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News Outlets Focus On Participants In AIDS Vaccine Study, Potential Impact Of AIDS Vaccine

The Associated Press examines the role of the Thai participants in the recent clinical trial of an experimental HIV vaccine which showed modest potential for preventing infection. “Nearly 16,000 Thais ignored the false rumors that they were being infected by the AIDS virus, and overcame their fears of becoming social outcasts to participate in trials of the first vaccine found to prevent infection with the deadly virus,” the news service writes (Ahuja/Casey, 9/27). The New York Times examines what an effective AIDS vaccine could mean for the world (McNeil, 9/26).

Researches Identify Cause Of Chloroquine Resistance

Australian researchers report in the journal Science that they “have pinpointed how the malaria parasite resists the otherwise effective and cheap drug chloroquine,” according to ABC News. The researches have found that a previously identified protein enables “chloroquine to leak from the parasite’s stomach, preventing it from reaching the concentrations it needed to work.” This finding might help lead to new drug development (Salleh, 9/25).

Authorities In Sierra Leone Contest Findings Of Amnesty’s Maternal Mortality Report

Authorities in Sierra Leone on Thursday contested the accuracy of a recent report issued by Amnesty International which found one in eight women die during childbirth or complications of pregnancy, arguing the findings were based on “erroneous” and outdated statistics, Agence France-Presse reports. Without offering alternative statistics on the country’s maternal mortality rates, Kizito Dawo, the country’s top medical officer, told journalists the findings were based on “statistics [that had] been taken out of context, [making] the report unacceptable” (9/24).

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.

Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) has begun to offer a new type of rapid result HIV test at its clinics which can detect the virus just four weeks after the date of infection. Previous tests were only reliable three months after exposure to the virus.

The finger prick blood test will be used at THT’s Fastest clinics and results are normally available in approximately 20 minutes. If the test result is positive, staff would always advise another test is taken, just to confirm the diagnosis.

Dr Michael Brady, Medical Director at THT said “If you’re worried you’ve been exposed to HIV waiting three months for an accurate test result can be agonising. Technology has now moved on, so we’re able to offer reliable tests earlier. If you think you’ve been at risk or you’re in a high risk group you should consider getting a test. It’s quick, confidential and could put your mind at rest.”

Groups at highest risk of HIV in the UK are Africans and gay men. Over a quarter of people with HIV don’t know they have it and almost a third of people are diagnosed late, potentially putting their health at risk. Increased testing for HIV is essential to improve these statistics.

To find out if there is a Fastest clinic near you visit http://www.tht.org.uk/fastest. HIV tests are also available in GUM clinics nationwide and you can find your nearest by visiting http://www.tht.org.uk/clinics or by calling THT Direct on 0845 12 21 200.

Source
Terrence Higgins Trust

Creating a video game to help teens avoid sex, drugs and alcohol use-behaviors that could lead to HIV infection-is the aim of a five-year, $3.9 million research grant to Yale from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The grant, to be paid out over five years, will fund work by Lynn Fiellin, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine.

Fiellin’s study is designed to develop and test an interactive virtual reality-based video game called “Retro-Warriors” that will teach ethnically diverse adolescents how to make healthier choices. The research goes beyond the use of a game for education and proposes to create a world in which the game players can engage in role-playing to learn to avoid risky behaviors that could lead to HIV infection.

The study has far-reaching implications including the potential for this technology to become portable and global.

“The game could travel with the player-it could be used at home, on a console, a cell phone or a personal digital assistant,” said Fiellin, who also points to international implications. “Access to the Internet is growing in developing countries and these technologies could be transferred to adolescents in countries experiencing a growing HIV epidemic but which have limited access to targeted risk-reduction strategies.”

The game will be adapted with input from both adolescents in the study group and collaborators with expertise in positive youth development, social cognitive theory, artificial intelligence development and commercial game design. Fiellin and her team will evaluate the efficacy of the game by conducting a randomized clinical trial in 330 ethnically diverse children between 11 and 14 years old attending an after-school and/or weekend youth program at a New Haven community center. They will be randomly assigned to either play the HIV prevention video game “Retro-Warriors,” or a commercial video game. Researchers will then study the game’s impact on the age of initial sexual activity.

“If we are successful, the results of this research will produce video game technology that can improve individual and public health and decrease HIV transmission,” said Fiellin.

Source
Yale University