HIV ceases to be killer disease

The dreaded Human Immune Virus (HIV) which has wreaked havoc in the last three decades across the globe may lastly be on its way out as a killer disease. Scientists researching into a treat have announced that if an HIV-positive person immediately starts suitable treatment of anti-retroviral drugs, the risk of transmitting the virus to an uninfected sexual partner is nearly totally eliminated. That is dramatic and welcome news to the entire world because the disease had puzzled the scientific and medical communities as incurable. The international trial, conduct by the HIV avoidance Trials Network, tracked more than 1,700 couples across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the United States and found that the risk of illness fell by 96 per cent.

A statement from the UN Information Centre in Accra last Friday said the reduction in risk was so big that the trial was stopped some three to four years ahead of schedule. "This breakthrough is a serious game changer," said Michel Sidibe, the Executive Director of the Joint UN Programmers on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). "Now we require making sure that couples have the option to choose treatment for prevention and have access to it," he explained. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, (WHO) explained the results of the study as "a crucial development, because we well know that sexual transmission accounts for about 80 per cent of all new infections".

UNAIDS said it would convene a meeting with other key association tackling the scourge of AIDS to discuss the trial and its implications for the reply to the disease. In July, WHO is also releasing new guidance to assist HIV-positive people to keep their partners. The two agencies stressed the need for couples to make proof-based decisions on which combination of HIV prevention options was best for them, and that anti-retroviral therapy supply as one of the options made available. "No single method is entirely protective against HIV," the agencies said in a joint press statement. "Treatment for prevention wants to be used in combination with other HIV prevention options.

AIDS Quilt show Downtown

Last Wednesday was World AIDs Day, where many events took place across town remembering those who have lost their lives to the disease. The annual AIDs walk and vigil was previous week as well. On Tuesday, the World AIDs Quilt was on show here at Metro Galleries at 19th and Eye Streets downtown. Names, faces and personal messages adorn the eight section of the quilt on display as part of World AIDs Day events. It is a part of art that travels the world constantly. Aimed at remembering those who have died, inspirational those living with the disease and to educate.

"We have thousands of people here in Kern County who live one way or a further with HIV," said Michael Viola, who has lived with the disease for additional than 20 years. "And just so people are bare to the education, and the awareness, that's actually the only way we can battle the ignorance." Viola know 33 of the lives that help create the quilt, 91,000 plus people in total. He calls considering the quilt bittersweet as it reminds him of lost friends. "It's a calming result being among the panels here, being among the whispers of the panels," he said.

"This is certainly something that is notable to have been brought to Bakersfield," said Bakersfield AIDs Project founder Audrey Chavez. The project along with Kaiser, community donations and Bakersfield City Councilwoman Jackie Sullivan, who's daughter Joyce's panel is among those on display nearby, helped bring part of the quilt here to help people look beyond the statistics of a disease that have impacted more than 33 million people worldwide. "It's just totally gorgeous, several of the pieces that were shaped were sewn with a lot of tears, a lot of love, and talent and are just as diverse as the population they represent," Chavez said.

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Heavy Alcohol Consumption May enlarge HIV Disease Progression

A new review of many studies has found some evidence linking heavy alcohol use to accelerated HIV disease progression. In particular, alcohol use influences how dependably people take their medication, which can affect HIV progression. However, it is still unclear whether alcohol affect sequence independently of antiretroviral adherence. “There is strong evidence that alcohol use interferes with antiretroviral therapy adherence. The more a person drinks alcohol, the extra medication he/she misses,” said Professors Judith Hahn and Jeffrey Samet, the authors of the appraisal, in correspondence with The AIDS Beacon.

“Suboptimal obedience to these medications can cause HIV to become opposed to and for the treatment regimen to fail,” they added. However, whether alcohol affects disease progression separately of missed antiretroviral drug doses is more controversial. Scientists have extensive speculated that alcohol and drug use affect the rate of HIV progression. Alcohol is known to have oppressive effects on the immune system, and illegal drug use has been linked to faster progression. However, the role of alcohol in HIV progression has remained elusive. “While many studies conduct in the early 1990s found no link between alcohol use and HIV disease progression, more recent studies have recommended that there is such a link,” said the authors.

To better recognize the connection between alcohol and disease progression, the authors of the review examine a number of studies from before and after the arrival of antiretroviral therapy, as well as animal studies where alcohol use was extra controlled. Results show that prior to the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), studies found no association between heavy alcohol consumption and HIV disease progression. However, more fresh studies from the post-HAART era have been inconclusive. Three of the six studies from the post-HAART era included in the review established an association between heavy alcohol use and at least one measure of HIV disease series, such as higher viral load, lower CD4 count, opportunistic infections, or death.

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Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura

Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is the condition of having a short platelet count of no known cause. As most causes appear to be associated to antibodies against platelets, ITP is also recognized as immune thrombocytopenic purpura or immune-mediated thrombocytopenic purpura. Often ITP is asymptomatic, however a very little platelet count can lead to visible symptoms, such as purpura, or more seriously, bleeding diathesis. In many cases, ITP's cause is not idiopathic but autoimmune, with antibodies beside platelets being detected in approximately 60 percent of patients. Most often these antibodies are against platelet covering glycoproteins IIb-IIIa or Ib-IX, and are of the IgG type. The famous Harrington Hollingsworth experiment recognized the immune pathogenesis of ITP.

The covering of platelets with IgG renders them liable to opsonization and phagocytosis by splenic macrophages. The IgG autoantibodies are also thought to injure megakaryocytes, the precursor cells to platelets, but this is thought to contribute only slightly to the reduce in platelet numbers. The stimulus for auto-antibody making in ITP is probably abnormal T cell activity Preliminary findings suggest that these T cells can be influenced by drugs that target B cells, such as rituximab. The diagnosis of ITP is a procedure of exclusion. First, the clinician has to determine that there are no blood abnormalities other than small platelet count, and no physical signs except for signs of bleeding. Then, the secondary reason should be excluded. Secondary causes could be leukemia, medications, lupus erythematosus, cirrhosis, HIV, hepatitis C, inborn causes, and others.

In approximately one percent of cases, autoimmune hemolytic anemia and ITP coexist, a state referred to as Evans syndrome. A platelet count below 20,000 is usually an indication for treatment. Patients with a count between 20,000 and 50,000 are usually estimated on a case-by-case basis, and, with rare exceptions, there is usually no need to treat patients with a count above 50,000. Hospitalization may be recommended in cases of very low counts, and is highly desirable if the patient presents with significant internal or mucocutaneous bleeding. A count below 10,000 is potentially a medical emergency, as the patient may be susceptible to subarachnoid or intracerebral hemorrhage as a result of moderate head trauma. In most cases, treatment will be administered under the way of a hematologist.

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Nigeria: Uncertainty of HIV/Aids Local medication

Lagos — Since the discovery of the Human Immuno Deficiency Virus (HIV) which causes Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) 27 years ago, the world has been confronted with the penalty posed by the reality that no cure has been found against the disease.Again, no vaccine approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been invented, thereby extending the hope for stable eradication of the virus.

Even the ARV drugs used in the management of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) is in short supply in poor countries, as some giver nations to developing countries have soft-pedaled in their funding activities, partly due to the global financial recession, and distraction of funds meant for HIV/AIDS medication into private pockets of some corrupt government officials.

Whereas the developed nations have what it takes to provide for their PLWHAS, the poor countries still depend on drugs from outside donors to take care of theirs.In the quest to limit the spread of the virus, scientists in advanced countries are busy struggling to discover reliable vaccines, while traditional and orthodox healers in some developing nations like Nigeria are parading range of medications which they claim to be potent for HIV cure, even AIDS.

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Ghana Cocoa Board to clash Virus Disease

The Unit Director of the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Diseases of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Reverend Abaka Awusi has announce plans to fight the virus. The Control Unit will embark on a nation-wide exercise to rid all cocoa farms of mistletoe, a parasitic plant that retards development and yield of cocoa trees.

Reverend Awusi announce this during a cocoa farmers assembly at Nkrankwanta in the Dormaa Municipality of Brong Ahafo. He said the farmer's access to government’s subsidize fertilizer this year will be partially reliant on their level of co-operation in the mistletoe deletion exercise. Reverend Awusi said farmers must participate fully in the work out when those billed to remove the parasite get to their farms.

The Chairman of the Unit’s Management Committee noted that swollen shoot virus like the HIV has no cure and the only medicine is to cut down the affected cocoa tree. He advised farmers to refrain from picking usual cocoa pods for the purposes of nursing but consult the cocoa extension officers and the seed manufacture unit for advice and supply.

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