NEWSFLASH: WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION RECOMMENDS EARLIER TREATMENT FOR HIV PATIENTS

According to a statement issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday, HIV patients should begin treatment sooner than currently recommended. The new guidance issued advises doctors to begin giving patients AIDS medication a year or two earlier than usual. However, should all doctors take heed of this new advice, this would double the number of individuals globally who qualify for treatment, adding an incremental 3-5 million patients to the staggering 5 million already awaiting AIDS treatment.

Specifically, the guidance advises doctors to begin treatment when the level of their patients' CD4 cells reaches 350. Previously, the recommendation was to begin treatment when the CD4 level reached 200. But several studies have shown that when patients began treatment earlier, they had a much better chance of surviving. In fact, doctors in most Western countries begin treatment when their patients' CD4 cell level reaches 500.

One of the key benefits of beginning treatment earlier is the possibility of fending off opportunistic infections (OIs). According to David Ross, an AIDS expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said the following:

......there is compelling evidence HIV patients should start treatment sooner. People with HIV who aren't on AIDS drugs are more likely to catch a potentially fatal disease like tuberculosis or develop other complications when they do start the drugs.

However, there are some reservations about this new guidance. One of the main questions centers on how countries will be able to cover the costs for this extended treatment. Currently 4 million people are receiving AIDS medication worldwide, and as mentioned previously, there are another 5 million patients waiting in line, and this new guidance could tack on another 3-5 million patients to the waiting list.

In fact, many AIDS programs in Africa are already stretched thin, and Africa is home to most of the world's HIV+ patients. Mr. Ross also added that there were reports of African clinics turning away new patients eligible for treatment due to a lack of available drugs.

Another drawback to this guidance is that putting HIV patients on medication for a longer period of time may also lead to drug resistance in the immune system.



Source: MSNBC

NEWSFLASH: Circumcision May Cut Risk of HIV and HPV

According to an article published by Reuters last month, there is now evidence that circumcision, which is the process of surgically removing the foreskin covering the head of a man's penis (usually at birth), can protect men from HIV and human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is the sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer in women, as well as genital warts. It is the most common of all sexually transmitted infections in the world.

Three studies were published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases presenting the evidence.

In the first report, Dr. Bertran Auvert of the University of Versailles in France and some colleagues in South Africa tested over 1200 men visiting a South African clinic. His team found that under 15% of the circumcised men as compared to 22% of uncircumcised men were infected with HPV.

"This finding explains why women with circumcised partners are at a lower risk of cervical cancer than other women," they wrote in their report.

The second study looking at U.S. men had less clear-cut results, but according to Carrie Nielson of Oregon Health & Science University and her colleagues, there was some indication that circumcision may protect men. The circumcised men were about half as likely to have HPV as the uncircumcised men, after adjustment was made for other difference between the groups.

The final study dealt with HIV. Lee Warner of the CDC and his colleagues tested Black men in Baltimore and discovered that only 10% of those at high risk of becoming infected that were circumcised had HIV, as compared to 22% of those were not circumcised.

"Circumcision was associated with substantially reduced HIV risk in patients with known HIV exposure, suggesting that results of other studies demonstrating reduced HIV risk for circumcision among heterosexual men likely can be generalized to the U.S. context," they wrote.

Previously, studies supporting circumcision to reduce HIV transmission had all been done in Africa. Most of the U.S. studies had been unclear.

In commentary, Dr. Ronald Gray of Johns Hopkins University and a team of colleagues, who were encouraged by the findings, said the following:

"In the United States, circumcision is less common among African American and Hispanic men, who are also the subgroups most at risk of HIV....Thus, circumcision may afford an additional means of protection from HIV in these at-risk minorities."

But they highlighted the fact that the American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend routine circumcision for newborns.

"As a consequence of this AAP decision, Medicaid does not cover circumcision costs, and this is particularly disadvantageous for poorer African American and Hispanic boys who, as adults, may face high HIV exposure risk," Gray and his colleagues wrote.

They also noted the fact that "circumcision rates have been declining in the U.S., possibly because of lack of Medicaid coverage."

For further information on HPV, visit http://www.cdc.gov/STD/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm

Source: MSNBC

IN FOCUS: KEEP A CHILD ALVE

One organization that is making HUGE strides in the fight against HIV/AIDS, specifically in Africa, is Keep a Child Alive (KCA), a charity founded by Leigh Blake and nine-time Grammy winner Alicia Keys. According to the website, www.keepachildalive.org,

Keep a Child Alive is dedicated to providing life-saving anti-retroviral treatment, care and support services to children and their families with HIV/AIDS in Africa and the developing world by directly engaging the global public in the fight against AIDS.

Leigh Blake

Leigh Blake officially founded KCA in 2003. However, her involvement in the fight against AIDS began long before then. In the late 80s, as her career in the arts began to take off, Blake found she was losing her creative peers to AIDS. In 1989, she helped to found the Red Hot Organization, the seminal music industry initiative that raised funds for HIV/AIDS research and education by bringing together top artists such as David Byrne, Madonna, Annie Lennox, and U2. It was actually the proceeds from a Red Hot fundraiser that helped to lay the groundwork for KCA. For further details, read the following excerpt from the KCA website:

The seed of Keep a Child Alive was sown in Kenya in 2002. Royalties from Leigh Blake's previous fundraiser, Red Hot & Blue, built the AIDS Research and Family Care Clinic in Mombasa. A woman named Anne walked in to the clinic, desperate to obtain the anti-retroviral drugs her three-year-old son Brine needed to survive. At the time the medication's high cost was an impossible dream for most Africans to afford, and Leigh was so moved by this woman and her courage that she decided to pay for them.

Word of the children's desperate need for medication spread among Leigh's friends and colleagues, and soon they were offering to do the same. KCA Director Peter Edge became its first donor, and soon Alicia Keys passion for the issue drove her to become its first Global Ambassador.

What started as a very personal incident between two mothers has become a tremendous initiative for change. With around 3,000 children and family members on ARV treatment, over 45,000 people under our care, three orphanages receiving funding, and major clinic sites in expansion, Keep a Child Alive is making a direct impact in the lives of so many who need help.

Keep A Child Alive is only one of several organizations taking steps forward in the fight against AIDS. People of all races, backgrounds, and social positions have joined Leigh and Alicia to pool their resources and funds to provide life-saving medication for those affected in Africa with HIV/AIDS. It's important to keep these organizations in focus so that individuals will see that the fight, OUR fight, continues well past World AIDS Day on December 1.

For further information on KCA, check out www.keepachildalive.org