December 16, 2009

UCSF study finds routine HIV screening in community health centers boosts HIV testing

Post Date: 14-Dec-2009

Contact: Jeff Sheehy
jsheehy@ari.ucsf.edu
415-597-8165
University of California - San Francisco

UCSF researchers have that found routinely offering rapid HIV tests to patients in community health centers can significantly increase the number of patients screened for HIV.

Study findings are published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

"In the six centers implementing the new procedures, the number of patients screened for HIV jumped from 3,000 in the prior year to almost 11,000—more than a three fold increase. Our results show that you can successfully implement routine HIV screening in primary care settings," said Janet J. Myers, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies.

The research, conducted in partnership with the National Association of Community Health Centers, took place in community health centers in Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. The national network of centers sees more than 20 million patients, of whom 90 percent are low income, half are rural with most of the rest in inner cities, and two-thirds are racial and ethnic minorities. HIV disproportionately affects health center patients; so increasing testing in these settings is a priority.

Patients in the clinics were offered the tests routinely as part of their primary health care visits. While most patients offered a test accepted, results varied by health center and by race, ethnicity and age. Patients over age 55 were less likely to receive testing when offered. And non-white patients, particularly Latinos, were more likely to receive testing when it was offered.

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December 16, 2009 in HIV/AIDS | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

December 01, 2009

World AIDS Day

What is World AIDS Day?

Every year on December 1st, World AIDS Day is observed.  Established in 1988 by the World Health Organization, World AIDS Day provides governments, national AIDS programs, faith organizations, community organizations, and individuals with an opportunity to raise awareness and focus attention on the global AIDS epidemic. Worldwide, over 33 million people are living with AIDS, over one million of whom live in the United States.

How can I participate in World AIDS Day?

According to the Guttmacher Institute, 94% of family planning centers offer HIV testing services. Take advantage of this and go out an get tested for HIV today. Start a conversation about HIV prevention with family, friends and colleagues or offer support to people living with HIV/AIDS. Choose to practice safer sex to prevent HIV and decide not to engage in high risk behaviors. Also, check out the World AIDS Day events going on in your community. 

Where can I get more information about AIDS?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has provided free fact sheets available for download on their website.  Topics include:

 - HIV/AIDS in the United States
 - Asian and Pacific Islanders and HIV/AIDS
 - HIV Among African Americans
 - Hispanics/Latinos and HIV/AIDS
 - Men who have sex with Men and HIV/AIDS
 - Native Americans, Native Alaskans, and HIV/AIDS
 - Women and Girls and HIV/AIDS
 - HIV/AIDS among Persons Aged 50 and Older

December 1, 2009 in HIV/AIDS | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

November 30, 2009

NC State Research Indicates Need For National HIV Strategy

Post Date: 30-Nov-2009

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that well over one million people in the United States are infected with HIV/AIDS. New research from North Carolina State University shows that many of those infected are minorities and do not have health insurance, and highlights the need for a national strategy to facilitate education and prevention efforts in minority and low-income populations.

The research, which analyzed 90,000 HIV patient hospital visits over the course of one year, found that few of the patients had health care through their employers, and that the majority of the patients were black. “The study highlights the lack of a federal strategic plan supported by appropriate policy to address the high number of uninsured and minority groups dealing with HIV,” says Dr. Fay Cobb Payton, associate professor of information systems at NC State and author of the paper. “The numbers show that we need a national strategy for how to address these problems.”

Specifically, the study showed that only 17 percent of patients had health care through their employer, while 18 percent of patients were on Medicare and 64 percent were on Medicaid. The study also found that a staggering 75 percent of the HIV patients were black.

“Much of the health care system is based on one’s ability to navigate treatment, service delivery, payment guidelines and policies – all of which require some degree of adequate financial and educational resources,” Payton says. “A lot of times, these HIV patients come from a socioeconomic background that makes it unlikely they will have those resources.”

“For example,” Payton says, “a strategic plan is needed to address the levels of HIV we are seeing in the black community in the U.S. – particularly given the alarming rates in cities with large black populations, such as Washington, D.C., and the growing number of cases in the rural South.

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November 30, 2009 in HIV/AIDS | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

September 30, 2009

HIV Treatment Numbers Climb

Post Date: 30-Sep-2009

More than four million people in low- and middle-income countries were getting HIV treatment at the end of 2008, up from 2.97 million a year earlier, a new report says.

The 36% one-year increase is an "incredible step forward," according to Paul De Lay, MD, of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). It also represents a 10-fold increase over the past five years.

And it comes with improvements in two other public health aspects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic -- increased testing in the hardest-hit regions and more treatment for pregnant women to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

The data comes from a report jointly issued by UNAIDS, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF -- the third in a series tracking progress toward universal access to HIV treatment.

But despite the progress, De Lay said, the pandemic is still outpacing efforts to control it. "Access (to treatment) is still not a reality for millions of people," he said in a telephone press conference.

Indeed, only about 42% of the estimated 9.5 million people in low- and middle-income countries who need treatment are getting it, according to Teguest Guerma, MD, interim director of WHO's HIV/AIDS department.

Aside from the continuing shortfall in treatment, Guerma said, the world faces two other challenges:

• Although the availability of testing and counseling has increased, a median of less than 40% of people with HIV know their status.
• That lack of knowledge leads to late initiation of therapy, which causes high mortality rates in the first year in treatment.

Guerma said the increase in the number of people on therapy can be attributed at least partly to a 10% to 40% decline in the price of drugs used for first-line therapy.

She added that 45% of HIV-positive pregnant women got treatment to prevent transmission in 2008, up from 35% in 2007.

The report, titled "Towards universal access: Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector," also noted:

• 39% increase in people in treatment in sub-Saharan Africa, the home of two-thirds of the world's people living with HIV/AIDS, which represents a 30-fold increase in five years
• 35% increase in the number of facilities in low- and middle-income countries offering testing and counseling and a doubling of the number of tests
• 21% of pregnant women got an HIV test in 2008, up from 15% in 2007
• 275,000 HIV-positive children under 15 got treatment in 2008, up from 198,000 a year earlier

Posted thanks to kind permission from our friends at MedPageToday.com.

September 30, 2009 in HIV/AIDS | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

September 24, 2009

HIV Vaccine Reduces Infection Risk

Post Date: 24-Sep-2009

For the first time, an investigational HIV vaccine has shown it can protect people from the virus.
In a large phase III trial, the vaccine candidate reduced the risk of infection by 31.2% compared with placebo.

The trial, conducted in more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand, enrolled volunteers from the community, rather than high-risk groups, as many other vaccine studies have done.

In the final analysis, there were 74 infections in the placebo arm, compared with 51 in the vaccine arm.

"This is the first HIV vaccine candidate to successfully reduce the risk of HIV infection in humans," said Lieutenant General Eric Schoomaker, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army.

The army was one of the partners on the trial, along with the Thai Ministry of Public Health, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Sanofi Pasteur, and Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases.

"We are very excited and pleased with the outcome of this trial and congratulate all those who participated in it," Schoomaker said in a statement.

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September 24, 2009 in HIV/AIDS , STD | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

July 21, 2009

HIV Testing in NYC Bathhouses

Public Release Date: 2-July-2009 

As the number of HIV cases in the U.S. soars -- especially among gay and black men, and particularly in New York City -- one physician is going where few have gone before in terms of prevention efforts: straight to the late-night gay scene.

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis runs the first-ever HIV testing venue at a New York bathhouse in Chelsea. In a private room at the back of the club, Daskalakis -- a professor of infectious diseases at New York University -- administers rapid HIV tests that deliver results in 20 minutes.

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July 21, 2009 in Diagnostic & Pregnancy Tests , Educational , Health Care , HIV/AIDS , Medical Access , STD | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

June 09, 2009

New Contraceptive Device is Designed to Prevent Sexual Transmission of HIV

Public Release Date: 19-May-2009

Nonhormonal method avoids side effects and cancer risk

NEW YORK -- Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College have published results showing that a new contraceptive device may also effectively block the transmission of the HIV virus. Findings show that the device prevents infection by the HIV virus in laboratory testing. The promising results are published in the most recent issue of the journal AIDS.

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June 9, 2009 in Contraception , Contraceptives , HIV/AIDS , Pharmaceuticals , STD , Women’s Health | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

April 09, 2009

Trust in Sexual Partners, Length of Sexual Relationships Associated With Low Condom Use Among Latino Youth

Public Release Date: 27-March-2009

Summary of "Infidelity, Trust and Condom Use Among Latino Youth in Dating Relationships," Brady, et al., Sexually Transmitted Diseases, April 2009.

Latino young adults and adolescents in the U.S. are at an increased risk for contracting sexually transmitted infections when compared with their non-Hispanic white counterparts. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that Latino youth ages 13 to 19 were more than four times as likely than non-Latino white youth to be diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 2005, while Latinos ages 20 to 24 were more than three times as likely to be diagnosed with the virus.

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April 9, 2009 in Condoms , Educational , HIV/AIDS , STD , Teen Pregnancy , Women’s Health | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

March 31, 2009

Videos Capture HIV in Act of Infection

Public Release Date: 26-March-2009

Video Source: Science

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March 31, 2009 in HIV/AIDS | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

March 10, 2009

CROI: Among Those With HIV, Minorities Hard Hit

Public Release Date: 11-February-2009

MONTREAL -- Among Americans living with HIV, members of minority groups are less likely to be diagnosed than are whites, according to new CDC estimates.

The agency found that 22.2% of Blacks with HIV and 21.6% of infected Hispanics don't know they have the disease, according to Michael Campsmith, D.D.S., of the CDC, and colleagues.

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March 10, 2009 in Diagnostic & Pregnancy Tests , Educational , HIV/AIDS , Medical Access , Pharmaceuticals , Public Policy , STD | Permalink | TrackBack (0)