A roundup of HIV-related news from Australian and selected international media.
In this edition:
Australia
Melbourne Community Voice, 6 Dec
Tags: hiv World AIDS Day plwha-vic Sam Venning psb
The tranquility of the Victorian Parliament’s private garden was the setting for People Living with HIV/AIDS Victoria (PLWHA Vic) marking of World AIDS Day 2011.
Fairfield City Champion (NSW), 6 Dec
Tags: World AIDS Day Catherine O'Connor
Fairfield Hospital supported World AIDS Day last Thursday with banners, competitions and red ribbons to help raise awareness that HIV — the virusA small infective organism which is incapable of reproducing outside a host cell. that can lead to AIDS — is still here after first being identified 30 years ago.
Star Observer Online, 6 Dec
Tags: hiv indigenous Rodney Junga-Williams anwernekenhe Positive Life SA napwa
Rodney Junga-Williams, a leading Aboriginal advocate for Indigenous Australians living with HIV, died on November 24 2011 in Sydney.
Melbourne Community Voice, 6 Dec
Tags: World AIDS Day victoria Anthony Callea celebrities VAC/GMHC fundraising
Gay pop idol Anthony Callea marked World AIDS Day last week with special appearances at Federation Square and the GH Hotel.
Sky News Australia, 6 Dec
Tags: hiv fundraising africa orphans
An Adelaide teacher will ride a 7000km trek around Africa to raise money for HIV AIDS orphans. Mark McNamara will share a tandem with 'KTD', an animated koala that will pedal behind him, to raise money for South African children's charity Keep the Dream.
Melbourne Community Voice, 7 Dec
Tags: World AIDS Day joy-fm melbourne Rachel Berger
Melbourne’s GLBTI radio station 94.9 JOY broadcast live from the stage of Federation Square during World AIDS Day last week.
Whitehorse Leader (Vic), 7 Dec
Tags: World AIDS Day victoria nsp hcv anex
HIP hop hooray: Whitehorse Community Health Service has marked World AIDS Day with a get together for staff and the community.
Our Region
The Star (Malaysia), 5 Dec
Tags: hiv hoax
An SMS has been circulating that Pepsi products are contaminated with HIV but Permanis Sandilands Sdn Bhd has clarified that this is a hoax.
VietnamNet (Viet Nam), 4 Dec
Tags: hiv children vietnam schools discrimination stigma
Only one third of HIV infected children in HCM City are admitted to school due to social discrimination against them.
Jakarta Globe (Indonesia), 2 Dec
Tags: hiv World AIDS Day discrimination indonesia employment
People living with HIV/AIDS may soon receive legal protections against discriminatory treatment, lawmakers said on Thursday.
Stuff (New Zealand), 2 Dec
Tags: hiv World AIDS Day nz nzaf Sean Kelly Getting to Zero undiagnosed-hiv
Politicians, music stars as well as front line social workers have joined together to pledge to eliminate Aids within 30 years.
Jakarta Post (Indonesia), 6 Dec
Tags: hiv discrimination schools indonesia
The school board of Don Bosco private elementary school in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, has acknowledged that it made an “ill-advised decision” by denying entrance to a prospective student because her father is HIV positive.
Solomon Star (Solomon Islands), 6 Dec
Tags: hiv solomon-islands World AIDS Day testing
THE number of HIV/AIDS cases in the country is slowly accumulating. Two more new cases were confirmed this year taking the total number to 15.
Bangkok Post (Thailand), 1 Dec
Tags: hiv World AIDS Day thailand incidence targets Getting to Zero ban-ki-moon
Thailand aims to reduce the rate of new HIV/Aids infection cases by two-thirds within the next five years to mark World Aids Day today.
New Zealand Herald (New Zealand), 1 Dec
Tags: hiv personal-stories nz heterosexuals
It's hard to put a finger on the number of people in New Zealand living with HIV. 3474 Kiwis have been diagnosed since it first appeared. About 680 of them have developed AIDS and died.
International
Atlanta Journal Constitution (US)/AP, 4 Dec
Tags: hiv same-sex-marriage nigeria aid sodomy-laws PEPFAR David Cameron discrimination Goodluck Jonathan
A bill originally designed to outlaw gay marriage in Nigeria likely has consequences far beyond its initial scope — criminalizing gay groups and organizations could jeopardize millions of dollars of Western aid geared toward stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa's most populous nation.
Washington Post (US)/AP, 5 Dec
Tags: hiv philippines homophobia discrimination
The Philippine health chief is under attack for suggesting at an AIDS conference that health workers survey homes of gay children and warn their parents about potentially risky behavior.
San Francisco Chronicle (US), 6 Dec
Tags: hiv murder usa
Despite qualms about a courtroom re-enactment of the crime, a state appeals court has upheld the murder conviction of a male prostitute for strangling a retired bank executive after learning the victim had the AIDS virus and then stealing his prized possession, a solid-gold flute.
HIV Treatment and Care
AIDSMeds (US), 1 Dec
Tags: hiv treatments early-intervention guidelines nyc cd4-count treatment as prevention hptn-052
New York City health officials now recommend offering antiretroviral (ARVA medication or other substance which is active against retroviruses such as HIV.) treatment to all city residents living with HIV, regardless of their CD4 cell counts, making it the second major city in the United States—after San Francisco—to bypass the more conservative federal HIV treatment guidelines.
AIDSMeds (US), 5 Dec
Tags: hiv treatments cobicistat boosted-pis pharmacoenhancers
Compared with Norvir (ritonavir), people living with HIV using Gilead Sciences’ novel boosting agent cobicistat were just as likely to see their viral loads drop to undetectable levels and no more likely to discontinue therapy due to side effects, according to preliminary results from a Phase III study comparing both drugs in combination with Reyataz (atazanavir) and Truvada (tenofovir plus emtricitabine).
Aidsmap (UK), 5 Dec
Tags: hiv cardiovascular disease metformin exercise diet
Treatment with the anti-diabetes[Diabetes mellitus] A disorder in which sugars in the diet cannot be metabolised into energy due to a lack of the enzyme insulin. Late-onset diabetes mellitus may be a long-term side effect of some anti-HIV drugs. drug metformin helps prevent the progression of sub-clinicalPertaining to or founded on observation and treatment of participants, as distinguished from theoretical or basic science. cardiovascular disease in patients with HIV, according to the results of a randomisedA method based on chance by which study participants are assigned to a treatment group. Randomization minimizes the differences among groups by equally distributing people with particular characteristics among all the trial arms. The researchers do not know which treatment is better. From what is known at the time, any one of the treatments chosen could be of benefit to the participant , placebo-controlledA method of investigation of drugs in which an inactive substance (the placebo) is given to one group of participants, while the drug being tested is given to another group. The results obtained in the two groups are then compared to see if the investigational treatment is more effective in treating the condition. study published in the online edition of AIDS.
HIV Prevention
Aidsmap (UK), 5 Dec
Tags: hiv sexual-health testing STIs targeted-testing
It’s feasible for sexual health clinics to take steps to invite ‘high-risk’ patients to come back for re-screening, and doing so leads to a high number of new diagnoses being made, London clinicians report in the December issue of Sexually Transmitted Infections.
The Guardian (UK), 5 Dec
Tags: hiv testing uk tht routine-testing
The benefit of being tested is that not only can you have effective treatment sooner that increases your likelihood of a long life, but you can protect the people you have sex with
Sexual Health
Sydney Morning Herald/Guardian, 4 Dec
Tags: africa family-planning contraception women gates-foundation Pathfinder International
Sub-Saharan Africa is the wild west of family planning, writes Sarah Boseley.
Canberra Times, 4 Dec
Tags: STIs ACT gonorrhoea syphilis chlamydia
A MAJOR spike in sexually transmitted disease infections is hitting the ACT, with gonorrhoea cases soaring to record levels, chlamydia continuing to infect hundreds of Canberrans, and syphilis making a resurgence.
Hepatitis
The Age, 7 Dec
Tags: hcv James Latham Peters medically-acquired criminal-law conduct-endangering-life recklessly-causing-injury negligence-causing-serious-injury
A FORMER abortion clinic doctor accused of infecting more than 50 patients with hepatitis C between 2008 and 2009 had been aware he had the virus for more than 10 years, a court has heard.
AIDSMeds (US), 1 Dec
Tags: HCV testing rapid-testing oral-testing OraQuick
Good news for doctor’s offices, outreach clinics and community-based organizations looking to use OraSure Technologies’ rapid test for hepatitis C virus (HCV): The test has been granted a CLIA waiver, meaning that its use is no longer limited to professionals who have received laboratory certification from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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