Rod 2.0:Beta #gay #news #lgbt #gaynews

THE ATLANTIC: "A Promising HIV Vaccine in South Africa"

PHOTO: GETTY

CAPE TOWN: After more than 30 years into the HIV/AIDS pandemic, a vaccine remains elusive—and much needed. Globally, about 35 million people are living with HIV, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS or UNAIDS. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to two-thirds of all people living with HIV/AIDS and the main driver is unprotected heterosexual sex. The only HIV-vaccine clinical trial that has shown potential so far is the United States’ and Thai military’s vaccine, RV144, the results of which were announced in 2009.

The first in a series of trials designed to build on the success of RV144 has now passed a key test in South Africa. More on the science and development of this research in my latest  report for The Atlantic "A Promising HIV Vaccine in South Africa." This is the first article in my global health media fellowship to South Africa.

The first in a series of trials designed to build on the success of RV144 has now passed a key test in South Africa. A safety trial using the same vaccine regimen from RV 144—but with an added booster shot 12 months afterward—has has shown to be safe for South Africans and demonstrated “robust” immune responses. A successful safety trial was necessary to move forward with extensive clinical research. The research was first presented in late October by South African scientists in Cape Town. Clinical trials of a modified vaccine tailored to Southern Africa will begin in early 2015.

Southern Africa desperately needs such a vaccine. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to two-thirds of all people living with HIV/AIDS and the main driver is unprotected heterosexual sex, according to the Joint United-Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS. South Africa has the unfortunate distinction of claiming the world’s highest HIV/AIDS burden, with an estimated 6.3 million people living with HIV/AIDS. New infections, called seroconversions, are increasing at about 370,000 per year in that region. That’s about 1,000 new infections every day. About 20 percent of South African adults—that’s one in five people—are living with the virus, reports UNAIDS. Young women are twice as likely to be infected as young men.

Read the full report HERE.

HIV R4P 2014 Cape Town was the world's first and only scientific meeting dedicated exclusively to biomedical HIV prevention research.

HIVR4P and the international media fellowship were sponsored by an international consortium that has pooled resources to "speed the development of a safe and effective HIV vaccine." The consortium includes the USA, Thailand and South African governments, the European Union, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNAIDS, World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention, GlaxoSmithKline, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Merck, Novartis, USAID, Sanofi Pasteur, the largest company in the world devoted to vaccine development.

"Breakthrough" in Vaccine Research

PHOTO: GETTY

BARCELONA: After more than 30 years into the HIV/AIDS pandemic, a vaccine remains elusive—and much needed. Globally, about 35 million people are living with HIV, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS or UNAIDS. In the United States, about 1.1 million people are HIV positive, and nearly 50,000 people contract the virus each year—with African Americans and Latinos disproportionately affected. Men who have sex with men—especially those of color—have among the highest infection rates across the globe.

A possible "breakthrough" in the decades-long quest for a vaccine that could prevent people from acquiring HIV created the most buzz at the 13th AIDS Vaccine Conference in Barcelona. More on the nuances of the "science" behind the vaccine strategy in my report for POZ, "Possible 'Breakthrough' in Vaccine Research." It's the second article in my international media fellowship to AIDS Vaccine 2013 Barcelona.

AIDS Vaccine 2013 was the first public presentation of the research by Oregon Health and Science University's Louis J. Picker, MD, originally published in the journal Nature. Picker's study demonstrated that vaccinated monkeys can clear simian immunodeficiency virus—SIV, the monkey equivalent of HIV—from their bodies. Picker's research team used an aggressive strain of the simian virus, called SIVmac239 and described as "up to 100 times more deadly than HIV." The vaccine was effective in nine of the 16 monkeys in the study.

Picker's research team fused SIV genes to the cytomegalovirus (CMV), which is from the herpes virus family. The immune system responded to the infection by doing what it normally does—releasing new white blood cells called CD8 "hunter-killer cells" that kill cells infected with SIV. These CD8s are normally primed to target the virus, but in this case, according to The New York Times, they operated in "an atypical state of mid-activation" and persisted in tissue while "eliminating their targets quietly without triggering inflammation or even a mild fever."

This new vaccine strategy could be a "breakthrough" because HIV is "particularly Machiavellian," said Picker. The virus constantly mutates and hides from the body's immune system—which is why vaccine research has so far proved largely ineffective.

Read the full report HERE.

AIDS Vaccine 2013 Barcelona has been described as the "world's leading scientific meeting on HIV vaccine research" and was attended by more than 1,000 leading researchers, funders and policy makers.

AIDS Vaccine 2013 Barcelona and the international media fellowship were sponsored the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise—the international consortium that has pooled resources to "speed the development of a safe and effective HIV vaccine." The Enterprise includes the USA, Thailand and South African governments, the European Union, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNAIDS, World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention, GlaxoSmithKline, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Merck, Novartis, USAID, Sanofi Pasteur, the largest company in the world devoted to vaccine development.

I'm also reporting for Der Spiegel and EBONY.

AIDS Vaccine 2013 Barcelona: A "Breakthrough" in Research?

PHOTOS: GETTY

BARCELONA:  It's been more than 30 years since the start of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic that has claimed "an estimated 36 million deaths" and Blacks across the African Diaspora have been disproportionately impacted. There is finally some very promising news in HIV vaccine research.

My first report from AIDS Vaccine 2013 Barcelona for EBONY: "A 'Breakthrough' in AIDS Vaccine Research?"

A possible “breakthrough” was presented publicly for the first time at the 13th AIDS Vaccine Conference, which was held in Barcelona, Spain from October 7 to 10.  Louis J. Picker, M.D.  associate director of the Vaccine &  Gene Therapy Institute at Oregon Health and Science University, presented research that demonstrated vaccinated monkeys can clear simian immunodeficiency virus—the monkey equivalent of HIV—from their bodies.

The vaccine was effective in nine of the 16 monkeys in the study. Picker originally published his research last month in the journal Nature. “This is the first proof of concept that an AIDS-causing virus can be eliminated by an immune response,” Picker said. The vaccine used cytomegalovirus as a platform. CMV is already found in most humans and belongs to the herpes virus family.

Picker is confident the vaccine could work in humans. "The stars are aligned and we feel we have a very good shot. [It] also seems to work for tuberculosis and we need a larger study to prove this.” Picker estimates it could take “at least two years” to secure funding and regulatory approval for Phase I clinical trials in humans.

Read the full report HERE.

AIDS Vaccine 2013 Barcelona has been described as the "world's leading scientific meeting on HIV vaccine research" and was attended by more than 1,000 leading researchers, funders and policy makers.

AIDS Vaccine 2013 Barcelona and my international media fellowship  was sponsored the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise—the international consortium that has pooled resources to "speed the development of a safe and effective HIV vaccine." The Enterprise includes the USA, Thailand and South African governments, the European Union, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNAIDS, World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention, GlaxoSmithKline, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Merck, Novartis, USAID, Sanofi Pasteur, the largest company in the world devoted to vaccine development.

I'm also reporting for Der Spiegel and POZ Magazine.

REPORT: Healthcare Cuts in Spanish Budget Could Increase HIV and TB

PHOTOS: GETTY

BARCELONA: The massive budget cuts undertaken by the Spanish government could lead to the "effective dismantling of large parts of its health-care system" and "could see increases in infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and the virus that causes AIDS," warned British researchers in a paper published by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine reported by Reuters.

The study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) found that Spain's national budget cuts of almost 14 percent and regional budget cuts of up to 10 percent in health and social services in 2012 have coincided with increased demands for care, particularly from the elderly, disabled and mentally ill. The researchers also noted increases in depression, alcohol-related disorders and suicides in Spain since the financial crisis hit and unemployment increased.

Spain already has one of the lowest public expenditures on healthcare for its Gross Domestic Product in the European Union. "Further cuts of €1.10 billion [$1.5B USD] are to be made this year to the dependency fund for the elderly and disabled, putting these vulnerable people even more at risk," reported the European AIDS Treatment Action Group.

Key changes made by the Spanish government include excluding undocumented immigrants from accessing free healthcare services and increasing the co-payments that patients must make for extra treatments such as drugs, prosthetics and some ambulance trips. Authorities with devolved powers in 17 regions across Spain have also been required to make further cuts, and in Madrid and Catalonia this has led to a move towards privatisation of hospitals, increases in waiting times, cutbacks in emergency services and fewer surgical procedures.

Barcelona is the capital and largest city of the autonomous region of Catalonia, which has been substantially impacted by the budget cuts to health care and research, according to speakers and attendees at AIDS Vaccine 2013, which opened Monday in Barcelona. #AIDSVax2013 is described as the "world's leading scientific meeting on HIV vaccine research" and is attended by more than 1,000 leading researchers, funders and policy makers.

The Spanish government contributed $5.6 million toward funding HIV vaccine research in 2009. The investment decreased to only $3.3 in 2010, according to a report co-authored by Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and UNAIDS.

The example often cited is that of Greece, which has seen HIV, TB and other disease increases since it slashed public health budgets to repay more than €230 in loans from the European Union since 2010, reports CNN.

"As a result, HIV infections have jumped by more than 200% since 2010, concentrated in injection drug users, as needle-exchange program budgets were cut in half. There was a malaria epidemic in Greece -- the largest in 40 years -- after mosquito-spraying budgets were slashed."

Spain's official Septmeber 2013 unemployment rate is about 26 percent, reports Deutsche Welle. The youth unemployment rate is at least twice that number, say experts.