Multiple Risky Behaviors Commonly Occur Among People with HIV

Data collected from the Centers for AIDS Research Network of Integrated Clinical Systems study cohort found that substance use, unprotected sex, and nonadherence to medication regimens were common among HIV-positive people receiving care. The study evaluated substance use behaviors and health consequences among people with HIV. Researchers found that substance use increased high-risk behaviors as well as decreased complete adherence to medication treatments, and concluded that prevention programs need to address these issues.

These conditions could harm current healthcare strategies because of “the assumption that if more HIV-infected people are tested and enrolled in care, treatment will decrease the community viral load,” said Matthew J. Mimiaga, ScD, MPH, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health and co-author of the study. “Our results support regular screening for [drug use] in primary care settings where HIV-infected patients are treated. Specifically, they support US Public Health Service guidelines that focus on the need for comprehensive HIV-related care that incorporates screening for substance use and mental health as well as referrals to [medical] services.”

The study included 3,413 patients from four cities. The participants comprised 84-percent men and 46.2-percent from minority racial/ethnic groups. Although 76.7 percent of the patients were receiving HIV medication at the time of the study, only 30.6 percent were fully adhering to their regimens. More than one-third of the group reported engaging in anal sex in the past six months, and more than half of these reported engaging in unprotected sex. Of the 19 percent of patients who reported engaging in vaginal sex in the previous six months, 46 percent reported engaging in unprotected sex.

The full report, “Substance Use Among HIV-Infected Patients Engaged in Primary Care in the United States: Findings From the Centers for AIDS Research Network of Integrated Clinical Systems Cohort,” was published online in the American Journal of Public Health,” (2013; doi:10.2105/AJPH.2012.301162).

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus.

To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

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Thailand's MSM Face Alarming HIV Rates

Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that HIV prevalence among Thai men who have sex with men (MSM) increased from 17 percent in 2003 to 29 percent in 2011, based on a survey of 4,800 MSM clients tested for HIV at Bangkok’s Silom Community Clinic between 2005 and 2011. The study estimated a 12-percent HIV infection rate among MSM ages 15 to 21. Fewer than 43 percent of MSM study participants reported ever having previous HIV screening. Thailand’s National AIDS Management Centre estimated that 41 percent of all new HIV cases in 2012 occurred among MSM.

As a result, the Thai government has begun to redirect HIV prevention funding. In 2009, only 1 percent of Thai government HIV prevention resources targeted MSM, compared with 8 percent in 2011, according to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS. However, external donors still funded more than 90 percent of HIV prevention activities, with nongovernmental and community-based groups implementing most programs among high-risk groups. The Thai government also was considering the use of antiretroviral therapy for pre-exposure prophylaxis with high-risk groups.

HIV Foundation Thailand President Nikorn Chimkong reported that casual sex Web sites and gay nightlife venues fostered the HIV epidemic among young Thai MSM. Outreach programs could provide counseling and condoms at party venues, but it was difficult to reach the target population with behavior change messages through social media, according to Alex Duke, program manager at Population Services International Thailand (PSI). PSI was developing ways to complement peer-based interventions with social media and Web sites.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus.

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Facing Sequestration, Senate Appropriates Funding for HIV

Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 sequestration and budget cuts threatened HIV research, prevention, and care even though lower HIV funding would result in “small deficit reduction benefits,” according to Kali Lindsey, director of legislative and public affairs for the National Minority AIDS Council. amfAR: The Foundation for AIDS Research estimated that sequestration would eliminate AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) funding for more than 15,000 HIV-infected people, cause loss of housing for 5,000 households, eliminate 460 research grants, and cut HIV prevention services. Funding cuts for CDC’s HIV prevention programs would total $64.7 million, with $27.6 million less for HIV prevention and $2.4 million less for HIV adolescent and school health programs. The AIDS Institute estimated that sequestration and budget cuts have reduced federal government domestic HIV/AIDS spending by $375 million.

In response to ADAP funding shortfalls, the Obama Administration transferred $35 million in emergency funding to cover medications for HIV patients in 2013. On July 11, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies passed an FY14 spending bill that would increase Ryan White HIV/AIDS program spending by $51 million more than FY13 levels, provide an additional $47 million for ADAP, increase National Institutes of Health research funding, and maintain CDC HIV prevention funding at $755 million. Only four percent of domestic HIV spending targeted prevention.

In contrast, the US House of Representative’s budget recommended an additional $1.1 billion in funding cuts for domestic HIV/AIDS response. It was not clear how the Senate and House of Representatives would resolve the difference in their budget reduction approaches.

HIV advocates outlined research breakthroughs that would not have been possible without federal funding: progress in HIV vaccines, pre-exposure prophylaxis, development of microbicides, treatment as prevention, prevention of vertical transmission, and research into voluntary circumcision for prevention. In 2012, the United States supplied 70 percent of HIV prevention research worldwide.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus.

To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

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Youths Take Free HIV Test in Public in NN

TeenAIDS-Peer Corps Founder John Chittick, recently set up impromptu HIV test centers using OraQuick kits in two locations in Newport News, Va.

At City Center, one participant allowed Chittick’s HIV prevention advocacy group to videotape her test; another participant requested anonymity.

TeenAIDS offers testing to anyone in the target age group of 24 and younger who wants it. The group provides information on how to find confirmatory testing and counseling to anyone who tests positive.

Chittick also explained that his group would not record any test that was “starting to go positive,” but he would take aside any such individual for private consultation. When notified that they were on private property at City Center, the group asked to complete the test in progress and then moved on to the Doris Miller Center, their second site.

Chittick’s methods of public testing and videotaping have caused concern in some cities, but so far no one has charged him with doing anything illegal.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus.

To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

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HPV Vaccine Found to Help with Cancers of Throat

Study results indicate that the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine that prevents women from acquiring the strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer also seems to protect them from throat cancer caused by HPV infection acquired during oral sex. At present, HPV causes approximately 70 percent of oropharyngeal cancers, compared with 16 percent in the 1980s.

Researchers studied 5,840 sexually active 18–25-year-old Costa Rican women who had received either the HPV vaccine Cervarix or placebo. At the end of four years, each participant provided a mouthwash gargle sample that collected throat cells. Results showed that only one participant who had received the HPV vaccine was infected with the HPV-16 or HPV-18 viruses that cause cancer, while 15 women who had received placebo vaccine were infected.

Dr. Rolando Herrero, head of prevention for the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer and the lead author, listed the limitations of the study, including the absence of men from the study and the fact that participating women were given baseline tests to make sure they had no cervical infections but were not tested for throat or anal infections because the study’s initial focus was cervical cancer. Additionally, researchers collected only one oral sample, so they did not know if any participants had persistent infections; and some people clear HPV on their own, so only a small number might lead to cancer. Herrero also noted that four years was not long enough to know how many cancers would develop. Researchers would have to wait 20 years or more to know for sure, but ethical guidelines required that all participants get regular examinations and that their physicians destroy any suspicious lesions before they turn cancerous. Herrero surmised that men would get the same protection from an HPV vaccination as the women because the vaccine produces identical antibody levels in both sexes.

Dr. Marshall R. Posner, medical director for head and neck cancer at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, commented that the large discrepancy in infection rates between the control group and the vaccinated participants suggested the data were very reliable; however, he noted that no one knew the length of the vaccine’s protection or if re-vaccination was necessary.

The full report, “Reduced Prevalence of Oral Human Papillomavirus (HPV) 4 Years After Bivalent HPV Vaccination in a Randomized Clinical Trial in Costa Rica,” was published in the journal PLOS One (2013; doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0068329) .

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus.

To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

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Bill to Lift Ban on HIV Organ Donation Passes House Committee

The US House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee has approved H.R. 698, the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act, which—if approved by the full House—would lift a ban on HIV-infected organ donation to HIV-infected recipients. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) sponsored the bill, which the US Senate passed in June.

If the HOPE Act becomes law, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Organ Procurement Transplant Network (OPTN) would develop and implement research standards for HIV-infected organ transplants. If research established that positive-to-positive transplantation did not endanger the safety of the organ transplantation network, the HHS Secretary would be able to permit the transplants. The bill also would require the Secretary to direct OPTN to develop positive-to-positive transplantation standards that would sustain the organ transplant network’s safety.

Implementation of the HOPE Act could shorten transplantation wait times for both HIV-infected and uninfected people. More than 100,000 US residents currently are waiting for transplants; each year 50,000 more applicants join the waiting list. Positive-to-positive transplantation could save approximately 1,000 HIV-infected people waiting for liver and kidney transplants each year.

In 2011, CDC recommended research on positive-to-positive transplantation. The bill also has the support of the United Network for Organ Sharing and more than 40 other patient and medical advocacy organizations.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus.

To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

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Condom Use in Accra High – GNA Survey

Patronage of condoms in Accra and its environs increases dramatically during the weekends and festive periods as compared to week days.

A survey conducted by the Ghana News Agency on the usage of condoms indicated that the recent hype that the product provides safety against sexually transmitted diseases had change the negative perception about its usage.

The survey revealed that patronage in the past was low as the use of condom was considered as immoral because it promoted sexual promiscuity.

However, the perception has changed due to recent publicity that focuses on the safety that condoms provide to users.

The survey uncovered different brands of condoms, including; Durex, Pleasure, Tiger, Contempo, Rough Ridder, Romantic, Champion, Inno, Kiss, Ghanzi, Fiesta, Cheers, Cobra, Protector Gold, Hitman, Gold Circle, Move, Guard, Man United, Chelsea, Pleasure Guard, Be Safe, Barcelona, Preventive and Adanzi.

The prices of condoms on the market ranges from Gh₵0.30 to Gh₵20.00 per pack at most of the shops GNA visited.

At the Jinlet Pharmacy at Tesano, Mrs Vincentia Aberful, told the GNA that: “due to the high publicity on the usage of condoms for safe sex and protection, customers boldly come to buy the product these days”.

She said the price of the condoms was based on the quality, texture and brand names, adding the purchases were based on customer’s financial situation, satisfaction required and other personal experiences.

Mrs Aberful appealed to pharmacists to educate customers on proper usage of condoms to help to reduce unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases”.

Mrs Beatrice Assanful at the Avenue Chemist noted that there were a few people who “still feel shy when they come to the store to buy condoms, especially when the one attending to them is a female. They prefer to buy from male pharmacist”.

At the Tesano Shell Station Mart, Miss Riclla Nyame, said the demand for condoms goes up during Valentine, Christmas and public holidays.

“My customers mostly purchase Rough Ridder and Kiss because of the publicity and affordability”, she said.

At Adabraka, Ms Lawrencia Acquaye a pharmacist at the Accra Chemist, said: “condoms are highly patronized by both the young and old. People walk in to buy irrespective of who is at the counter.

She said: “At times some women even walk in to buy….everyday is a market day for the sale of condoms, but weekends are special”.

GNA survey also revealed that the female condoms are not in the market due to low patronage when Ms Acquaye said: “I sell male condoms because the female condoms are not well patronized and they are no more in the system”.

Madam Grace Corpson, a pharmacist at the Frontline Pharmacy at Adabraka, said champion condoms, popularly known as CD, is the lowest priced condom on the market.

Ms Evelyn Larbi, also at Frontline Pharmacy explained that most people prefer the male condoms to the female ones “so we have stopped selling the female condoms”.

Ms Irene Inkoom, a pharmacist at Pardox Pharmacy at Adjie Kojo Klagon in the Tema municipality, said: “We have stopped selling female condoms here because people don’t buy them and it is very difficult for us to get on the market these days”.

Mr Michael Mensah, a pharmacist and owner of ST. Michael Herbal and Diagnostic Center, said: “even ladies who occasionally come here to buy male condoms don’t buy the female condoms, so I have stopped selling them’’.

Sometimes some customers feel shy so they write the name of the type of condoms they want to buy on a paper and send children to buy for them. All the same the condom business is doing well.”

GNA also visited the La Road Total Filling Station Mart, La Goil Filling Station, Mokat Chemist, and Dayden Pharmacy.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus.

To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

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