HIV/AIDS Physician-Scientists, Advocates Call for Bold HIV Treatment Goals for PEPFAR

Physician-scientists working on the frontlines of the HIV/AIDS epidemic today urged the White House to set bold new HIV treatment targets for PEPFAR, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
The Center for Global Health Policy joined with a coalition of other organizations—including HealthGAP, amfAR (the Foundation for AIDS Research), the Treatment Action Group, and [...]

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WHO Bulletin Examines Using ART to Prevent HIV Transmission

The World Health Organization’s latest bulletin is a must-read for experts and advocates working on global AIDS, delving into the hot topic of preventing HIV transmission with antiretroviral drugs and noting upcoming WHO action on this issue in the coming months.
The bulletin, authored by Kevin M De Cock and others in the WHO’s Department of [...]

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Key Decision on TB and AIDS Funding Looms in the U.S. House

Editor’s Note: We will be blogging today about the House Appropriations subcommittee meeting, filing an update on funding levels for global health programs. So check back to see what happens!
At last week’s HIV/AIDS Implementers’ Meeting in Namibia, participants expressed deep concern about the commitment among donor nations to maintaining the momentum in the global fight against [...]

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Further budget analysis from Global Center

Yesterday we received more information about the budget proposal from President Obama.  There are some new details, such as his proposal to flat-fund US backing for the Global Fund.  His proposal does not add up, I am sorry to say, and it is not consistent with the Hyde-Lantos legislation the President co-sponsored last year.  Why [...]

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Drug Shortages Reach Crisis Levels In South African Province

In the past week, three stories about severe TB or HIV drug shortages have landed in our inbox. From Uganda to Burma to South Africa, TB and HIV patients are being forced to go without desperately needed medications.
The latest story is the most troubling. An article in the Globe and Mail recounts the story of [...]

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HIV Policy: the Good, the Bad, and What Should Come Next

Millions of lives saved. More than 30 drugs approved. Many new infections prevented. Those are the key successes in the nearly 3-decade-old battle against HIV/AIDS, as laid out in a broad position paper by the HIV Medicine Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the American College of Physicians.
 
Christine Lubinski, IDSA’s vice president [...]

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ART, Sooner Not Later

A new study suggests that HIV infected patients should start antiretroviral treatment earlier.
 
Here’s the editor’s note accompanying the article in today’s online version of the Lancet:
 
“When to start antiretroviral treatment has been a problem for physicians dealing with patients with HIV infection. Most commonly the decision is based on CD4 counts, but just [...]

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