Access to medicines and treatment

Access to medicines and treatment features

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  PrEP wars: debating pre-exposure prophylaxis in the gay community

  Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) was approved in the US in July, following trials showing its efficacy in preventing sexual transmission of HIV. But, as Gus Cairns finds out, it...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Point-of-care (POC) diagnostics are essential to achieving an AIDS-free generation and improving outcomes in HIV-exposed children

  This edition reviews recent evidence on point-of-care testing, on tests in development, and looks at experience of optimising performance of dried blood spot sampling....

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  The bottom line in clinical care: The new BHIVA standards

  Gus Cairns summarises this important new document. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  "How are we going to have a baby? I’m positive and you’re not"

  Joanna Moss of the African Health Policy Network (AHPN) looks at conception and fertility guidelines and services for people living with HIV in the UK. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  The generic generation

  In the next few years, some of the most widely used HIV drugs will come off patent in the UK. Gus Cairns asks: what are the...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Hillary Clinton pledges money for vulnerable minorities, reproductive rights, AIDS-free families

  US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received a relatively warm reception yesterday at the 19th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington DC, as she supported the...

  From:  News

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  Switching drugs for cost reasons – the patient experience

  In April 2011, the London Specialised Commissioning Group (LSCG), which funds HIV treatment in the capital, issued a new set of messages to clinics on HIV drug...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Will the world pay up to end HIV? Global AIDS funding

  We are at a critical point in the history of the HIV epidemic. We potentially have the tools to end it but, asks guest writer Laura...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Overhauling health: NHS reform, HIV and patient power

  The HTU guide to the NHS reforms, how they’ll affect you and how you can make the most of them. By Gus Cairns....

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Barriers to care: immigration removal centres and HIV

  Evidence has shown that a series of failings in immigration removal centres (IRCs) has compromised the continuity of care for people with HIV. Guest writer Daniel Lombard investigates. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

Access to medicines and treatment news from aidsmap

• 'War on drugs' fuelling the hepatitis C epidemic among people who inject drugs

  The global war on drugs has had a disastrous impact on the hepatitis C epidemic, a new report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy shows. The Negative Impact of the War on Drugs on Public Health: The Hidden ...

  29 May 2013 | Michael Carter

• Hepatitis C treatment gap in Europe: France doing well but Italy treated fewer than one in a hundred patients in 2010

  France led the world in the proportion of its hepatitis C patients who received treatment in 2010, but some countries in southern and eastern Europe had treatment rates that were almost tenfold lower, according to research presented last month ...

  28 May 2013 | Keith Alcorn

• Movement for global access to hepatitis C treatment building momentum

  Access to hepatitis C treatment in low- and middle-income countries is being restricted by the high cost of interferon and a lack of commitment to treating the disease, leading to a growing gap between the prospects of patients in ...

  09 May 2013 | Keith Alcorn

• Blackmail, violence and stigma restrict access to sexual health services for gay men, Global Health and Rights Study reports

  The Global Forum for MSM and HIV has released an analysis of its 2012 Global Men’s Health and Rights Study (GMHRS) concentrating on young men under 30 who have sex with men (MSM), complementing the full report which came out ...

  01 May 2013 | Gus Cairns

• Are we underestimating the proportion of virally-suppressed patients in the US?

  Several presentations at the recent 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta suggest that previous estimates of the proportion of people with HIV in the USA who are on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and with an undetectable viral ...

  15 March 2013 | Gus Cairns

• Second-line NRTI-sparing regimen proves equally effective for resource-limited settings

  A second-line antiretroviral regimen of lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra/Aluvia) and raltegravir (Isentress) proved just as effective as a regimen containing lopinavir/ritonavir and two or three nucleoside or nucleotide analogues in large study conducted in Australia, Africa, Latin America and Asia, researchers ...

  07 March 2013 | Keith Alcorn

• Continuing cotrimoxazole in children on ART reduces the risk of hospitalisation

  Children on ART for more than two years who continued taking daily cotrimoxazole had significantly fewer hospitalisations for malaria as well as for non-malarial infections (notably pneumonia, sepsis and meningitis), compared to children who stopped this treatment, researchers from Uganda ...

  06 March 2013 | Carole Leach-Lemens

• HIV treatment for children is safe and highly effective without laboratory monitoring in large African trial

  Children did just as well on antiretroviral therapy without routine laboratory monitoring of CD4 cell counts or drug side-effects as those who received regular monitoring during four years of follow-up, researchers from Uganda and Zimbabwe reported on 5 March ...

  05 March 2013 | Keith Alcorn

• Hospital exposure the source of XDR-TB infections, underlining the need for adequate infection control

  Numerous hospital transmissions – rather than a single source – fuelled the outbreak of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) at Tugela Ferry, South Africa, in 2005-06, research published in the online edition of the Journal of Infectious Diseases shows. Epidemiological ...

  30 January 2013 | Michael Carter

• Huge differences in HIV mortality rates in US according to race, social and economic status

  New US research has revealed enormous differences in HIV mortality rates between patients according to their race and social and economic status. Published in the online edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine, the study showed that mortality rates ...

  19 October 2012 | Michael Carter

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Access to medicines and treatment news selected from other sources

• India must address worrying stock out of tuberculosis drugs

  Indian government drug tender process leads to deadly delay in drug supply.

  17 June 2013 | MSF

• HIV drug discovery puts licensing pressure on govt

  A breakthrough joint medical study on an anti-Aids drug by the US and Bangkok City Hall has highlighted the need to address again the problem with health costs and, more importantly, the politically toxic issue of compulsory licensing.

  17 June 2013 | Bangkok Post

• Tenofovir Alafenamide Fumarate (TAF) Sign-On Letter to Gilead

  With a phase II clinical trial of tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF) yielding encouraging preliminary results and regulatory planning for TAF-inclusive fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) under way, we are compelled to reach out to you regarding the need for a stand-alone formulation of the drug.

  17 June 2013 | Treatment Action Group

• Mozambicans feel pain as medical strike grinds on

  A Mozambique medical strike now in its third week has paralysed all but essential services at some of the country's busiest hospitals, which are being forced to turn away desperate patients.

  17 June 2013 | Times Live

• Uganda running out of ARVs, HIV test kits

  Uganda has run out of most antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), HIV testing kits, drugs to treat opportunistic infections and several crucial diagnostic tools for HIV care, according to a recent Ministry of Health stock status report.

  13 June 2013 | IRIN Plus News

• UNITAID to Provide USD 77 million For Better HIV Medicines

  UNITAID has committed funds of up to USD 77 million to provide a newer antiretroviral regimen for hundreds of thousands of people in developing countries living with HIV. This will replace an older treatment which has life-threatening and disfiguring side effects.

  12 June 2013 | UNITAID

• Thousands still missing HIV treatment following Central African Republic coup

  More than 15,000 people living with HIV in the Central African Republic (CAR) had their life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) treatment interrupted as a result of the instability before, during and after the 24 March coup by the Séléka rebel group. NGOs are now struggling to ensure these people resume their regimens to reduce the risk of illness, drug resistance and death.

  12 June 2013 | IRIN

• Shortages of Drugs Threaten TB Fight

  The U.S., India and other nations are facing shortages of tuberculosis drugs—threatening to reverse decades of progress against a deadly disease that is becoming increasingly untreatable.

  06 June 2013 | Wall Street Journal

• PEPFAR treatment lifeline threatened by weaknesses at receiving end, GAO report says

  A third in a series of reports examining components of treatment provided through the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief  details how the the program has strengthened and streamlined antiretroviral drug supply planning, procuring and tracking, but also reveals a wide range of weaknesses hindering partner country management of the lifesaving medicines.

  30 May 2013 | Science Speaks

• UNITAID report cites price reductions of up to 80% for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria products

  UNITAID’s approach to transform health product markets has delivered price reductions of up to 80% for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria medicines and diagnostics for the world’s poor, according to Results Beyond Investment, its 2012 Annual Report just released.

  29 May 2013 | UNITAID

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