Anti-retroviral therapy

HIV virus returns in two cured patients: US doctor

Two patients previously thought to be ‘cured’ of HIV after undergoing bone marrow transplants are now seeing the return of the virus in their blood, a US doctor has revealed.

Timothy Henrich, a physician-researcher at the Boston Brigham and Women’s Hospital, believed the re-emergence of the virus demonstrates that HIV reservoirs, latent cells carrying the virus, “is deeper and more persistent” than scientists had realised.

“The return of detectable levels of HIV in our patients is disappointing, but scientifically significant,” Henrich told Xinhua in a statement through e-mail.

“Through this research, we have discovered …that our current standards of probing for HIV may not be sufficient to inform us if long-term HIV remission is possible if anti-retroviral therapy is stopped,” he said.

The two HIV-positive patients, who do not want to be identified, received bone marrow transplants as part of treatment for Hodgkin’ s lymphoma, a cancer of the blood, one in 2008, the other in 2010.

HIV became undetectable in both patients approximately eight months after transplant. This year, during spring, they agreed to cease anti-retroviral therapy to test whether the transplant had eliminated the virus from their bodies.

In July, the researchers announced that the two have shown no signs of HIV after they were off anti-retroviral therapy for 15 weeks and seven weeks, respectively.

But in August, the researchers detected HIV in one of the patients, who then resumed taking medication. The other opted to stay off the medicine but last month, after 32 weeks with no HIV detected, signs of the virus re-emerged and the patient also resumed anti-retroviral therapy.

According to researchers, the virus is now suppressing as expected and they are both currently in good health.

Source: Business Standard

1163 HIV positive people in Meghalaya: MACS

 

Health authorities in Meghalaya today said the number of people living with HIV/AIDS virus has increased many folds since 2007 when only 14 persons were tested positive.

Today 1163 persons are living with the virus and authorities believed there could be more who are yet to come forward to test.

For a small state with a population of about three million people, the number is staggering and the trend is increasing every year with as many as 79 positive people have succumbed to the virus in which the international watchdogs on HIV have categorized the state as ‘low prevalence but high risk.’

“The cumulative figures till October this year is 1163 positive cases in the state,” Meghalaya Aids Control Society (MACS) director F Kharkongor said.

The MACS chief said that only 527 positive persons have turned up for treatment at the three Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) Centers set up in the state even as she expressed concerned at the low turnout of the patients at the designated hospitals.

The first tests were started in 2007 in which 14 persons only were tested positive, she said, adding that the figure increased every year, 54 in 2008, 131 in 2009, 245 in 2010, 452 in 2011, 731 in 2012 and 1008 till March 2013.

The number of deaths has also increased every year since 2008 when only one patient died, in 2009 four died, in 2010 eight patients died taking the cumulative figure to 12, Kharkongor said.

The cumulative deaths in 2011 increased from 12 to 22 and then 37 the following year, she said, adding that the number of victims almost increased almost doubly during the period from March 2012 to March 2013 with 25 deaths.

From March to October this year the number of deaths recorded stands at 17, also the highest during the same period in the past six years, the official said.

According to a data compiled the MACS, 43 per cent of the victims are of the age group from 25-34 and mostly are the active inject drug users.

However, the female sex workers working in the coal belts and along the National Highways in the state also constitute a huge chunk of those people living with the HIV virus.

The others are men who have sex with men and children born out of positive parents.

Source: Press Trust of India

 

HIV infections up in Europe and Central Asia

Sweden – HIV infections in Europe and Central Asia increased by eight percent in 2012 compared to a year earlier, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control announced on Wednesday, November 27.

The rise of 131,000 new cases was driven by a nine-percent increase in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region which accounted for 102,000 new infections — around three-quarters of them in the Russian Federation alone.

In the European Union and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, new infections rose by less than one percent to 29,000, according to the joint report by the EU agency and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Almost half of the new cases were detected at an advanced stage of the infection which raises the risk of transmission to others.

Among the reasons for the increase is the lack of awareness of anti-retroviral treatments.

“We know that providing antiretroviral therapy earlier will allow people with HIV to live longer and healthier lives, and will reduce the risk that they transmit HIV to others,” WHO regional director for Europe, Zsuzsanna Jakab said.

AIDS cases were down by 48 percent in Western Europe between 2006 and 2012, while in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the number of newly diagnosed cases of the disease caused by HIV increased by 113 percent.

According to the report, only one in three people in need of anti-retroviral therapy was receiving in last year, despite improved figures compared to 2011.

In 2011 there were 2,300,000 people living with HIV in Europe and Central Asia, according to the WHO.

Source: Rappler