After more than a decade of researching better treatments for HIV patients, a new drug had been found in UK to lengthen the life expectancy of the victims. The recent introduction of Pfizer’s Celsentri (Maraviroc) is truly helpful for the HIV patients as it guards the entrance of the immune system and blocks the virus, which in turn delays the process of developing into AIDS. Although the drug is not a cure-all treatment, this is an alternative that patients can look forward to, since not all symptoms are remedied by other available HIV drugs in the market. Many AIDS organizations have shown interest in the drug saying this is a good sign of giving cure to the victims and will aid in reducing the progression of HIV into AIDS. Maraviroc comprised three drugs collectively made into one creating highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART), which lengthens the lifespan of HIV patients. But, recent findings showed that some patients have resistance to the product making it not advisable for them to take. The drug was approved in August for public use in the U.S. under the brand name Selzentry. It is taken orally in combination with the other anti-retroviral drugs. The drug’s mode of action works as it becomes a microscopic blockade of the CCR5 receptor, which the HIV virus usually strikes, as it enters the immune system particularly the CD4-T-cells. When the cell receptor is blocked, it makes the body more resistant to infection of the cells and slows down the process of developing the virus into full-blown AIDS. As this happens, complications are being delayed making the HIV-positive patients to live longer. Image BBC News
HIV cure possible just in 60 dollars!
Now you need not spend thousands of dollars for curing yourself against HIV, as a Russian doctor can do this for you just in 60 dollars and that too interestingly in just one minute. However, this HIV-negative status would be there just on certificate, not in reality. According to Russian laws all guest workers, willing to receive documents legalizing their stay in Moscow must possess an HIV-negative status and in such quest they often fall prey to swindlers like Olga Varnavskya, an employee of dermatovenerologic clinic, who issued HIV-negative certificates for everyone who was ready to pay $60 dollars for it. The tumbling out of this case has sparked serious concern among health activists, who have been trying hard to stop the inundation of menace called, HIV/AIDS. Moreover, this incident confirms the fact that there are many miscreants not only in Russia but around the world who are striking at the roots of the very foundation, laid to stop the influx of HIV/AIDS in our lives. Via: English
Simple ‘flash-heating’ can kill HIV in breast milk: Study
Now, those HIV positive mothers, who have always lived worried about their breast-fed babies, have all reasons to cheer up. You can now feed your baby with your milk even being HIV positive, without effecting your child! Researchers at the Berkeley and Davis campuses of the University of California have come up with an interesting answer to HIV-infected breast milk. They have developed a simple method ‘ i.e. flash-heating of HIV-infected breast milk ‘ that can successfully and amazingly inactivate the free-floating virus. Lead author of the study, Kiersten Israel-Ballard, a doctoral candidate at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health said, We conducted this research to help HIV-positive mothers and their infants who do not have safe alternatives to breastfeeding. HIV can be transmitted to the baby via breastfeeding. But for infants in developing countries where infant mortality is already so high from diarrhea and other illnesses, they can’t afford to lose the antibodies, other anti-infective agents and the optimal nutrition found in breast milk. This study shows that an easy-to-implement heating method can kill the HIV in breast milk. Now, HIV positive mothers can easily apply it at homes, by heating a glass jar of expressed breast milk in a pan of water over a flame or single burner. And your breast milk is just as healthy to feed your child with it without worries. So now, even the mothers in resource-poor communities can lead their breast-milk HIV-free without worrying about the huge expenditures. Image
Gay men cannot donate blood
FDA (Food and Drug Administration) asked blood donor clinics not to accept the blood donations from gay men. Gay men remain banned for life from donating blood to reduce the spread of HIV via transfusions. According to FDA — this policy will definitely help in preventing the spread of HIV caused due to blood donations. This will also help in lowering a person’s risk of getting various other diseases like hepatitis B and many other infections that can be caused by transfusion. According to this policy any man involved in sex with another man or multiple partners were banned from donating blood. Red cross and other agencies met FDA personals due to lack of blood donations and requested them to change the policy to allow for a 12 month deferral following MSM. But FDA declined their proposal saying that there were not sufficient proofs showing that men who had sex with men were 100% safe of disease within that time period. Many people protested against this policy of FDA. This policy is permanently removing the gay men from the map of the world. FDA website states that: Scientific evidence has not yet been provided to FDA that shows that blood donated by MSM or a subgroup of these potential donors, is as safe as blood from currently accepted donors. Before donating blood, the donors are asked a question that if they have had sex with another man since 1977. And those donors who replied — ‘yes they have’ were banned from donating the blood. The FDA said those donors are at greater risk of getting infected by HIV which is transmitted to others by blood transfusion. Image credit Source
Can homeopathy cure AIDS?
Homeopathy is often observed as second fiddle to allopathic treatment and Saturday’s workshop in south London that will be attended by 80 homeopaths will be attempting to wipe out that notion. The homeopaths will try and convince the medical world that homeopath can be as effective as allopath in the treatment of HIV and AIDS! The event is being organized by the Society of Homeopath and is believed to be marked occasion in the further development of homeopathy. The vent will focus on the AIDS epidemic in Africa and will try and justify the significance of homeopathy in the eradication of the HIV virus from Africa. But, medical officials and doctors have severely criticized the event and its ideology. Medical charity ‘Healthwatch’ has said that it opposes the idea of using homeopathy in Africa, since, they believe, this will only aggravate the escalating AIDS problem in the continent. Like other homeopathy-bashers, they too deny that homeopathic treatment of AIDS is scientific. Can homeopathy cure AIDS? No one knows for sure and it seems that few are eager to discuss on this matter. The war between the two modes of medical treatment is not new and doesn’t look like it’s going to stop for sometime. The workshop in London is going to be just another chasm that lets out the volatile hostility between the opposing streams of medical treatment and one can safely assume that, as in other times, no one will win. Image: Homeopathy Council Source: BBC
Doctors’ shortage crippling fight against AIDS
Despite launching worldwide, mission against HIV/AIDS, its roots continue to spread extensively around the globe, killing around 8,000 people everyday. However, with each such death a question remains unanswered, why; why are we failing to check this spiraling tide of HIV/AIDS? Is the money not enough? Is it being misspent, or is there something else that this fight against HIV/AIDS runs short of? However, in context of Southern Africa, we could say that money is not as bigger issue as the lack of staff is which in fact, is preventing thousands of people in these AIDS- stricken countries from accessing anti-retroviral therapy and other essential amenities that often serve as the last hope for these unprivileged people. This startling fact leaped out from a report released by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which covered four southern African countries – Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa – where more than one million people still need life-saving antiretroviral treatment but do not have access to it. A look at the major facts, which this report uncovered:- • In AIDS-stricken Lesotho, there are just 5 doctors and 63 nurses per 100,000 people. • In South Africa, around 700,000 needy HIV patients are going without necessary Anti-AIDS treatment. • Where in the United States, there are 901 nurses and 247 doctors per 100,000 people, where in South Africa these figures stand like this: 393 nurses and 74 doctors per 100,000 people, in AIDS-stricken South Africa. • In Malawi, there are 2 doctors and 56 nurses. • In Mozambique three doctors and 20 nurses. These figures show that how badly fight against HIV/AIDS has been imperiled due to shortage of trained staff for treating patients with HIV/AIDS because patients with HIV/AIDS needs not only drugs and clinics; but also trained, motivated health care workers to diagnose, monitor and treat them. And the need of trained staff comes our more significantly, when another study reveals that in four Southern African countries, the national adult HIV prevalence rate has risen higher than estimated, and has even exceeded 20%. These countries are Swaziland (33.4%), Zimbabwe (20.1%), Lesotho (23.2%) and Botswana (24.1%). Therefore, we could say that merely spending millions won’t suffice the purpose because none can replace trained medical staff, which is essential to continue our fight against HIV/AIDS. Via: MSF
Africa: Grandmothers Are Left To Raise AIDS Orphans
During an interview with Reuters, a Kenyan woman Kanotu Mumo revealed the condition in which she has to fend for her grandchildren and lives in Kiberia, which is the one of the biggest slums in Africa. There are a many such grandmothers in Africa who have to fend for their grandchildren who are left behind after their parents have died of AIDS. While talking about the UN figures, the fact is that there are almost 12 million children in Africa who have lost one or both of their parents due to AIDS. This is about 80 percent of the AIDS orphans of the developing world. It is since 1990 that the numbers of orphans have increased by 50 percent. The story of Kanto Mumo is similar to a number of grannies who had to leave their home town and fend their grandchildren. She lives in a hut that is 10 by 8 feet and you cannot see more than few inches inside the hut because it is staked with charcoal because she sells charcoal for her living. She lives there with four of her grandchildren, two great grand children and a child of a dead relative. There is no toilet facility or running water. Like many other grandmothers interviewed by Reuters, Kanto Mumo cleans up the Stara School in Kiberia twice a week. Their grandchildren are allowed to attend the school and are fed with steaming porridge and beans. This project was started by a group of Kibera mothers, seven years ago with the help of UN World Food program and Kenyan aid agency feed the children. This project is supplied and funded by Dutch charity ChildsLife International. The health of the children is also looked after by a nearby clinic, which supplies against the vouchers from the School. Josephin Mumo, a resident of Kibera has also supported in the raising of the School. The project is even backed up by singer Harry Belafonte, Barabara Bush, mother of President George Bush and actress Drew Barrymore. Many of the grandmothers are themselves suffering from HIV or old age problems. Some of them sell charcoal or wash clothes and earn to survive with their grand children. When they are not well, no one is there to even feed them. They are outcast by their villages and can’t go back. Most of them are worried about what will happen to the children if they died. Via: News
Fighting AIDS or people with AIDS?
No matter how many vows we make to annihilate AIDS from the world-map; how much we fuel our fight against it, and how loudly we talk in favor of AIDS-afflicted people; the fact remains standstill – despite many efforts – we haven’t been able to give AIDS-afflicted people their due place in the society. How long this discrimination against HIV-afflicted people would go on, after all? Asking this provocative question, this time, comes another survey according to which HIV employees continue facing discrimination. As per new study, covering 478 HIV positive people in France: • 20 admitted having faced discrimination. • 149 lost their jobs while of working age • Nearly one in three said their health had precipitated their job loss • One in five were fired • 12 % didn’t have their job-contracts renewed. • Vulnerability to loosing job was four times higher among women when compared to men. Matter undraped by the survey is just tip of the iceberg, as social discrimination against HIV-afflicted people is restricted not only to few countries but has swaddled the entire globe. It’s pity that in some places even doctors have been found stoking the flames of this discriminatory attitude towards HIV patients. So, it won’t be wrong to say that it has become part and parcel of the HIV-afflicted people around the globe, unfortunately. No matter, it is developed country like France –which the present survey tells about- or a developing country like India, AIDS stigma is continuously sticking to the lot of these people. Nobody will come near me, eat with me in the canteen, nobody will want to work with me, I am an outcast here. These words by an HIV positive Indian employee clearly show that how badly the stigma of AIDS is turning life into a hell for thousands of people. Not better, is the condition of the female community; in fact, it is worst, as this survey itself uncovers. In many developing countries of Asia and Africa, life for an HIV positive woman is not less than a holocaust. As a woman with HIV/AIDS is considered not less than a whore and treated like a pariah! Following words of an HIV positive Indian woman well describe the situation: My mother-in-law has kept everything separate for me-my glass, my plate, they never discriminated like this with their son. They used to eat together with him. For me, it’s don’t do this or don’t touch that and even if I use a bucket to bathe, they yell – ‘wash it, wash it’. They really harass me. I wish nobody comes to be in my situation and I wish nobody does this to anybody. But what can I do? My parents and brother also do not want me back. So, the long and short of the matter is that our fight against HIV/AIDS remains incomplete or lopsided unless stigma associated with it is not wiped out fully. Our society will have to imbibe that sex is not the only reason behind HIV/AIDS proliferation, as other factors also contribute for its spread. For instance, recently a study revealed ‘China facing HIV/AIDS boom’ and main contributing factor for this boom was found not unsafe sex but drug abuse. Image Source
Overlapping Peptide-pulsed Autologous Cells Treatment – an immunotherapy technique (therapeutic vaccine) for controlling AIDS
Till date AIDS retains the status of an incurable disease and no vaccine has been developed to treat it. There are about 25 million people who have succumbed to this deadly disease since 1980 and there are 35 million people who are infected with it. Till now the most effective method of controlling AIDS is to give the victim an anti-retroviral treatment after making him/her undergo the PEP (Post-exposure prophylaxis) program, which is an elaborate method spanning four weeks in which the patient has to face a lot of discomfiture. The side effects that may be nausea, diarrhea, fatigue or malaise will surely prove to be highly taxing on the bodily resources and dispositions of the victims. It is sad but true to realize that just like the treatments for other life threatening diseases, the treatment for AIDS with anti-retroviral drugs is an expensive affair and beyond the reach of the common man. Keeping these aspects in view, Stephen Kent along with his colleagues from the University of Melbourne, Australia developed the Overlapping Peptide-pulsed Autologous Cells (OPAL) treatment which is an immunotherapy technique. In the laboratory experiment, the AIDS virus cells termed peptides (protein fragments) were placed along with blood cells and isolated immunity cells from the infected person, in lab dishes. It was observed that the immunity cells were able to recognize the viral cells better. This vaccine is to be introduced into the blood of HIV patients. Consequently, the immune cells will be able to combat the virus and take control of it more efficiently than the other types of AIDS/HIV treatments. According to the information from PLoS Pathogens journal of the Public Library of Science, this experiment was conducted on monkeys with SIV(Simian Immunodeficiency Virus that is similar to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus in functionality and effect). It was observed that the CD4-T cells (the main immunity cells for combating the HIV/SIV virus) that are generally incapacitated by the HIV/SIV virus were found to increase in number in leaps and bounds after the administration of this vaccine. The viral levels were ten times lesser in the SIV infected monkeys that were administered the vaccine compared to the SIV infected monkeys that were not given the vaccine. The good news is that the effect lasted for almost over a year after the initial vaccinations. The plans to conduct this immunotherapy experiment on humans are under development. This treatment seems to be more effective than other forms of treatment as vaccines can definitely work better than drugs (as they fight the enemy by starting off as a part of it). However, the OPAL treatment is again just a way to control the AIDS pathogen and not a complete cure. So, we still have to look for something that can cure the disease completely. Moreover, this form of treatment requires administration of the vaccine as soon as the virus infects the human being. This proves to be a grave limitation for OPAL treatment because it is almost impossible to detect the virus before three weeks of the onset of the infection (even in the HIV 1 stage). via: REUTERS
To go for circumcision or not – a debate
The legitimacy of Circumcision or male genital modification has been often hotly debated in all societies especially in the US and UK. Circumcision is part of the ritual followed by adherents of certain religions and the process is not illegal any where in the world. In the latest issue of the British Medical Journal two doctors Geoff Hinchley, a consultant with the British National Health Service and Kristen Patrick have hotly debated over the issue. Hinchley believes that circumcision, despite of its medical benefits like preventing sexually transmitted disease is not a harmless traditional practice and could cause mental and physical damage to young boys. He contends that the decision should be left to individuals until they were old enough to make individual health care choices. However, circumcision proponent Kristen Patrick argues that the process involves little risk if carried under proper medical supervision. It is done under local anesthesia and the pain is comparable to that from an injection for immunization. The added benefits from male circumcision involve reduction in transmission in sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, human papilloma virus, chancroid and syphilis. However, strict adherents of religious faiths that prescribes circumcision will continue with the ritual and as for those philandering adult males of other religious beliefs, they might give this ritual a thought. Image: istockphoto Source: altpenis