half-price, the Economic Times reports. Since it’s India, there’s red tape to go with the red ribbons — the discount is only for second class travel to and from approved HIV treatment centres and people “have to produce (a) certificate in prescribed [...]
Buried in the controversial Swiss report on HIV treatment and transmission of the virus is a nugget about initiating treatment. (French report here, unofficial English translation here) They say that antiretrovirals should only be given when it is medically indicated, and not to prevent the onward transmission of HIV in discordant couples. Two reasons: in [...]
Everyone knows about the behaviours that spread HIV. But if you’re at all hazy on the mechanics, how the virus actually manages its assault on an uninfected person, this video is for you. Thanks to Boehringer-Ingelheim for paying for this. See, Big Pharma’s not all bad…
So if you give antiretrovirals to humanised mice (don’t ask) and then slosh their vaginas full of HIV, they don’t get infected, according to a new study from Paul Denton and colleagues at the University of Texas. None of the five mice treated with a combination of emtricitabine and tenofovir got infected, whereas 7 out [...]
Almost everyone agrees that we need to invest more in developing drugs that treat and cure the illnesses that beset poor people. Many of us disagree, though, with pharmaceutical companies when they whinge about “patent protection”. This translates as keeping prices high while Big Pharma recoups its investment in research and rewards its shareholders. The [...]
Two recent stories in the New York Times make depressing reading for the New Year. New HIV infections among young gay men in New York City rose by a third between 2001 and 2006, very probably because condom use has been falling. Over roughly the same period, the number of people aged over 50 with [...]
It is easy to rail at the Bush administration for the chains in which they tie up their AIDS funding for developing countries — the just-cross-your-legs prevention policies, the our-drugs-or-no-drugs treatment protocols, the abolitionist approach to the sex industry. But you have to give them credit for upping the ante on funding, and for taking [...]
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