CDC to Increase Funding for HIV Testing, Focusing on Disproportionately Affected Groups

		SUMMARY: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control  an Prevention (CDC) announced last week that it will expand an ongoing campaign to encourage  HIV testing, extending the program for 3 more  years and providing more than $31 million in  additional funding to state and local health  departments. The testing initiative will continue to  focus on African-Americans -- who have the  highest HIV rates relative to population -- and will  now include additional emphasis on other heavily  affected groups including gay and bisexual men,  Latino men and women, and injection drug users.

Below is the text of a CDC announcement describing the program. Information about applying for testing grants is available online.

CDC Announces $31.5 Million Expansion of
Successful HIV Testing Initiative to Ensure that
More Americans Learn Their HIV Status

More than 1.4 Million Americans Tested To-Date
Through Current Initiative

 

April 1, 2010 -- Following the success of an initiative through which more than 1.4 million Americans have been tested for HIV, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today a new three-year, $31.5 million expansion of the program. Funding for the new phase of the initiative is expected to total approximately $142.5 million over the next three years, and will be provided to state and local health departments across the country to increase access to testing and early diagnosis of HIV.

The initiative, originally designed to increase testing and knowledge of HIV status primarily among African-American men and women, will now reach more U.S. jurisdictions and populations at risk. These include gay and bisexual men, as well as male and female Latinos and injection drug users. The new phase will build on the progress of the previous effort and ensure that many more Americans know their status. The HIV testing services will focus on areas across the nation where these populations are hardest hit.

"HIV testing is a crucial step in reducing new HIV infections, so that those infected with HIV can be linked to medical care and ongoing support to help them maintain safer behaviors," said Kevin Fenton, MD, director of CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. "This expansion will help ensure that more Americans have access to what could be life-saving information about their HIV status."

The current initiative began in 2007 and will end in September 2010 when the new project begins. In the first two years of this three-year initiative, more than 10,000 HIV-infected individuals were newly diagnosed, with 75 percent linked to care. Most tests (62 percent) were conducted among African-American men and women.

Most of the current project's funds have been used to implement routine, voluntary HIV testing in health care settings, as recommended by CDC's 2006 Revised Recommendations for HIV Testing of Adults, Adolescents, and Pregnant Women in Health Care Settings. Funds helped jurisdictions to establish the partnerships and infrastructure required to make routine HIV testing in these settings a reality. The new phase of the initiative will continue to make this a priority.

"Far too many Americans with HIV -- more than 200,000 people -- are unaware of their infection and may be unknowingly transmitting the virus to others," said Jonathan Mermin, MD, director of CDC's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. "The expansion of this initiative reflects CDC's continued commitment to ensure that far more Americans are tested for HIV, especially among vulnerable men and women most in need of HIV services."

Beginning today, eligible jurisdictions can apply for the funds, which will be awarded in August for the three-year initiative that begins the following month. The number of areas eligible for this cycle of funding has been increased from 25 to 30 jurisdictions. These 30 jurisdictions represent the areas with the most severe HIV epidemics among African-Americans, Latinos, injection drug users, and gay and bisexual men of all races.

For more information, please visit www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/funding/PS10-10138/index.htm.
4/6/10

Source
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CDC Announces $31.5 Million Expansion of Successful HIV Testing Initiative to Ensure that More Americans Learn Their HIV Status. Press release. April 1, 2010.

Pot and AIDS: Worldwide epidemic for our time

Sam Contakos For The Tribune-Democrat

— More than 30 years ago, before the advent of AIDS, a marked decrease in the presence of T-cells in chronic marijuana smokers (one to seven times per week for one to eight years) was known.

This scientific fact indicated a disturbance of the individual’s immunological function.

In some subjects, there was also a decrease in B-cell rosette formation.

The decrease in T-cells is transient, lasting 24 to 72 hours post-smoking. The use of alcohol or tobacco did not contribute to the damage and decrease of the T-cell.

In the early 1980s, the young adult male “gay” population was afflicted with a devastating epidemic, unknown before, but finally named AIDS. The mechanism of this disease was a failure of the immune system. After a few years the causative agent was found to be the HIV virus, which attacks the T-cells of victims.

The correlation between marijuana’s widespread use in the homosexual population with the attendant decrease in T-cells and the affinity of the HIV virus for the damaged T-cells has been largely ignored.

Cannabis is the most widely available and used drug for those who suffer despair and alienation in their daily lives. It alleviates the pain of hunger. It makes life more bearable.

But, it does nothing to cure the cause of sufferings.

It does nothing to truly improve the quality of life.

We should look about us. In those areas of the world where the use of cannabis is accepted, or even encouraged, for its salutary effects, the incidence of AIDS is astronomical.

Many good people see that cannabis does indeed make life more bearable for themselves and others, but they remain content to feel good and do nothing to cure the causes of pain and discontent.

A dictator can go his merry way because his subjects are content. He can ignore his responsibilities which transported to the drug-induced heaven of his imagination.

By subduing the responsibility of morality, pot becomes not the gateway drug to stronger substances, but the promoter of licentious behavior. Many a young boy or girl has been seduced with pot and introduced to the HIV virus.

But still I hear experts or physicians proclaim that further studies are needed to determine whether THC should be legal or remain illegal.

One must wonder: Is this indecisiveness due to ignorance or to be politically correct?

Are these studies to benefit the patients or the investigator?



Sam Contakos is a retired Johnstown businessman and former practicing physician. He also formerly served as a lecturer on the topic of drug abuse. 

HIV drugs could have second life as treatment for retrovirus correlated with prostate cancer

Some medications already being used to treat HIV appear to inhibit a retrovirus that has been linked to prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome, reports a new study published online April 1 in PLoS ONE.

Like HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus) is a retrovirus that infects host cells with its RNA through reverse transcriptase enzymes, using protease enzymes to process proteins for viral assembly and integrase enzymes to help infect the host cell's DNA. Many of the drugs approved to treat HIV target one of these processes to slow or prevent host cells from becoming infected.

After testing 28 approved drugs on XMRV cultures, researchers found that four of the medications (raltegravir, L-000870812, Zidovudine (AZT) and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) were able to stop XMRV from replicating. Two of the drugs are reverse transcriptase inhibitors, and the others (including raltegravir, which worked the best) are integrase enzyme inhibitors.

In addition to the similar success of the drugs' compounds, the researchers found that the use of the antiretrovirals might do well to follow HIV treatment protocol, in which multiple treatments are often used together. "These drugs inhibited XMRV at lower concentrations when two of them were used together, suggesting that highly potent 'cocktail' therapies might inhibit the virus from replicating and spreading," Raymond Schinazi, a professor of pediatrics and chemistry at Emory University's Center for AIDS Research, said in a prepared statement. "This combination of therapies might also have the added benefit of delaying or even preventing the virus from mutating into forms that are drug-resistant."

XMRV is one of only a few retroviruses known in humans and was found in 2006. Since then, some studies have found a correlation between it and some forms of prostate cancer (which is the second most common cancer among men) as well as chronic fatigue syndrome (estimated to affect four to 10 people per thousand). Other studies have had mixed results, so the implications of the results hinge largely on future findings about this retrovirus's role in human disease. "It is not yet clear if any illnesses are directly caused by XMRV," the researchers wrote in their study. But "our data indicates that XMRV infections might be prevented or treated with specific antiviral agents."

And if the retrovirus does prove to play a role in causing illnesses, the findings could help in designing clinical trials to test the treatments in vivo.

In the meantime, Ila Singh, an associate professor of pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and lead author on the new study, concluded in a prepared statement that, "These results offer hope to infected persons."

Canada cuts off funding to international AIDS vaccine project

Between 2001 and 2008, the Canadian International Development Agency contributed nearly $80 million to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, one of the biggest backers of HIV vaccine trials in the developing world. Canada was one of IAVI's major funders.

Photograph by: Valentina Petrova, AFP/Getty Images

OTTAWA — Canada has pulled the plug on funding to one of the largest AIDS vaccine development agencies in the world.

Between 2001 and 2008, the Canadian International Development Agency contributed nearly $80 million to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, one of the biggest backers of HIV vaccine trials in the developing world. Canada was one of IAVI's major funders.

In 2009, Canada contributed nothing to the organization and said funding was under review. There was no money again in this year's federal budget and no decision on whether IAVI will ever receive Canadian funding again.

"IAVI was informed in July 2009 that CIDA funding priorities are under review, and that no further commitments could be made at that time," an IAVI spokeswoman told the Winnipeg Free Press.
A spokeswoman for International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda reiterated that sentiment in a statement recently emailed to the Winnipeg Free Press.

"CIDA continues to focus its efforts as part of the aid effectiveness agenda," Jessica Fletcher said. "As such, we are currently reviewing all of our programming. No decision has been made yet on the future of this program."

Stephen Lewis, co-director of AIDS Free World in the U.S. and former UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, said the global AIDS research community now knows Canada can't be counted on to help.

"This government is now abandoning one of the greatest vaccine initiatives in the world," said Lewis, who is on the board of IAVI. "I just think it's unconscionable."
IAVI President Dr. Seth Berkley has thus far received no response to three letters he sent Jan. 25 to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Oda and Industry Minister Tony Clement asking them to reinstate the funding.

"CIDA's ongoing support is critical in sustaining the momentum in the search for an AIDS vaccine," wrote Berkley in the letters.

He said Canada's funding has helped leverage other support. In 2007, when Canada announced its own Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, Canada committed that the CHVI "would not compromise Canada's international support of AIDS vaccines."

The CHVI is a $139-million, five-year joint venture between Canada and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It was announced to great fanfare in February 2007.

But three years later, less than $9 million has been spent on CHVI, including almost $700,000 on a proposed $88-million vaccine production facility which was scrapped last month. The Winnipeg-based International Centre for Infectious Diseases was the front-runner for the facility.

IAVI was also one of the partners of that Winnipeg-based bid.

Lewis said Canada presumably has $88 million from the vaccine facility it could use to reinstate its funding of IAVI.

"They have the money and they allegedly have the interest, but (the government is) now abandoning what is absolutely necessary in dealing with AIDS," Lewis said. "Ultimately, the only thing that is going to end this virus is a vaccine."

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Public Health chief Dr. David Butler-Jones have both said they are examining all the options for how to spend the CHVI money now that the production plant is off the table.

Both say it was cancelled when none of the bidders met all the criteria and the Gates Foundation produced an analysis suggesting such a facility was no longer needed.

The focus is still on helping develop a vaccine for AIDS, a spokeswoman from PHAC said.
NDP health critic and Winnipeg MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis said the government obviously has no clue about the global realities of the AIDS epidemic.

"Cutting the vaccine production facility is a blow to Canada's international reputation as a leader in AIDS research and now we will be embarrassingly absent from the global call for continued research into HIV prevention," said Wasylycia-Leis.

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

MAC donates $2.5 million to HIV and AIDS fund

www.easier.com

Meet the new voices of Viva Glam, Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper. They love lipstick, they love fashion, and they want to tell girls all over the world how to keep their love life safe, seductive and satisfying with eyes wide open to the facts about women and HIV/AIDS.

These sizzling, sensuous self-created divas are channeling their high-voltage energy for Viva Glam and igniting ‘From Our Lips’ - the new MAC Cosmetics Viva Glam campaign. In honour of all of the women who are living with the HIV/AIDS virus, and those working to curb its spread, the MAC AIDS Fund will announce $2.5 million in donations to fund model programs that address the vulnerabilities and inequities that place women at increased risk for HIV/AIDS.

"We're raising the Viva Glam bar this year with the voices of two incredible artists. Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper are bringing women's issues to the forefront of the HIV/AIDS crisis. We have one artist that hit the music industry at the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, and another that is explosively popular with young people today. They represent different generations that are equally as affected by this disease, and both are helping to spread the message of the power of one lipstick." said John Demsey, Group President, Estee Lauder Companies and Chairman, MAC AIDS Fund.

Made Up Phenomenon: Can 'super bananas' tackle HIV?

Monday, 22 March 2010

The Donal MacIntyre team investigates reports that a substance in bananas called "BanLec" could be as effective as some anti-HIV drugs.
Reporter Bob Howard's suspicions about the truth of these reports were confirmed when he spoke to Professor David Markovitz from the University of Michigan whose research into bananas was being cited.
Donal MacIntyre was broadcast on BBC Radio 5 live on Sunday 21 March 2010.

Bananas prevent HIV infection (on scienceblog.com)

Chemicals found in bananas are better at preventing HIV than two current syntheticanti-HIV Drugs

U.N. report: Let's turn foul water from mass killer into global treasure

March 22, 2010
(CNN) -- Contaminated and polluted water now kills more people than all forms of violence including wars, according to a United Nations report released Monday that calls for turning unsanitary wastewater into an environmentally safe economic resource.

"At the beginning of the 21st century, the world faces a water crisis, both of quantity and quality, caused by continuous population growth, industrialization, food production practices, increased living standards and poor water use strategies," the report by the U.N. Environmental Program says.

As a result, "it is essential that wastewater management is considered as part of integrated, ecosystem-based management that operates across sectors and borders, freshwater and marine."
The report defines wastewater as a combination of fertilizer runoff, sewage disposal and other animal, agricultural and industrial wastes.

Wastewater a deadly threat. But with proper management, the report notes, "wastewater can be an essential resource for supporting livelihoods."According to the report -- titled "Sick Water?" -- 90 percent of wastewater discharged daily in developing countries is untreated, contributing to the deaths of some 2.2 million people a year from diarrheal diseases caused by unsafe drinking water and poor hygiene. At least 1.8 million children younger than 5 die every year from water-related diseases, the report says.

For example, some of the chemicals that make wastewater a pollutant, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, can also be useful as fertilizers for agriculture.
"If the world is to thrive, let alone to survive on a planet of 6 billion people heading to over 9 billion by 2050, we need to get collectively smarter and more intelligent about how we manage waste, including wastewaters," said Achim Steiner, U.N. under-secretary general and executive director of UNEP.

Despite the staggering statistics included in the report, it "also points to the abundant Green Economy opportunities for turning a mounting challenge into an opportunity with multiple benefits," Steiner said, citing reduced fertilizer costs, incentives for conserving such ecological infrastructures as wetlands and salt marshes, and business opportunities in engineering and natural resource management.

The report acknowledges that such opportunities will require large-scale investments, such as multimillion dollar sewage treatment plants.

"Financing and investment are urgently needed and must address design, ecosystem restoration construction, operation and maintenance of wastewater infrastructure," the report says.
But it also offers up simpler solutions, such as education "to ensure water, nutrients and future opportunities for employment and development are not wasted."

The report's release was timed to coincide with World Water Day, an initiative started in 1992 that aims to raise the profile of water quality. http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/03/22/united.nations.water.report/index.html?hpt=T2