News headlines

A selection of news stories which have appeared since 2 October 2003.

UN report says one young person infected with HIV every 14 seconds

The biggest generation of adolescents the world has ever known is providing an ideal environment for the rapid spread of HIV, according to the state of the world population report published today by the United Nations Population Fund.

Pneumococcal vaccine protects children with HIV

A pneumococcal vaccine has been shown to protect children with HIV in a large study conducted in South Africa, reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Streptococcus pneumoniae is a leading cause of death in under-fives worldwide.

Nevirapine causes acute hepatitis in 2.6% of HIV-positive patients who receive it says case series

Acute hepatitis developed in 2.6% of Dutch patients starting a nevirapine-containing HAART regimen, according to a report in the October 17th edition of the journal AIDS. Nevirapine was considered by the investigators to be the most likely cause of liver injury in all the patients, and liver function rapidly returned to normal in all cases when therapy with nevirapine was stopped. [Study in the Netherlands]

Nevirapine: should liver risks raise doubts for developing world?

Serious liver toxicity appears to be no more frequent among Thai patients starting antiretroviral therapy when compared to their Western counterparts, according to a review of 692 patients who took part in clinical trials in the country. However, the study also revealed high rates of liver toxicity in nevirapine-treated patients, and the authors suggest that agents with higher rates of liver toxicity should be avoided where monitoring capability is limited. The study is published in the October 17th edition of AIDS (now available online).

Switching from a PI? NEFA study shows risks and benefits of abacavir

A triple NRTI regimen containing abacavir showed a trend to poorer virological control than NNRTI-containing regimens in a study published in the September 11th edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. In the article, Spanish investigators present data from the NEFA study, in which protease inhibitor treated patients with controlled viral load substituted NNRTIs efavirenz or nevirapine, or the NRTI abacavir for their protease inhibitor. After twelve months follow-up abacavir-treated patients showed a trend towards greater likelihood of virologic rebound. However, the investigators believe that this was due to prior suboptimal NRTI therapy in the vast majority of cases, and highlight the better lipid profile for the abacavir-containing regimen.