Posted September 24, 200915 yr A world first: Vaccine helps prevent HIV infection By The Associated Press 09.24.2009 8:29am EDT (Bangkok) For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible. The World Health Organization and the U.N. agency UNAIDS said the results “instilled new hope” in the field of HIV vaccine research. The vaccine – a combination of two previously unsuccessful vaccines – cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 percent in the world’s largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand, researchers announced Thursday in Bangkok. Even though the benefit is modest, “it’s the first evidence that we could have a safe and effective preventive vaccine,” Col. Jerome Kim told The Associated Press. He helped lead the study for the U.S. Army, which sponsored it with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Read more at 365gay.com
September 25, 200915 yr Fauci's "cautious optimism" expresses it clearly. HIV's ability to mutate has, over time, reduced the effectiveness of various treatments and may do the same with a vaccine. Any benefit at all, though, could have huge public health and economic benefits in populations where the disease is widespread.
September 25, 200915 yr I heard about this on the radio yesterday. While not the huge breakthrough the world is waiting for, it is still a great achievement. Congrats to all involved.
September 25, 200915 yr i think it's a huge breakthrough...it is a step in the right direction and puts us leaps and bounds beyond where we have been. Obviously it's not an end stage product yet...more testing and all that to make sure that it really works...but if it really does reduce infection by 30% that will save a lot of lives...particularly in Africa and in our own black community.
September 25, 200915 yr i think it's a huge breakthrough...it is a step in the right direction and puts us leaps and bounds beyond where we have been. Obviously it's not an end stage product yet...more testing and all that to make sure that it really works...but if it really does reduce infection by 30% that will save a lot of lives...particularly in Africa and in our own black community. What's race got to do with anything?
September 25, 200915 yr What's race got to do with anything? Everything! Try to think before speaking! http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art17002.html HIV/AIDS Among African Americans August 2009 The HIV/AIDS epidemic in African American communities is a continuing public health crisis for the United States. At the end of 2006 there were an estimated 1.1 million people living with HIV infection, of which almost half (46%) were black/African American.1 While blacks represent approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population, they continue to account for a higher proportion of cases at all stages of HIV/AIDS -- from infection with HIV to death with AIDS -- compared with members of other races and ethnicities.2,3
September 25, 200915 yr I'm making the assumption that DanB's post is in reference to the question I asked. I'll bet he brings up some statistic that shows that AIDS is a "black problem". If that's the case, here's my response: AIDS is a global problem, affecting every man, woman and child that draws breath and bleeds. It doesn't discriminate based on skin color. It's for that reason alone, that I asked dispora what he meant when he specified "our black community" as a group that will benefit from these new findings. It's not "our black community," guys. It's EVERYONE. Let's do ourselves a favor and leave race out of the discussion when the discussion is about a HUMAN virus. Deal?
September 25, 200915 yr ^Ugh. Diaspora was saying that it could have huge impacts on the groups the virus affects most. Sure the vaccine is a huge step forward for everyone, but it is especially huge for segments of the population (Africa, Thailand,the US Black community, etc.) that are affected in disproportionate ways. HIV/AIDS is a HUGE problem in urban black communities, but unfortunately it recieves little to no attention.
September 25, 200915 yr I'm making the assumption that DanB's post is in reference to the question I asked. I'll bet he brings up some statistic that shows that AIDS is a "black problem". If that's the case, here's my response: AIDS is a global problem, affecting every man, woman and child that draws breath and bleeds. It doesn't discriminate based on skin color. It's for that reason alone, that I asked dispora what he meant when he specified "our black community" as a group that will benefit from these new findings. It's not "our black community," guys. It's EVERYONE. Let's do ourselves a favor and leave race out of the discussion when the discussion is about a HUMAN virus. Deal? AIDS/HIV in the Black and Latin communities is rampant. Look at the AIDS/HIV in larger black cities especially cities with large black or Latin gay populations. Atlanta DC Miami LA Houston Chicago Philly The HIV/AIDS rate is sky high compared to other races. Black women are now in a worse situation than black men 15-20 years ago.
September 25, 200915 yr I'm not discounting any of that. I just think, "BREAKTHROUGH IN AIDS VACCINE - BLACK PEOPLE SAVED" is a really odd way to react.
September 25, 200915 yr No one reacted that way, so I don't know why you are making a big deal out of something that didn't happen.
September 25, 200915 yr No one reacted that way, so I don't know why you are making a big deal out of something that didn't happen. diaspora: "if it really does reduce infection by 30% that will save a lot of lives...particularly in Africa and in our own black community."
September 25, 200915 yr Because it affects the black community greater than others! What is wrong with you? Someone quote this so he can read it!
September 25, 200915 yr Will you 2 just screw and get it over with already! To bring this back on topic. Be sure to wrap it up before knockin boots!!!
September 25, 200915 yr Will you 2 just screw and get it over with already! To bring this back on topic. Be sure to wrap it up before knockin boots!!! :lol:
September 26, 200915 yr Okay... back on topic or posts get sent to the trash bin! And to comment, yes, blacks have a higher incidence rate for HIV and AIDS that is validated by many statistical sources. That is on-topic.
September 26, 200915 yr The white community won't take this vaccine or don't need to take it? I'm trying to figure what some of you people are talking about. No where in the article does it even mention the black community.
September 26, 200915 yr The comment was a general reference to HIV/AIDS infection rates amongst certain races, not particular to the potential vaccine.
September 30, 200915 yr UN: 4 million on AIDS drugs, others still in need By The Associated Press 09.30.2009 3:37pm EDT (London) About 4 million people are now getting AIDS drugs worldwide – a 10-fold jump in five years – but 5 million others are still in dire need of the medicine, U.N. health officials estimated in a report issued Wednesday. The figures represented a major increase in rolling out drugs to patients across Africa, where the AIDS epidemic is focused, even though they were based on incomplete data and modeling. They were released in an annual AIDS report jointly published by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the U.N. AIDS program. “Even though some of the data are not fully clear and there are some unanswered questions, this is a dramatic improvement,” said Daniel Halperin, an AIDS expert at Harvard University. “It shows that all this money that has gone to treatment has made some difference.” Read more at 365gay.com
October 9, 200915 yr FDA panel backs expanded use of Pfizer HIV drug By The Associated Press 10.09.2009 10:00am EDT (Adelphi, Md.) Federal health advisers said Thursday that Pfizer’s HIV drug Selzentry should be approved for use by patients who have not already taken other drugs to combat the virus. The Food and Drug Administration’s panel of virus experts voted 10-4 in favor of the new use, despite some inconsistency in company studies of the drug. Selzentry is approved as a secondary option for HIV patients who are not responding to other antiviral drugs. New York-based Pfizer is asking the FDA to approve the drug as an initial treatment. Pfizer’s initial study comparing Selzentry with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Sustiva failed to meet the goal of showing it was at least as effective at suppressing HIV. Read more at 365gay.com
October 21, 200915 yr Full results show AIDS vaccine is only of modest help By The Associated Press 10.20.2009 4:00pm EDT Fresh results from the world’s first successful test of an experimental AIDS vaccine confirm that it is only marginally effective. Yet, the findings are exciting to scientists, who think they may show how to make a better vaccine. The results also hint that the vaccine may work better in the general population than in those at higher risk of infection, such as gay men and intravenous drug users. It was the first time an AIDS vaccine was tested mostly in heterosexuals at average risk, and doctors have long known that how a person is exposed to HIV affects the odds of becoming infected. “This study becomes a landmark. You can put it on a map and begin to figure out where you go from here,” said Col. Jerome Kim, the U.S. Army doctor who co-led the trial. Read more at 365gay.com
October 31, 200915 yr Obama signs HIV/AIDS bill extension; implements lifting of AIDS travel ban Jennifer Vanasco By Jennifer Vanasco, editor in chief, 365gay.com 10.30.2009 12:13pm EDT (Washington) President Barack Obama signed an extension of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS bill this morning. The legislation provides care, treatment and support services to nearly half a million people, most of whom are low-income. Obama also announced that the Department of Health and Human services has finally crafted a new regulation spelling the end to the HIV Travel and Immigration Ban. The regulation goes into effect in January. Read more at 365gay.com
December 2, 200915 yr Government-backed Chinese gay bar stays empty By The Associated Press 12.02.2009 8:56am EST (Beijing) A new bar in southwestern China aimed at educating gay men about AIDS stayed conspicuously empty during its official opening as potential customers shunned the spotlight, state media said Wednesday. The bar, which receives government funding from the health bureau in Yunnan province’s Dali town, was slated to open Tuesday to mark World AIDS Day, the China Daily reported. But the intense media attention that greeted the announcement of its opening kept customers away, Zhang Jianbo, the bar’s owner and a local AIDS doctor in Dali, was quoted as saying by the newspaper. ... More at: http://www.365gay.com/news/government-backed-chinese-gay-bar-stays-empty/
December 4, 200915 yr One can only imagine how cozy and friendly a gay bar in China would be which is owned by a doctor, and backed by the provincial government. Especially a bar aimed at "education"
December 4, 200915 yr Government-backed Chinese gay bar stays empty By The Associated Press 12.02.2009 8:56am EST (Beijing) A new bar in southwestern China aimed at educating gay men about AIDS stayed conspicuously empty during its official opening as potential customers shunned the spotlight, state media said Wednesday. The bar, which receives government funding from the health bureau in Yunnan province’s Dali town, was slated to open Tuesday to mark World AIDS Day, the China Daily reported. But the intense media attention that greeted the announcement of its opening kept customers away, Zhang Jianbo, the bar’s owner and a local AIDS doctor in Dali, was quoted as saying by the newspaper. ... More at: http://www.365gay.com/news/government-backed-chinese-gay-bar-stays-empty/ Its a trap. During the olympics many of the chinese LGBT community didn't attend obviously gay functions as they were worried about being outed. I wouldn't go either.
December 4, 200915 yr Its a trap. During the olympics many of the chinese LGBT community didn't attend obviously gay functions as they were worried about being outed. I wouldn't go either. I've read that in pre-Nazi Germany there was a growing acceptance of gays, and the Nazis actually supported/promoted gay events and establishments in order to see who showed up. Those who did were marked for eventual arrest and internment in the death camps.
December 4, 200915 yr Its a trap. During the olympics many of the chinese LGBT community didn't attend obviously gay functions as they were worried about being outed. I wouldn't go either. I've read that in pre-Nazi Germany there was a growing acceptance of gays, and the Nazis actually supported/promoted gay events and establishments in order to see who showed up. Those who did were marked for eventual arrest and internment in the death camps. BINGO. The clubs in china were patronized mainly by westerners, S. American's and Europeans. Very few Asians were at clubs, unless they were from the aforementioned cities.
February 24, 201015 yr Fight HIV with HIV: 'safe' virus proposed as vaccine 00:01 19 February 2010 by Andy Coghlan A company is planning to inject people with an HIV vaccine made of the deadly virus itself, albeit a deactivated version. Vaccines against many viruses, including flu, are made from deactivated versions of those viruses, but such an approach was previously dismissed as too risky in the case of HIV. Now Virxsys of Gaithersburg, Maryland, is resurrecting the controversial approach, thanks to successful tests of a similar vaccine against SIV – also known as simian HIV – in monkeys. Read More...
August 7, 201014 yr AIDS programs hit with funding cuts Mansfield-based center has almost 300 clients BY LINDA MARTZ • NEWS JOURNAL • AUGUST 7, 2010 MANSFIELD -- Patients are being dropped from Ohio's HIV Drug Assistance program because of state funding cuts. This comes at a time when enrollment has more than doubled in five years. That scenario concerns Lori Robinson, regional director for AIDS Resource Center Ohio, which is based in Mansfield and serves 10 counties. There are 293 north central Ohio residents enrolled in Ohio's HIV Drug Assistance Program, she said. The AIDS Resource Center adds an average of five new clients each month, many of whom would be considered eligible under former guidelines, she said. Read More...
December 15, 201014 yr Man Officially Cured of HIV For the first time, a man has been declared officially cured of HIV. The remedy may nearly have killed him, but it opens a door—just a crack—to hope that we may someday kill off the scourge for good. Strangely enough, the diagnosis that most concerned Timothy Ray Brown in 2007 was acute myeloid leukemia. HIV has been increasingly thought of as a manageable disease, though certainly a terribly burdensome one. What brought the 42-year old Brown under the care of Germany's Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin hospital was the more immediate threat his cancer posed. The treatment Brown underwent was aggressive: chemotherapy that destroyed the majority of his immune cells. Total body irradiation. Finally, a risky stem-cell transplant that nearly a third of patients don't survive—but that appears to have completely cured Brown of HIV. Read More...
December 15, 201014 yr Its a trap. During the olympics many of the chinese LGBT community didn't attend obviously gay functions as they were worried about being outed. I wouldn't go either. I've read that in pre-Nazi Germany there was a growing acceptance of gays, and the Nazis actually supported/promoted gay events and establishments in order to see who showed up. Those who did were marked for eventual arrest and internment in the death camps. That is horrifyingly cruel.... then again, it is the Nazi party so I guess horrifyingly cruel is expected.
December 15, 201014 yr ^^ It was a reference to the (widespread?) rumor that his HIV disappeared. So, yes, it was sarcasm. Edit: So you don't think I made this up, here's some evidence.
December 15, 201014 yr Because of funding cuts, the Allen County (Fort Wayne, Indiana) health department has dropped its long-standing AIDS testing and counseling service, and laid off the two people who ran it. The service was provided through the in-house clinic facilities and through outreach to various community centers and social service agencies, providing free testing to their clients on a periodic basis.
March 1, 201114 yr Gilead's $35 HIV Prevention Pill Fails to Win Support By Michelle Fay Cortez and Simeon Bennett - Feb 28, 2011 4:17 PM ET Gilead Sciences Inc.’s Truvada topped Time magazine’s list of medical breakthroughs for 2010 after a study showed it may achieve a goal pursued by scientists for a quarter-century: a pill to prevent HIV infection. Three months later, the advance has hit a wall. While study findings show the drug prevents HIV in non-infected, sexually active gay men, doctors say they’re wary about giving healthy people a $12,000-a-year medicine that has side effects including nausea and kidney damage, and may not be used as regularly as needed. They also say they’re not often asked to make the drug available for that use. “We’re not seeing people beating down the doors,” said Kenneth Mayer, medical research director and co-chair of The Fenway Institute, a clinic that serves 15,000 people in Boston, including several thousand gay men. While a few patients have asked about using Truvada for prevention, perhaps for their healthy partners, Mayer says he doesn’t know any clinic doctor who has prescribed it that way. Read More...
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