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The Washington Post examines how African countries are “grappling with debates over what rights and duties to give those living with [HIV/AIDS] — a growing segment of the population that remains largely hidden.” The newspaper writes: “Across the continent, lawmakers are considering whether to make criminals of those who infect others with HIV, allow bosses to test workers for the virus, punish women who pass it to their babies and give constitutional protections to those with HIV.”

The Washington Post reports that policies protecting the rights of people who are living with HIV/AIDS have “generally been favored by officials in African nations,” but “those officials also face pressure to protect the uninfected.”

To illustrate some of the issues involved, the Washington Post highlights a pending court case involving two Zambian airmen who say the military did not tell them they were tested for HIV and unfairly discharged them. They claim this violated “their rights to privacy and protection from inhumane and degrading treatment,” and want their military jobs back (Brulliard, 9/12).

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.

Male circumcision among heterosexual men in low male circumcision, high
HIV prevalence settings is beneficial and cost effective, says a new
article
in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. Male circumcision should be
considered as part of a combination HIV prevention package and not as an
isolated measure. One HIV infection can be averted for every five to 15
male circumcisions performed, and the costs to avert one HIV infection
ranging
from US$150 to $900 using a 10-y time horizon, say the authors. The report
is based upon a series of meetings of experts convened by UNAIDS, the
World
Health Organization (WHO), and the South African Centre for
Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA) that reviewed the outcomes
of six
simulation models on key policy and programmatic decision-making questions
related to male circumcision.

The models predicted that both premature postoperative resumption of
sexual intercourse and behavioural risk compensation, if confined to newly
or
already circumcised men and their partners, have only small population
level effects on the anticipated impact of male circumcision service
scale-up
on HIV incidence. Women benefit indirectly from reduced HIV prevalence in
circumcised male partners and male circumcision service scale-up acts
synergistically with other strategies to reduce HIV disease burden, says
the group. Male circumcision has minimal impact on reducing HIV
transmission
among men who have sex with men.

The group, called UNAIDS/WHO/SACEMA Expert Group on Modelling the Impact
and Cost of Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention, was led by Dr. Catherine
Hankins, Chief Scientific Advisor at UNAIDS.

Funding:
The three UNAIDS/WHO/SACEMA modelling meetings were funded
through the First UN Work Plan on Male Circumcision and HIV, which was
supported
by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United States National
Institutes of Health, the French Agence nationale de recherches sur le
sida, and
the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. The funders had no role in
study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or
preparation of the manuscript.

Citation:
“Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention in High HIV Prevalence Settings: What Can Mathematical Modelling Contribute to Informed Decision Making?”
UNAIDS/WHO/SACEMA Expert Group on Modelling the Impact and Cost of Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention (2009)
PLoS Med 6(9): e1000109. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000109

Source
PLoS Medicine

NanoViricides, Inc. (OTC BB: NNVC.OB) (the “Company”), announced that Anil Diwan, PhD, President of the Company presented a talk at NanoBusiness 2009 - the 8th annual NanoBusiness Conference in Chicago, IL, on Wednesday, September 9th.

Dr. Diwan described the salient features of nanoviricides technology. “Viruses can be fooled,” he said, adding, “We use their own smarts to attack them. The site at which a virus binds to the cell surface never changes, no matter how much the virus itself changes. We mimic this site, and the cell surface, so the virus particle can bind to the nanoviricide thinking it is binding to a cell. We anticipate very little escape mutation problem, if we do this successfully.”

He then explained that FluCide™, was found to be as much ten to twenty times (10X to 20X or 1,000% to 2,000%) superior to oseltamivir (influenza virus challenge administered to mice. These studies have been repeated and the Company has performed SAR (structure-activity-relationship) studies to develop the best drug candidates against influenza. “Imagine the day when we will never have to develop vaccines against influenza,” he said, adding, “That’s what FluCide™ would achieve.”

He also described that HIVCide™ was found to be more than twenty-five times (25X or 2,500%) superior to the entire three drug HAART cocktail in a standard SCID-Hu mouse model study. The mice were treated with only 150 mg/kg of nanoviricides and this treatment both led to improvement in double-positive CD4+/CD8+ T cells and reduction in HIV-1 viral load that was equal to or slightly better than that in HAART-treated mice. The HAART treated mice received a total drug load of 4,200 mg/kg, indicating superior results with HIVCide. Moreover, HAART cocktail caused significant toxic effects, whereas the nanoviricides produced no clinical adverse signs in this study.

Dr. Diwan also described the high efficacy of EKCCide™ in a rabbit model, which caused complete clinical resolution of adenoviral kerato-conjunctivitis in as little as 2.5 days. The Company is not aware of any other drug candidate that had shown clinical improvement in this disease in any earlier animal studies.

Dr. Diwan also described the Social Responsibility programs of the Company, which include drug development against Dengue viruses, Rabies virus, as well as Biodefense programs that include broad-spectrum drug development against hemorrhagic viruses including Ebola/Marburg, and the ADIF™ “Accurate Drug In Field” technology against novel and emerging viruses.

“The Company has continued its development of FluCide, HIVCide, and the ocular nanoviricide eye drops, which are programs of very high commercial interest,” said Dr. Eugene Seymour, MD, MPH, commenting further that, “We continue to invest minimal amounts of Company funds in the Social Responsibility and Biodefense projects, and we will require public funding for the same.”

About NanoBusiness2009

This is the 8th annual conference on the business of nanotechnology organized by the NanoBusiness Alliance. The NanoBusiness Alliance mission is to create a collective voice for the advancing nanotechnology industry and develop a range of initiatives to support the nanotechnology business community.

Source
NanoViricides

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