Daily pill can cut AIDS risk for gay men, study finds

[Two Thumbs]

Daily AIDS pill helps gay men avoid infection - Health - Men's health - msnbc.com

msnbc.com news services
updated 11/23/2010 912 AM ET 2010-11-23T1412

Scientists have an exciting breakthrough in the fight against AIDS. A pill already used to treat HIV infection turns out to be a powerful weapon in protecting healthy gay men from catching the virus, a global study found.

Daily doses of Truvada cut the risk of infection by 44 percent when given with condoms, counseling and other prevention services. Men who took their pills most faithfully had even more protection, up to 73 percent.

Hold on here just one damn moment!!

That pill taken "faithfully" WITH a condom gives you a 27% chance of passing AIDS onto your partner.

Just how bad are condoms alone at preventing it? B/c any lib I've talked to has told me they prevent it, as if it's 100%

And people called Bush a moron for supporting abstinance.

 

[waltky]

Usin' HIV to prevent AIDS...

Australian Researchers Use HIV to Prevent AIDS
January 17, 2013 - Experimental technique attempts to eliminate the disease process by altering a key protein in HIV

Australian scientists at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research say they have found a way to use the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, to prevent AIDS, describing the technique as "fighting fire with fire." Senior researcher David Harrich has designed a way to modify a protein in HIV to alter the virus so that it provides long-lasting, and possibly permanent, protection against AIDS, the disease that HIV causes. In his experiments, Harrich altered a protein that is a critical component of all living cells and includes many substances, among them - antibodies and hormones - which would usually help the virus to grow. Instead, the modified protein helps to prevent the virus from replicating or spreading.

Patients would still be infected with HIV, said Harrich, but it would not develop into AIDS. “This therapy is potentially a cure for AIDS. So it's not a cure for HIV infection, but it potentially could end the disease. [That's] because the immune system that protects you from opportunistic infections that normally is the cause of AIDS is actually the opportunistic infection, not the HIV, because your immune system becomes run down," explained Harrich. "So this protein present in immune cells would help to maintain a healthy immune system so that patients would be able to handle normal infections.” The study is published in the journal Human Gene Therapy.

Harrich's team conducted the experiments in a laboratory. Thorough testing on animals is needed before any human trials can begin. They are scheduled to start later this year. In Australia, more than 30,000 people have been diagnosed with HIV. Without treatment they will develop AIDS. According to the World Health Organization, 2.5 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2011. It is estimated that 1.7 million people died that year from the virus.

Harrich said he believes his new therapy could make a difference to millions of people. “I think what people are looking for is basically a means to go on and live happy and productive lives with as little intrusion as possible." he said. "And so, you know, the only way you can do that is one, you either have to eliminate the virus infection, or alternatively, you have to eliminate the disease process. And that's what this could do, potentially for a very long time.” Using a therapy based on a single protein could end multiple drug regimes for HIV patients, meaning a better quality of life and lower costs. However, scientists say that creating a drug that turns HIV against itself would be challenging and Australian researchers conceded that there were still “many hurdles to clear.”

Australian Researchers Use HIV to Prevent AIDS

 

[waltky]

Half of those living with AIDS will be 50 or older in two years...

New challenges with aging AIDS population
September 19, 2013 ~ A US congressional panel has been told health care providers will face new challenges by 2015, when half of those living with HIV/AIDS will be 50 or older.

HALF of the HIV/AIDS population in the United States will be 50 or older by 2015, a pivotal development that brings new challenges to the treatment and prevention of the disease, experts told a congressional panel Wednesday. Drug resistance, other diseases, high rates of depression and a lack of prevention, screening and early diagnosis could all pose significant problems as the population of Americans with HIV or AIDS ages, they said during a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

As research for a cure for AIDS continues, there is a vital need to examine the aging AIDS population, since any drug or vaccine must now work on an older population, said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., the committee's chairman. "The so-called greying of the population comes with the need to refocus our work on these new challenges," Nelson said. Older Americans tend to take fewer precautions against HIV, get diagnosed later and respond less to antiretroviral therapy, said Dr. Ronald O. Valdiserri, a top infectious diseases official with the Department of Health and Human Services.

Older people with HIV are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, cancer, and liver and kidney disease, as well as depression, the experts said. These factors result in a need for increased funding for prevention, treatment and biomedical research, they said.

With so many different organisations working against HIV/AIDS, the fight against the disease must become "an integrated effort," said Carolyn L. Massey, who was diagnosed with AIDS in 1994. "The aging adults being diagnosed with and living with HIV, if left unattended, is one of the next big health challenges we will face as a nation," Massey told the committee.

Read more: World breaking news | Today's World News Headlines | News.com.au

See also:

Designer Molecule Causes AIDS Virus to Destroy Itself
September 19, 2013 WASHINGTON — Researchers have designed a synthetic molecule that tricks the AIDS virus into destroying itself. The compound, called DAVEI, was developed by researchers at Philadelphia’s Drexel University and causes the deadly pathogen to eject its contents before it can infect human cells.

The AIDS virus uses protein spikes on its surface to fuse to healthy cells. Once attached, the microbe inserts its genetic material, turning the cells into little factories that crank out thousands of copies of HIV. But DAVEI hijacks the virus, mimicking its interaction with immune system cells. DAVEI binds to the pathogen's outer coat, triggering a firing mechanism that breaches the wall of the AIDS virus, according to Irwin Chaiken, a researcher in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Drexel’s College of Medicine.

Explaining how DAVEI works, Chaiken said, “so that the contents that are inside the virus that are small enough to go through the pores will go through the pores and leak out. And at that point, the virus shrinks and it becomes inactivated.”

DAVEI was designed by Cameron Abrams, a professor of engineering at Drexel. Abrams envisions using the synthetic agent in a microbicide, a cream or gel that women can use vaginally to protect themselves from contracting the disease from their HIV-infected partners. “And so this we think this would benefit primarily populations in sub-Saharan Africa where male-to-female transmission is very high rate, young women are being infected at a very high rate. That’s extremely detrimental to those societies,” said Abrams.

Abrams also says DAVEI might be used someday as a treatment for those who are HIV positive by destroying infected cells. “In an active infection in an individual, there are cells that are continuously producing virus. And if those cells could be destroyed before they produce a lot of virus that obviously would be very good,” Abrams pointed out. Researchers say much more work needs to be done with DAVEI and compounds like it before actual anti-HIV therapies could be developed. An article on the manmade molecule was published in the October edition of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Designer Molecule Causes AIDS Virus to Destroy Itself

 

[Politico]

Sigh.....

 

[daveman]

Not engaging in risky behavior is a good preventive measure.

But then, that's not nearly as much fun, is it?

Actions have consequences, folks.

 

[Two Thumbs]

Sigh.....

Only douchebags bring up old threads.

But puss infested douche nozzles leave comments like that doing so.

True story

 

[Sunni Man]

The only 100% HIV protection technique for homos is for them to just 'sit down and keep their mouth shut'. ..

 

[Politico]

And their asses. Am I right douchenozzle...I mean Two Thumbs?

 

[LittleNipper]

Not engaging in risky behavior is a good preventive measure.

But then, that's not nearly as much fun, is it?

Actions have consequences, folks.

Russian Roulette might be just as much fun. I hear people actually get a bang out of it! And guess what else? Neither will produce a baby!