AIDS

New HIV strain leads to faster AIDS development

A NEW and more aggressive strain of HIV discovered in West Africa causes significantly faster progression to AIDS, according to Swedish researchers.

The new strain of the virus that causes AIDS, called A3/02, is a fusion of the two most common HIV strains in Guinea-Bissau. It has so far only been found in West Africa.

“Individuals who are infected with the new recombinant form develop AIDS within five years, and that’s about two to two-and-a-half years faster than one of the parent (strains),” said Angelica Palm, one of the Lund University scientists responsible for the study based on a long-term follow-up of HIV-positive people in Guinea-Bissau.

Recombinant virus strains originate when a person is infected by two different strains, whose DNA fuse to create a new form.

“There have been some studies that indicate that whenever there is a so-called recombinant, it seems to be more competent or aggressive than the parental strains,” said Palm of the study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

The strain was first discovered by the Swedish team in Guinea-Bissau in 2011.

According to researchers, the speed with which A3/02 leads to people falling ill from AIDS does not impact on the effectiveness of medication on infected individuals.

“The good news is that as far as we know the medicines that are available today are equally functional on all different subtypes of variants,” Palm said.

The study warns that such recombinants may be spreading fast, especially in regions with high levels of immigration, such as Europe or the United States.

“It is highly likely that there are a large number of circulating recombinants of which we know little or nothing,” said Patrik Medstrand, professor of clinical virology at Lund University.

Some 35.3 million people around the world are living with HIV, which destroys the immune system and has caused more than 25 million deaths since AIDS first emerged in the early 1980s, according to the World Health Organisation.

Existing treatments help infected people live longer, healthier lives by delaying and subduing symptoms, but do not cure AIDS. Many people in poor communities do not have access to the life-giving drugs, and there is no vaccine.

Source: news.com

Number of adolescents with HIV jumps by one-third: UN

Geneva:  The number of adolescents infected by the HIV virus has jumped by one third over the past decade, the United Nation’s health agency said on Monday, blaming gaps in care programs.

“More than 2 million adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 years are living with HIV,” marking a 33 per cent rise since 2001, the World Health Organization said.

“Many do not receive the care and support that they need to stay in good health and prevent transmission. In addition, millions more adolescents are at risk of infection,” it warned.

In the world’s most AIDS-affected region, sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of adolescents with the virus are girls who have had unprotected sex, sometimes under duress.

In addition, many of those born with the virus or infected at birth in sub-Saharan Africa are becoming adolescents.

In Asia, meanwhile, young drug-users were the worst affected.

The WHO said that the failure to provide proper adolescent-focused programs had also resulted in a 50-per cent increase in reported AIDS-related deaths in the age group from 2005 to 2012.

In 2005, 70,000 adolescents died of AIDS. Seven years later, the figure was 104,000.

That contrasted starkly with the 30-per cent decline in the general population, the WHO underlined.

The year 2005 marked the high point of global AIDS deaths, which hit 2.3 million. Last year, the toll was 1.6 million.

“Adolescent girls, young men who have sex with men, those who inject drugs or are subject to sexual coercion and abuse are at highest risk,” said Craig McClure, head of HIV programs at UN children’s agency UNICEF.

“They face many barriers, including harsh laws, inequalities, stigma and discrimination which prevent them from accessing services that could test, prevent, and treat HIV,” McClure added.

“About one-seventh of all new HIV infections occur during adolescence. Unless the barriers are removed, the dream of an AIDS-free generation will never be realised,” he insisted.

The data was issued as the WHO released its first adolescent-specific care guidelines ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1.

“Adolescents face difficult and often confusing emotional and social pressures as they grow from children into adults,” said Gottfried Hirnschall, head of the WHO’s HIV/AIDS Department.

“Adolescents need health services and support, tailored to their needs. They are less likely than adults to be tested for HIV and often need more support than adults to help them maintain care and to stick to treatment,” he added.

Among the measures needed, the WHO said, is an end to the requirement for parental permission to have an HIV test.

In sub-Saharan Africa, it is estimated that in the 15-24 age bracket, only 10 percent of young men and 15 percent of young women know their HIV status.

In other regions, although data are scarce, access to HIV testing and counseling by vulnerable adolescents is consistently reported as being very low, the WHO said.

Source: NDTV

 

Nigeria: 700,000 adults living with HIV/AIDS in Benue

At least 700,000 adults out of the 4.3 million population of people in Benue State are still living with HIV/AIDS, Weekly Trust learnt yesterday.

Of the number which excluded children, only 50,000 persons living positively with the virus are registered with the Benue Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS.

Benue State Coordinator for PLWHA, Stephen Yongo revealed this at a one-day HIV/AIDS Review Meeting of Media Forum organized by the Ministry of Information and Orientation in conjunction with Benue State Action Committee on AIDS (BENSACA).

Yongo in a paper presentation entitled  “Stigma, Discrimination and Their Implications on HIV/AIDS  Programming”, explained that the 2010 sentinel report puts Benue at 12.7 per cent on HIV/AIDS prevalence rate.

He said his association has sent an Anti-Stigmatization Bill to the State Assembly to seek punitive measures against willful infection of innocent people by those already living with the virus.

Earlier,   Executive Secretary of BENSACA, Mrs. Grace Ashi Wende solicited strong partnership with the media in the campaigns against HIV/AIDS as they plan this year’s World AIDs Day with the theme “Take Charge of Your Life,  know your HIV Status”.

Source: Weekly Trust

AIDS epidemic’s end by 2030 seen: UN official

A top UN official said the global AIDS epidemic could be over by 2030 because of progress made in treatment and control of the disease.

“I think that 2030 is a viable target to say that we have reached the end of the epidemic,” said Luis Loures, a deputy executive director of UNAIDS, the UN agency leading the fight against HIV/AIDS.

“HIV will continue existing as a case here or there but not at the epidemic level we have today,” he told journalists yesterday.

Three million new HIV infections are reported each year and the disease, which attacks the immune system, kills 1.7 million people a year.

“We can get to the end of the epidemic because we have treatments and ways to control the infection,” said Loures, who is in Panama to discuss AIDS strategy with UN agencies in Latin America. “We are making progress, without a doubt.”

Two decades ago the average annual cost of treatment per person with HIV was USD 19,000 while today it is USD 150 thanks to generic drugs.

Moreover, people with HIV are getting treatment earlier, which retards the disease’s development.

According to UNAIDS, the annual incidence of new infections has fallen 20 per cent over the past decade, and in 25 countries, including 13 in sub-Saharan Africa, it has fallen by 50 per cent.

Over the past two years, the number of people who have obtained treatment for HIV has increased by 60 per cent.

“The challenge is now for the most vulnerable groups,” like homosexual males, sex workers and drug users who do not seek treatment for fear of being stigmatised or criminally prosecuted, Loures said.

“If we do not succeed in controlling the epidemic among these groups, AIDS will stay with us,” he warned.

At the end of 2011, there were 34 million people living with HIV, 69 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa where one in 20 adults have the disease.

“Today, there are a number of cases where we have evidence of a cure and that gives us great hope,” Loures said.

Source: Zee News/health

Tea made from mamala tree may help fight AIDS

The prostratin compound shows both preventing HIV from infecting human cells and awakening dormant HIV viruses that are hiding inside human

A compound found in a medicinal tea brewed from the bark of a tree could help fight AIDS, scientists have found.

The tea used by tribal healers on the South Pacific island of Samoa to treat hepatitis contains the compound prostratin, extracted from the bark of the mamala tree.

Scientists have found a way to isolate the compound and synthesise it so it is 100 times more potent.
The new version of prostratin shows promise in laboratory tests for both preventing HIV from infecting human cells and awakening dormant HIV viruses that are hiding inside human latently infected cells.

Latent HIV cell reservoirs are untouchable by today`s antiviral medicines. Antiviral medicines reduce active virus levels in patients` blood and keep patients healthy.
But when patients stop the medication, the hibernating HIV in reservoirs awakens to resupply active virus. Prostratin flushes HIV out of its cellular sanctuaries so that antiviral drugs can attack and hopefully eradicate the HIV from the body.

Speaking at the American Chemical Society`s meeting in Indianapolis, Paul A Wender from Stanford University described efficient new ways of making prostratin.
Wender and colleagues first developed a way to make the tea ingredient, prostratin, in large amounts from readily available ingredients.

He described how that initial synthesis broke down a major barrier to probing prostratin`s antiviral effects. Until then, scientists had to extract prostratin from the bark of the Samoan mamala tree, and only tiny and variable amounts were so obtained.

Samoa is where another scientist, Paul Cox, in 1987 heard a native healer praise mamala bark tea as a remedy for viral hepatitis. It led scientists at the National Cancer Institute to analyse the bark and identify prostratin as a key ingredient.
Wender`s synthesis of prostratin opened the door to research on the substance and enabled his team to change prostratin`s architecture.

“We now have made synthetic variants of prostratin, called analogs, that are 100 times more potent than the natural product,” Wender said.

Wender`s group also synthesised bryostatin, a substance that occurs naturally in sea creatures called bryozoans, and appears even more effective for AIDS and have applications for Alzheimer`s disease and cancer.

“Bryostatin has shown great promise in laboratory experiments as the basis for development of potentially transformative medicines for cancer, Alzheimer`s disease and the eradication of HIV/AIDS,” Wender said.

Researchers have designed simpler and more readily synthesised analogs of bryostatin which are up to 1,000-fold more potent in flushing HIV out of its hiding places than prostratin.

Source Zee News/health