Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report
Focus on African AIDS, TB, Malaria Epidemics Diverting Resources from Neglected Diseases, Study Says
Xinhua News Agency Profiles UNICEF HIV/AIDS Education Program in China's Yunnan Province
Brazil, Abbott Reach Deal To Lower Price on Antiretroviral Drug Kaletra
PSI/Zimbabwe Campaign Against HIV Stigma Awarded Population Institute 2005 Global Media Award
AIDS Reduces Brain Tissue in Certain Regions Even With Treatment, Study Says
Public Health & Education
NIH Launches Phase II Trial of HIV Vaccine for Three Strains of Virus
[Oct 12, 2005]
NIH on Tuesday announced it has launched a Phase II clinical trial of an HIV vaccine that combines strains of the virus found in all regions of the world, the Wall Street Journal reports. Most other experimental vaccines have used strains of HIV from only one or two regions, making many judge the NIH trial as the "first attempt at a truly global AIDS vaccine," according to the Journal (Chase, Wall Street Journal, 10/11). "This is the first Phase II study of a vaccine candidate that is broadly relevant to the global AIDS pandemic," Gary Nabel, director of the Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center of NIH, said. The vaccine trial, known as HVTN 204, combines synthetically modified elements of four HIV genes found in subtypes A, B and C -- which represents 85% of the world's HIV cases. These subtypes are found primarily in Africa, the Americas, Europe and parts of Asia (NIH release, 10/11). Researchers aim to recruit 480 healthy, HIV-negative volunteers at 13 sites in the U.S., South America, the Caribbean and Africa. Each volunteer will be administered four injections of either a saltwater placebo or the vaccine. The U.S. military and overseas researchers are coordinating the trials with NIH (Wall Street Journal, 10/11).
Global Challenges
Focus on African AIDS, TB, Malaria Epidemics Diverting Resources from Neglected Diseases, Study Says
[Oct 12, 2005]
Focus on the HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria epidemics has deflected attention and resources from about seven treatable diseases that have a greater impact on health care and development in Africa, according to a study published in the November edition of PLoS Medicine, the Financial Times reports (Jack, Financial Times, 10/11). Diseases such as schistosomiasis, ascariasis, sleeping sickness, river blindness, elephantiasis, hookworm and blinding trachoma affect about 750 million people and kill more than 500,000 people annually in sub-Saharan Africa, the report says. However, these diseases could be treated at a cost of about $200 million annually -- a "fraction" of the $15 billion spent annually on HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria -- the report says, according to the Guardian (Jha, Guardian, 10/11). Pharmaceutical companies already offer medications for many neglected diseases at no cost or a reduced price, and the study authors said it would cost about 40 cents per patient annually to cover the costs of treatment and distribution of medications for four of the neglected diseases (Financial Times, 10/11). This compares with the more than $200 per person annually needed to treat HIV/AIDS, the approximately $7-$10 per person needed to treat a single episode of malaria and the $200 per person needed to treat a single episode of TB. The authors also called for more integrated programs to treat neglected diseases that make prevention against parasites as routine as childhood immunizations (Hirschler, Reuters AlertNet, 10/11).
Xinhua News Agency Profiles UNICEF HIV/AIDS Education Program in China's Yunnan Province
[Oct 12, 2005]
Xinhua News Agency/China Daily on Tuesday profiled the Youngsters Life Skills Training Program, a UNICEF-supported project that aims to provide young people and community officials in China's Yunnan province with HIV/AIDS education. The program uses police officers from the Yunnan Police Officers Academy to teach HIV prevention. Since April, the program has trained more than 50 community officials and young people. "We hope they can use the knowledge in real life," UNICEF China AIDS Program Officer Xu Wenqing said, adding, "Girls can say 'no' to sex, boys can say 'no' to drugs and they can tell doctors 'better give me medicine rather than an injection,' or at least, 'use clean needles instead of throw-away needles.'" Yunnan is one of China's most affected provinces by HIV/AIDS, with nearly 30,000 HIV cases and 1,223 AIDS cases, according to Xinhua News Agency/China Daily. Injection drug use accounts for 51.4% of all HIV transmissions in the province, Xinhua News Agency/China Daily reports (Xinhua News Agency/China Daily, 10/11).
Drug Access
Brazil, Abbott Reach Deal To Lower Price on Antiretroviral Drug Kaletra
[Oct 12, 2005]
Brazil has reached an agreement with Abbott Laboratories that will lower the price of the company's antiretroviral drug Kaletra per pill from $1.17 to 63 cents and protect the drug's patent, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said Tuesday, the AP/Boston Herald reports (AP/Boston Herald, 10/12). Under the terms of the agreement, Brazilian manufacturers will not produce a generic version of the drug domestically and Abbott will lower the price of Kaletra, which will save the government $339 million over six years (St. Paul Pioneer Press, 10/12). Abbott also agreed to donate $3 million worth of other pharmaceuticals to Brazil (Reuters/ChicagoBusiness.com, 10/11). In July, Brazil's health ministry and Abbott said they had reached an agreement for Abbott to keep the government's annual expenses on Kaletra at current levels for the next six years and that Brazil would not break Abbott's patent. However, less than a week after the agreement was announced, Brazilian Health Minister Jose Saraiva Felipe dismissed the agreement and said the country would continue to negotiate for a lower price or manufacturers would break its patent and produce the drug for 41 cents per pill (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 10/5). Brazil had requested a "voluntary license" from Abbott that would have transfered Kaletra's patent to the government in the future; however, Abbott did not agree to that under the deal reached on Tuesday. In the future, Abbott will make available an enhanced version of Kaletra, called Meltrex, which will be sold at a price approximately 10% higher than the Kaletra price, a health ministry spokesperson said (Jeffris/Radowitz, Dow Jones, 10/11). The deal takes effect in March 2006 (Reuters/ChicagoBusiness.com, 10/11).
Media & Society
PSI/Zimbabwe Campaign Against HIV Stigma Awarded Population Institute 2005 Global Media Award
[Oct 12, 2005]
The Washington, D.C.-based Population Institute has awarded its 2005 Global Media Award for Excellence in Population Reporting to Population Services International/Zimbabwe for a mass media HIV/AIDS awareness campaign, the Herald/AllAfrica.com reports (Herald/AllAfrica.com, 10/10). The "Anti-Stigma!" campaign, which had the theme "Don't Be Negative About Being Positive," featured testimonials from several HIV-positive people who live in the country. The campaign marked the first time that HIV-positive Zimbabweans were provided a platform to discuss their HIV status openly. The campaign ran in print and on electronic media and was created and produced by PSI/Zimbabwe, which receives primary funding from USAID. The award aims to increase media coverage of population and development issues (Danielson, PSI News, 10/10).
Science & Medicine
AIDS Reduces Brain Tissue in Certain Regions Even With Treatment, Study Says
[Oct 12, 2005]
AIDS can continue to damage some types of brain tissue even when patients are receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy, according to a study published on Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, London's Daily Telegraph reports. Paul Thompson, a researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California-Los Angeles and colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh used a 3-D magnetic resonance imaging technique on the brains of 26 people diagnosed with AIDS and 14 HIV-negative people (Highfield, Daily Telegraph, 10/11). The researchers found that the AIDS patients had 10% to 15% thinner brain tissue in regions that control movement, language and feeling. The tissue loss shown in the brain imaging of the AIDS patients correlated with motor and cognitive defects that the patients showed in multiple brain function tests. In addition, the extent of the tissue loss seemed to be related to patients' CD4+ T cell counts (BBC News, 10/11). In addition, AIDS patients who were taking HAART had no significant difference in tissue loss compared with AIDS patients who were not taking the therapy. "Even though antiretroviral drugs rescue the immune system, AIDS is still attacking the brain," Thompson said, adding, "A protective blood barrier prevents drugs from entering the brain, transforming it into a reservoir where HIV can multiply and attack cells unchecked." According to the study, some areas of the brain were not affected by AIDS (Daily Telegraph, 10/11). At least two in five people living with HIV/AIDS are expected to "suffer from cognitive impairments, ranging from minor deficits to dementia," the BBC News reports. Rod Watson of the Terrence Higgins Trust, the largest HIV/AIDS charity in Europe, said, "This study tracking any cognitive decline is interesting but small. We'd need more solid evidence on how HIV can affect the brain in different individuals before we looked at offering neuroprotective drugs" (BBC News, 10/11).
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