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IAS Conference Blog; Lancet Profiles Incoming Executive Director

Ahead of the 5th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention, which begins on Sunday in Cape Town, South Africa - the IAS 2009 Live blog started publishing, including the latest developments and resources and featured guest bloggers. A Lancet perspective piece profiles Robin Gorna, the incoming IAS executive director (Das, 7/18).

Global Response To HIV/AIDS Examined

A Lancet viewpoint assesses the international community’s response to the nearly 30-year HIV/AIDS epidemic. The article examines what the world “got right, what we got wrong, and why we need to urgently dispel several emerging myths about the epidemic and the global response to it” (Piot et al., 7/18).

cART Examined

A Lancet comment examines combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in low-income and middle-income countries. According to the authors, “the presence of patients in whom therapy fails in access programmes provides a unique opportunity to design nested prospective randomised studies that aim to find solutions systematically and rigorously.” They conclude, “We believe that it is time to reject a compromise approach to access to HIV therapy in low-income and middle-income countries, and to re-emphasise the Sydney Declaration and its call for dedicated funding for research” (Boyd et al. 7/18).

UNAIDS, Kaiser Family Foundation Track Donor Government’s Commitment To International AIDS Programs In 2008

A recent UNAIDS and Kaiser Family Foundation report tracks funding levels of the donor governments that collectively provide the bulk of international assistance for AIDS through bilateral programs and contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (7/09). The report reveals “overall commitments in AIDS funding from the developed world totalled $8.7 billion in 2008, up from $6.6 billion the previous year. Disbursements, which reflect actual resources made available in a given year and therefore provide a better measure of resource availability, rose even more rapidly, up 56 percent to reach $7.7 billion in 2008,” according to a UNAIDS release (7/13).

PEPFAR Partners Should Focus More On Treatment Maintenance

“[F]ailure to adequately emphasise maintenance and adherence in patients now receiving treatment through” PEPFAR could “subvert” the program, according to a Lancet comment written by a former manager of a PEPFAR-funded treatment program. “PEPFAR’s biggest success - support for more than 2 million people on HIV treatment — is also its largest liability,” according to the article, which recommends that the program create an “incentive for partners to devote more resources and attention to patients already on treatment” (Navario, 7/18).

GAO Report Examines PEPFAR Implementation, Oversight

The GAO on Thursday released a report (pdf) that examines how the U.S. government selects and oversees organizations that implement PEPFAR activities. The report provides recommendations for how the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator’s office can improve PEPFAR’s processes (7/16).

July/August Health Affairs Devoted To Health Care In Developing Countries

Health Affairs devotes its July/August issue to the delivery of health care in developing countries. Introducing the issue, Health Affairs Editor-In-Chief Susan Dentzer, writes of the interconnectedness of global health financing and health services: “[E]ven as we focus on delivery this year, we know that funding is critical to meeting more health needs of low- and middle-income countries.” Dentzer adds, “Yet, as much as funding would help, we also know that only so much can be accomplished without a specific focus on health care delivery. And whereas health care financing can often be dealt with in broad brush strokes, delivery means dealing with thousands of devilish details,” such as how to overcome “unaffordable tools and technologies; inadequate health-system infrastructure; cultural or religious barriers; government inertia or corruption” - some of the topics addressed in the journal issue (7/09).

This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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Foster City, Calif.-based Gilead Sciences on Thursday said it has entered into a license and collaboration agreement with Johnson and Johnson subsidiary Tibotec Pharmaceuticals for the development and commercialization of a new once-daily fixed-dose treatment for HIV, the San Francisco Business Times reports. The FDA approved the first once-daily HIV treatment Atripla in 2006 (7/16). The new antiretroviral drug would contain Tibotec’s experimental non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, known as TMC278, and Gilead’s combination pill, Truvada. Kevin Young, head of commercial operations at Gilead “said the new combination pill, along with Gilead’s experimental ‘quad’ pill, will be used for newly-diagnosed patients, with physicians reluctant to change therapy for patients who are responding well to Atripla,” Reuters reports. Young said the drug is expected to reach the market in 2011 (Beasley, 7/16).

This information was reprinted from dailyreports.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily U.S. HIV/AIDS Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at dailyreports.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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The Department of Justice on Thursday said that it is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act to bar people — such as barbers, masseuses, and home health care aides — from receiving professional licenses or training at occupational schools because they have HIV or AIDS, the AP/Los Angeles Times reports. Some states, for example, require that cosmetologists be free of communicable diseases. “The government says that type of regulation is outdated and was not intended to bar people with HIV. The original goal of such a rule was to prevent the spread of tuberculosis and other diseases, not prevent people with [HIV] from working in certain fields,” according to the AP/Times. Furthermore, “The Supreme Court has found people with AIDS or HIV are covered under the law barring discrimination against people with disabilities,” the article states (7/16).

This information was reprinted from dailyreports.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily U.S. HIV/AIDS Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at dailyreports.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.