North America

News from aidsmap

• Sofosbuvir plus ribavirin works well for hard-to-treat inner-city hepatitis C patients

  New and experimental hepatitis C treatment
  Liz Highleyman | 20 March 2013

  A simple 24-week oral regimen consisting of sofosbuvir plus full-dose ribavirin cured nearly 70% of previously untreated people with genotype 1 hepatitis C, many of whom had factors predictive of poor response, researchers reported ...

• AbbVie interferon-free combinations cure most newly treated hepatitis C patients

  New and experimental hepatitis C treatment
  Liz Highleyman | 20 March 2013

  All-oral regimens consisting of the HCV protease inhibitor ABT-450, a non-nucleoside polymerase inhibitor and ribavirin led to sustained response for more than 90% of previously untreated hepatitis  C patients – including those ...

• HIV increases the risk of heart attack, even in people with a suppressed viral load

  Cardiovascular disease
  Michael Carter | 19 March 2013

  Infection with HIV is associated with an increased risk of heart attack, investigators from the United States report in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine. Importantly, this finding was based ...

• Even moderate alcohol consumption increases risk of death for people with chronic hepatitis C

  Hepatitis C
  Michael Carter | 18 March 2013

  Moderate alcohol consumption - as little as one or two drinks per day -  is associated with an increased risk of mortality for people with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, according ...

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

  Infectiousness and treatment as prevention
  Gus Cairns | 15 March 2013

  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 ...

• Gene therapy studies show potential for HIV control without drugs

  The search for a cure
  Gus Cairns | 13 March 2013

  Gene therapy approaches that involve the genetic modification of human haematopoietic stem cells have the potental to engineer HIV control by introducing cells resistant to HIV infection, the 20th ...

• Adding telaprevir improves acute hepatitis C treatment for HIV-positive men

  New and experimental hepatitis C treatment
  Liz Highleyman | 12 March 2013

  Adding telaprevir (Incivo or Incivek) to pegylated interferon and ribavirin shortens the duration of treatment and increases the likelihood of a cure for HIV-positive men with acute sexually transmitted hepatitis C virus ...

• Simeprevir & sofosbuvir demonstrates good early cure rate with or without ribavirin

  New and experimental hepatitis C treatment
  Liz Highleyman | 12 March 2013

  An all-oral combination of simeprevir plus sofosbuvir, with or without ribavirin, led to an early cure for most hard-to-treat prior null responders with genotype 1 hepatitis C studied in the phase 2a COSMOS ...