HIV Woman Jailed...

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World Bank study: Aggressive TB control could yield gains for poor countries
WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2007 -- Aggressive tuberculosis control could yield substantial economic gains for poor countries, according to a World Bank research report released on Wednesday.

Highly affected African countries could gain up to 9 times their investments in TB control, said the study, the Economic Benefit of Global Investments in Tuberculosis Control. It warned that despite recent gains in fighting TB, there were still 8.8 million new cases and 1.6 million deaths from the disease in 2005.

Without treatment, two-thirds of smear-positive cases die within five to eight years, with most dying within 18 months of being infected, said the study. The economic impact of TB deaths and the benefits of TB control among the 22 high-burden countries are greatest in China and India, where the combination of growing incomes and a relatively high number of TB deaths translates into a significant economic effect, the study added.

The study, which was commissioned by the World Bank on behalf of the Stop TB Partnership and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has attracted considerable interest from international health and development agencies, along with research and civil society groups, which want more aggressive TB control worldwide. The disease is the leading infectious killer of adults after HIV/AIDS.

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Sea cucumbers to fight malaria...

Sea cucumber a 'malaria weapon'
Sunday, 23 December 2007, Sea cucumbers may provide a potential new way to block transmission of the malaria parasite, a study says.

The slug-like creature produces a protein, lectin, which impairs development of the parasites. An international team genetically engineered mosquitoes - which carry the malaria parasite - to produce the same protein in their gut when feeding.

The PLoS Pathogens study found the protein disrupted development of the parasites inside the insects' stomach. "Ultimately, one aim of our field is to find a way of genetically engineering mosquitoes so that the malaria parasite cannot develop inside them" - Professor Bob Sinden, Imperial College London.

Malaria causes severe illness in 500 million people worldwide each year, and kills more than one million. It is estimated that 40% of the world's population are at risk of the disease. To stimulate the mosquitoes to produce lectin, the researchers fused part of the gene from the sea cucumber which produces the protein with a gene from the insect. The results showed that the technique was effective against several of the parasites which cause malaria.

More BBC NEWS | Health | Sea cucumber 'new malaria weapon'

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TB eradication off target...

Report: U.S. falling short on TB battle
Feb. 1, 2008 -- A new report said the United States is falling short of its benchmark goal of eliminating tuberculosis as a public health problem by 2010.

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows latent TB infection in the U.S. population from 1999-2000 was 4.2 percent. The current infection rate would have to be 1 percent and decreasing to be on course to reach its goal of TB incidence of less than one per million by 2010, researchers said.

"Persons with LTBI are not infectious and cannot transmit TB to others, and only 5-10 percent of individuals with LTBI will go on to develop active TB, which is infectious. But because the risk of progression to TB can be substantially reduced by preventive treatment, it is crucial that LTBI by detected and treated," lead author Dr. Diane Bennett of the CDC said Friday in a release.

The results for a National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey suggest that of the 11,213,000 with LTBI in the overall U.S. population, only one in four had been diagnosed, the report said. The findings were published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Report: U.S. falling short on TB battle

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Hepatitis C study...

Researchers find new treatment for Hepatitis C
Washington, May 15,`08 : Researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center have found a new treatment for Hepatitis C.

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne infectious disease that is caused by Hepatitis C virus (HCV), infecting the liver. The infection can cause liver inflammation (hepatitis) that is often asymptomatic, but ensuing chronic hepatitis can result later in cirrhosis (fibrotic scarring of the liver) and liver cancer. In a study of 31 veterans at the Veteran's Administration Medical Center in Oklahoma City, researchers found that Fluvastatin - a drug that has been approved since 1993 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of elevated cholesterol in adults - significantly lowered the viral load, or levels of hepatitis C virus, for up to six weeks when used alone.

"This research is the first to demonstrate the antiviral activity of Fluvastatin in human beings infected with hepatitis C, most of whom were non-responders to the standard of care treatment," said Ted Bader, M.D., the principle investigator on the project and the director of liver diseases at the OU Health Sciences Center. Since Fluvastatin will not completely clear the hepatitis C virus by itself, scientists have started a phase II randomized, controlled trial that combines Fluvastatin with the standard treatment of peg-interferon and ribavirin.

They hope to use the combination of medicines to significantly improve the cure rate for hepatitis C. After further required testing and approval, the drug could be available as a new treatment for hepatitis C far sooner than any other anti-hepatitis C drug currently under research and development. "We need additional drugs to add to this regimen to improve the cure rate. When patients are cured, they feel dramatically better, their health care costs plummet, their risk of liver cancer drops dramatically, and if they do not have cirrhosis, they will not need a liver transplant. Moreover, they are no longer infectious," Bader said.

In the initial investigative study funded by the VA Research Foundation of Oklahoma City and Dr. Michael Bronze at the OU College of Medicine, veterans with chronic HCV were given oral doses of Fluvastatin daily for two to 12 weeks. Within a month, half of the patients showed a reduction of the virus. One patient's viral load was about 50 times lower than before taking Fluvastatin. The study is published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Researchers find new treatment for Hepatitis C

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AIDS out of control...

U.N.: Fight Against AIDS Can't Keep Up
June 10, 2008 - New Infections Greatly Outpacing Number Of People Being Given Crucial Antiretroviral Drugs

Despite a stepped up global battle against AIDS, the numbers of people newly infected with HIV are far and away outpacing the numbers beginning antiretroviral drug treatments, U.N. officials said Monday. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, opening several days of U.N. debate on AIDS prevention, told world leaders that 2.5 million people became infected with HIV last year compared with 1 million who started using important antiretroviral drugs.

"Unless greater and swifter advances are made in reaching those who need essential services, the epidemic's burden on households, communities and societies will continue to mount," Ban said. Some 2.1 million people died of AIDS last year and at least 33 million people world wide have the virus, according to U.N. figures. "The U.N.'s conclusion is that the AIDS epidemic is overwhelming the progress made in treating it," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk.

"As the number of AIDS-infected individuals rises, UNAIDS, the World Health Organization and UNICEF are fighting an uphill battle," added Falk, who is based at the U.N. In addition, people with weakened immune systems from HIV are up to 50 times more likely to develop tuberculosis, U.N. officials say.

"We cannot separate the fight against HIV/AIDS from the fight against TB," said General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim, who will preside over a two-day meeting on AIDS starting Tuesday. Falk noted that the conference comes on the heels of a report that one in four teen-age girls in the U.S. has a sexually transmitted disease, "adding to concerns about apathy with regard to HIV/AIDS prevention."

More U.N.: Fight Against AIDS Can't Keep Up, New Infections Greatly Outpacing Number Of People Being Given Crucial Antiretroviral Drugs - CBS News

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AIDS problem gettin' worse in Africa...

AIDS epidemic a disaster - Red Cross
June 26, 2008 : THE AIDS epidemic in southern Africa is so severe it should be classed as a disaster comparable to floods or famine, a new Red Cross study says.

In its annual World Disasters Report, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said today that there was "no doubt" that HIV/AIDS matches the United Nations definition of a disaster. The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs classes a disaster as a "serious disruption of the functioning of a society, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses which exceed the ability of a society to cope using only its own resources".

The IFRC said such a situation exists in sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to about two-thirds of the world's HIV-positive cases. At least one person in 10 is living with HIV in nations such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia, the report said. The consequences of the epidemic are felt by all of society and not just people who were sick, because of the economic strain and social tensions.

"Reflecting on the lives of most people living in sub-Saharan Africa raises more alarm than hope," the IFRC said. "The virus is directly responsible for restraining and reducing human and resource capacities across societies because HIV infections and AIDS deaths are common among workers of all qualifications and expertise, and in all industries.

More AIDS epidemic a disaster - Red Cross | NEWS.com.au

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Never too old to contract an STD...

More Midlife (and Older) STDs
Wednesday, Jul. 02, 2008 - Sex and older generations: it's not a topic that gets discussed much, not even in the doctor's office. But some physicians say that needs to change, because older patients are leading active sex lives — and their rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) may be on the rise.

Whatever the cause — Viagra, midlife divorce, online dating or simple ignorance — studies suggest that STDs are no longer just an affliction of the young. A study published online last week by the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections adds to that growing body of evidence. Researchers at England's West Midlands Health Protection Agency found that in less than a decade, STD rates had more than doubled among people ages 45 and older. And Dr. Babatunde Olowokure, an author of the study, thinks that figure may be low. "These observations are based on a small proportion of people who actually attend clinics," he says. While that proportion of the population has increased overall over the past decade, Olowokure points out that middle-aged and older people tend to delay visiting a doctor for treatment of an STD, or they avoid it altogether, in large part due to the stigma associated with sexually transmitted infections.

In their study, Olowokure and his team counted 4,445 infections (excluding HIV) reported to 19 clinics in the region. From 1996 to 2003, total cases of chlamydia, genital herpes, gonorrhea, syphilis and genital warts among people over 45 increased 127%, from 344 cases in 1996 to 780 in 2003. Rates of STDs increased in patients under age 45 as well, by 97%, during the same time period. In the U.S. the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures — which include prevalence of syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea — reflect relatively stable rates of infection in people ages 55 and older, but that data relies on self-reporting, and in many parts of the country it is out of step with what physicians are seeing. "Our rates of syphilis and chlamydia are up across all ages," says Dr. Sharon Lee, a Kansas City, Mo., family physician and medical director of HIV Wisdom for Older Women. According to a 2000 study of Washington State residents, one of the only comprehensive analyses of STD infection among the middle-aged and older, cases of gonorrhea increased 18.2% between 1997 and 1998 among people ages 45 and older; in younger people, that increase was 17.3%.

Researchers point to myriad factors contributing to the rise in STD instances, among them a high midlife divorce rate and the ease of finding dates online. "What we have in this age group is a lot of people who are separated or divorced and seeking relationships. Sometimes they obtain them via the Internet, where they don't know the person and they don't know their sexual history," says Olowokure. But perhaps the most critical reason is older generations' lack of sex ed. Many older adults may have an outdated view of safe sex, believing that condoms are unnecessary after menopause or with partners they already know. Lee points out that "as people get older, they don't worry about pregnancy as much," and without education about STDs, many believe an inability to get pregnant negates the necessity for protection.

More More Midlife (and Older) STDs - TIME

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Granny says is `cause all dem sexy orgies dey have when dey gets together an' do dat La Cucuracha dance...

AIDS among Latinos on rise
Wed., July. 23, 2008 - Hispanics in U.S. face unique obstacles to diagnosis and treatment

AIDS rates in the nation's Latino community are increasing and, with little notice, have reached what experts are calling a simmering public health crisis. Though Hispanics make up about 14 percent of the U.S. population, they represented 22 percent of new HIV and AIDS diagnoses tallied by federal officials in 2006. According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Hispanics in the District have the highest rate of new AIDS cases in the country.

So far, the toll of AIDS in the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority population has mostly been overshadowed by the epidemic among African Americans and gay white men. Yet in major U.S. cities, as many as 1 in 4 gay Hispanic men has HIV, a rate on par with sub-Saharan Africa.

Blacks still have the highest HIV rates in the country, but language difficulties, cultural barriers and, in many cases, issues of legal status make the threat in the Hispanic community unique. For those who arrived illegally, in particular, fear of arrest and deportation presents a daunting obstacle to seeking diagnosis and treatment. "Officials need to stop downplaying or ignoring what's happening among Latinos," said Oscar De La O, president of Bienestar, a Latino service organization. "We are at the center of the storm."

Scant attention

See also:

Parasitic worms may help fuel AIDS epidemic -study
WASHINGTON, July 22,`08 - People infected with parasitic worms may be much more susceptible to the AIDS virus, according to a study published on Tuesday that may help explain why HIV has hit sub-Saharan Africa particularly hard.

The study involving monkeys demonstrated how a type of parasitic worm that causes schistosomiasis, which affects 200 million people globally, may make HIV infection more likely. Much lower amounts of the AIDS virus -- 17 times lower -- were needed to cause infection in monkeys who had the parasitic worms than in the parasite-free monkeys, the researchers said. "The presence of the worm is like adding fuel to the fire -- it creates more fertile ground for the virus to take hold," Dr. Ruth Ruprecht of Harvard Medical School, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview.

Evan Secor of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, another of the researchers, said the findings likely apply to people as well. This may confirm suspicions that parasitic worm infections like those common in parts of sub-Saharan Africa with unsanitary water supplies make people more vulnerable to HIV, Secor said. "Sub-Saharan Africa has only like 10 percent of the world's population but almost two-thirds of the world's HIV/AIDS," Secor said in a telephone interview. "So there's an apparent disproportionate amount of HIV/AIDS there, and it's very severe. So the hypothesis is that one of the things that may contribute to the more intense nature of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is the presence of these parasitic worms," Secor added.

Schistosomiasis, seen primarily in developing countries, is caused by tiny flatworms that live in snail-infested freshwater like rivers and lakes. When people wade, swim or bathe in contaminated water, worms bore through the skin and travel in the blood, causing anemia, diarrhea, internal bleeding, organ damage and death. Secor said the parasitic worm infection may undercut the immune system's ability to fight off HIV infection and may make it easier for HIV to get into white blood cells.

HIV MORE LIKELY TO SPREAD

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AIDS murder in Canada...

Murder trial for spreading AIDS
20 Oct 2008, In the first case of its kind in Canada, a man goes on trial today on murder charges of spreading AIDS by having unprotected sex with his partners.

Two women, who allegedly had sex with 52-year-old Johnson Aziga, have died of AIDS. Azigma, who also faces 11 counts of sexual assault, has been custody for the past five year. He was employed as a research analyst with the office of the Ontario Attorney General before his arrest. "This is the first time that a Canadian is prosecuted for alleged murder through the alleged dissemination or transmission of the HIV virus," the Canadian Press quoted his lawyer, Davies Bagambiire, as saying. "I look forward to the evidence unfolding so I can shake it up, cross-examine and demonstrate the holes in the evidence that I believe exist," the lawyer said.

Canada, which has about 60,000 cases of HIV, has seen many criminal trials for HIV transmission in recent years. Just two weeks ago, a Sudanese immigrant in the city of Winnipeg was jailed for 14 years for exposing six young girls to AIDS by having unprotected sex with them. Thirty-one-year-old Clato Mabior will be deported to Sudan after he completes his jail term.

One of his victims broke down in courtroom, describing how she was raped by him after he lured with the promise of drugs and alcohol. She said she was only 12 years old at the time. "I was scared. He has a life-threatening disease and he didn't tell me he had it," the girl said.

Earlier this year, another African immigrant in the same city was jailed for eight years for having unprotected sex with three women. Yet another such case to make headlines in Canada was that of businessman Carl Leone who was jailed for 18 years in April for having unprotected sex with 15 women, five of whom have tested positive for HIV.

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