Viral load

Viral load features

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  Do HIV drugs really mean you aren’t infectious?

  Gus Cairns looks at new research on this controversial subject. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Defining, and then watching for, treatment failure

  A review of various clinical, immunological and virological definitions of antiretroviral treatment failure in resource-limited settings....

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  Cheap viral load test is urgently needed for resource-poor settings, say treatment advocates

  Review of evidence on the need for viral load testing to guide antiretroviral treatment switching in resource-limited settings....

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  Monitoring antiretroviral treatment with limited laboratory services

  How can HIV treatment be monitored in settings with limited laboratory capacity, and how can treatment failure be identified without viral load testing?...

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

Viral load news from aidsmap

• Routine viral load monitoring almost halves risk of virologic failure in 18-month Kenyan study

  Six-monthly viral load testing of patients taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) at primary health clinics in rural Kenya reduced the risk of virologic failure at 18 months of follow-up by 46%, according to the results of the Clinic-based ART Diagnostic ...

  12 March 2013 | Lesley Odendal

• Was higher viral load responsible for the African HIV epidemic?

  Researchers from Cornell University in New York have found that the average HIV viral load of people not taking antiretroviral medication (ART) in Africa, and especially in southern and eastern Africa, is higher than the viral loads of untreated ...

  12 February 2013 | Gus Cairns

• Management of hypertension reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease for HIV-positive people with high blood pressure

  New Swiss research has shown the benefits of treating hypertension in HIV-positive people. The investigators calculated that the reduction in blood pressure achieved by their patients would “significantly reduce cardiovascular endpoints”. Traditional, rather than HIV-associated, risk factors were associated with increases ...

  21 January 2013 | Michael Carter

• CMV infection may contribute to the size of the latent HIV reservoir

  The presence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) in blood and semen is associated with higher levels of HIV DNA in blood, investigators from the United States report in the online edition of Journal of Infectious Diseases. The study involved gay men ...

  16 January 2013 | Michael Carter

• Any reduction in viral load has immunologic benefits for people with HIV who have triple-class treatment failure

  HIV therapy that achieves even modest reductions in viral load can have profound immunological benefits for people with triple-class treatment failure, European investigators report in the online edition of the Journal of Infectious Diseases. “There is close to a linear ...

  08 January 2013 | Michael Carter

• Starting HIV therapy with a viral load above 100,000 is associated with a lower chance of achieving an undetectable viral load

  Starting HIV treatment with a viral load above 100,000 copies/ml is associated with a reduced chance of achieving an undetectable viral load within 48 weeks regardless of the combination of drugs used, according to the results of a meta-analysis ...

  28 November 2012 | Michael Carter

• Lack of understanding of treatment benefits may discourage women with HIV from having children – and could increase the risk of vertical transmission

  Two papers presented at the eleventh International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection this week in Glasgow suggest that some women with HIV may not have up-to-date information about vertical transmission (HIV being passed on from mother ...

  16 November 2012 | Gus Cairns

• Only half of people on HIV treatment fit 'Swiss Statement' criteria for non-infectiousness in US study

  A study of a sample of predominantly African-American people with HIV in the US has found that, in those taking antiretroviral therapy (ART), only 51% met the criteria for non-infectiousness set by the Swiss Statement of January 2008. This study (published ...

  09 November 2012 | Gus Cairns

• Population viral load decreases in 'test and treat' study in Uganda

  Positive changes in population-level HIV viral load distribution have been found one year after the implementation of key components of an HIV 'test-and-treat' strategy in rural Uganda. Population levels of viral load were lower, a higher proportion of people had ...

  25 July 2012 | Lesley Odendal

• UNITAID commits US$140 million to bring HIV diagnostic technologies to the ‘point of care’

  “UNITAID has announced major investment for cutting-edge point-of-care diagnostic tools essential for better treatment, better detection of resistance, better quality of care in people living with HIV and better diagnosis of HIV for children,” said Dr Denis Broun, Executive ...

  24 July 2012 | Theo Smart

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Viral load news selected from other sources

• MSF research points to ways to expand viral load testing in developing countries

  At the 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Atlanta, the international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) presented data today on strategies to reduce the costs and complexity of rolling out routine viral load monitoring in developing countries.

  07 March 2013 | Médecins Sans Frontières press release

• Alere to Develop Simple, Affordable Point-of-Care Nucleic Acid Test for Tuberculosis & Expand Manufacturing for POC HIV Viral Load Platform

  Alere Inc. announced that it has been awarded a grant of up to $21.6 million and debt financing of up to $20.6 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support development of a point-of-care nucleic acid test for tuberculosis and to expand production facilities for this test and for a point-of-care viral load test.

  02 March 2013 | Alere

• UNITAID-financed project to increase access to new HIV monitoring technology

  UNITAID and France Expertise Internationale (FEI) signed a US$ 2.4 million agreement to implement the “OPP-ERA” project which will stimulate the market entry of new manufacturers and suppliers of HIV Viral Load Test (VLT) technologies, bringing an innovative solution to meet the HIV monitoring and diagnostics needs in resource-limited settings.

  15 February 2013 | UNITAID

• Top court decision on HIV disclosure will be major issue in Ottawa attempted murder trial, lawyer says

  Ambiguities in a landmark Supreme Court ruling that found HIV-positive people do not need to disclose their status if they have low viral loads and wear condoms will have a “direct impact” on the Ottawa jury trial of a man accused of trying to kill people by spreading the disease, says his lawyer.

  10 October 2012 | Ottowa Citizen

• PEPFAR Launches Labs For Life with Partners

  The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), led by the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator in the U.S. Department of State, and Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), a leading global medical technology company, today announced Labs for Life, a new collaboration to help strengthen healthcare and laboratory systems in the developing world along with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

  27 July 2012 | US State Department

• Second Edition of UNITAID Diagnostic Technology Landscape Report Published

  The second edition of the UNITAID Diagnostic Technology Landscape is now available online. First published in June 2011, the report has proven a critical tool for those interested in understanding the pipeline for HIV point-of-care diagnostics, including global health institutions, health care providers, investors, and developers. The 2012 edition represents UNITAID’s continued effort to map the landscape of existing and pipeline products and provides updated information on progress in the development of these important technologies.

  26 June 2012 | UNITAID

• HIV treatment outcomes poorer in adolescents and young adults

  Adolescents and young adults appear less likely to benefit from antiretroviral therapy compared with adults.

  11 August 2011 | AIDSmeds.com

• Supreme Court Rules for a Drug Firm in Patent Dispute

  The Supreme Court on Monday sided with a drug company over Stanford University in a patent dispute concerning a test to measure the amount of HIV in a patient's blood.

  06 June 2011 | New York Times

• Cepheid and FIND Announce Collaboration to Develop HIV Viral Load Test

  The Xpert® HIV viral load test, which will run on Cepheid's GeneXpert® platform, is expected to complement the ground-breaking Xpert MTB/RIF test for tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistance.

  03 February 2011 | PR Newswire

• Supreme Court caution to Indian Govt on second line treatment

  The Supreme Court today cautioned the government against abdicating its constitutional duty of providing treatment to HIV positive patients on grounds of financial constraint saying it involves the right to life.

  13 December 2010 | Yahoo News India

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