HIV ATLAS

aidsmap.com news feed : aidsmap newsA small Ugandan study has shown that 1200mg of fluconazole per day appears to be a better treatment for cryptococcal meningitis than 400 to 800mg per day, which is the dosage typically administered to patients in many African health facilities. The study was reported in the December 15th edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. Uptake of voluntary counseling and testing increased dramatically in intervention communities during the first two years of a community-randomised controlled HIV prevention study in four countries, according to an article in the December 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. Project Accept seeks to reduce HIV transmission by changing community norms through a combination of community mobilisation activities; high-quality HIV mobile voluntary counseling and testing (VCT); and post-test support services. HIV-positive children who are being treated with antiretroviral drugs in the Central African Republic are infected with a wide variety of HIV subtypes, don’t adhere well to their treatment, and seldom have an undetectable viral load, according to a study published in the December 15th edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. The investigators also found that resistance to antiretroviral drugs was widespread. There is a low risk of death for children starting HIV treatment in sub-Saharan Africa, an international team of investigators report in the December 15th edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. The risk of death after starting HIV treatment was 7% and three-quarters of deaths occurred in the six months after antiretroviral therapy was started. Researchers have reported that while HIV-positive children in Uganda and the United Kingdom/Ireland responded similarly to antiretroviral therapy in most regards, the Ugandan children lagged behind in CD4 cell recovery and body growth. The study, published in the December 1st issue of Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, calls attention to the potential for malnutrition and opportunistic infections to undercut the benefits of antiretroviral therapy. Two cases of liver toxicity caused by the anti-HIV drug abacavir (Ziagen, also in the combination pill Kivexa) have been reported in the November 30th edition of AIDS. Both cases involved young women who changed their HIV treatment to include abacavir. Tests showed that neither of the women was allergic to abacavir. Treatment with abacavir (Ziagen) does not have a significant effect on biomarkers that can indicate an increased risk of heart attack, Australian researchers report in a small study published in the November 30th edition of AIDS. An alternative explanation for the increased risk of heart disease seem with abacavir treatment - lymphocyte hyperactivation - is advanced in the December 1st edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. Traditional healers could potentially be an important source of HIV treatment in some African settings, according a study published in the December 1st edition of AIDS. Investigators from Zimbabwe and the University of Pennsylvania found that patients reported better quality of life after a visit to a traditional healer than did patients who accessed orthodox medical services. Access to HIV testing and antiretrovirals for prevention of mother to child HIV transmission has grown substantially over the past four years in the countries most severely affected by HIV, UN agencies reported today – but around 40% of women in the high prevalence countries of southern Africa are still not being offered an HIV test during pregnancy. Data from 23 European countries show that the annual number of HIV diagnoses in men who have sex with men (MSM) has increased by 86% between 2000 and 2006, report epidemiologists in the November 2008 issue of Sexually Transmitted Infections. The United Kingdom is the country with the highest number of new diagnoses in Europe, but dramatic increases were also seen in low prevalence countries in Central and Eastern Europe.