HIV

From the health system perspective, there needs to be improvement in treating HIV as a comprehensive disease that now goes into aging, explained Stella A. Safo, MD, assistant professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

After a rural syringe service program was indefinitely suspended, individuals who inject drugs had a greater risk of contracting HIV and hepatitus C virus.

A study examined how biomarkers of microbial translocation and innate immune activation were affected by HIV status, HCV co-infection, and alcohol use.

Stubborn racial disparities mean that the rate of new HIV inections was 93% higher among black women than it would have been if the rate were the same as white women.

US birth rates have declined for the fourth year in a row; Gilead's chief executive officer (CEO) is expected to testify before a House committee about Truvada pricing; nonprofit generic drug company Civica Rx has chosen the first 2 antibiotics that it will produce.

HHS has announced that Gilead will donate its pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) pill Truvada for up to 200,000 people in a multiyear agreement, just a day after the pharma giant announced that a generic version of the pill will come to market a year early. However, some activists are skeptic.

Researchers from the University of Buffalo surveyed pharmacist students, finding high awareness of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and generally positive attitudes towards it. However, the survey also revelaed gaps in knowledge, highlighting the need for more education.

Findings from PARTNER2 show that HIV-positive individuals who were virally suppressed by antiretroviral therapy had no risk of transmitting the virus by having sex without condoms.

As we move away from a system of external development grants that help us maintain our HIV models to a system where our returns on investment support the work that we do, there’s a concern that there will be some slimming down of services that get patients in to our practice, explained Stella A. Safo, MD, assistant professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

The World Health Organization recommends little to no screen time for children under age 5; senators urge HHS to ensure that government patents on the HIV prevention drug Truvada are properly licensed; New York City health officials have confirmed 31 new cases of measles in less than a week.

A new study has identified lower rates of sexual anxiety among gay and bisexual men taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

In a study of 29 virally suppressed patients who discontinued antiretroviral therapy (ART), every patient was able to maintain viral suppression from infusions of an antibody that blocks the HIV-binding site on CD4+ T cells.

In rare cases, despite being on antiretroviral therapy and being virally suppressed, patients experience extreme immune decline.

A new immunotherapy approach was found to both expose HIV concealed within CD4+ T cells and kill it, which could potentially lead to an eventual vaccine for the virus.

Dozens of doctors and other medical professionals have been charged with exchanging opioids and other drugs for sex and cash; the first 2 patients in the United States have been treated with CRISPR; doctors have cured infants of immunodeficiency syndrome using gene therapy made from HIV.

Prevalence of depressive symptoms among individuals with HIV may lead to an increased risk of mortality.

Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, has reintroduced a Medicare for All bill while other Democrats eye an alternative; the Trump administration is appealing a federal judge's decision to toss out Medicaid work requirements in Kentucky and Arkansas; AIDS activists are pushing CDC to force Gilead to give the agency royalties for Truvada.

A study of gay and bisexual men found that incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) increased following pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) initiation.

Researchers evaluated differences in effectiveness of 2 couple-based preventive interventions aimed to reduce the spread of HIV and sexually transmitted infections among individuals in community supervision programs.

While medical advances have improved lifespan and quality of life for patients with HIV, there are still opportunities for strategies that address both medication safety and costs.

People living with HIV who are taking single-tablet regimens have better medication adherence and lower hospitalizations than those taking multi-tablet regimens, explained Ian Frank, MD, professor of medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania,

During the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Managed Care & Specialty Pharmcy Annual Meeting, held March 25-28, in San Diego, California, managed care professionals from across the globe gathered to discuss opportunities and challenges facing stakeholders in pharmaceutical management, ranging from drug pricing reform to strategies to address the opioid epidemic.

Insurer Centene strikes a deal to acquire WellCare, creating a new giant in the healthcare market; a federal jury orders Monsanto to pay over $80 million to a plaintiff whose cancer was found to be caused by a common weed killer; surgeons perform a transplant using a kidney from a living donor with HIV.

In an ongoing study, researchers seek to determine whether a staggered, "step up" intervention model could be more successful and cost-effective than standard care for achieving viral suppression in youths living with HIV.

Recently published consensus recommendations discuss analytical antiretroviral treatment interruption (ATI), including who can be included and excluded and when to restart antiretroviral therapy (ART).

This week, the top managed care news included new primary prevention guidelines that could increase the use of some diabetes drugs; the FDA expanded criteria for which patients can take part in clinical trials; a summit on value-based insurance design showed the need for tough conversations with stakeholders.

The majority of new HIV infections have been found to be transmitted by individuals who are unaware that they have HIV or by those who know they have HIV but are not receiving treatment to suppress their infection.

Gay or bisexual men who participated in community groups were found have a higher awareness of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) than those who did not. PrEP has proven to be a successful preventive measure to decrease the spread of HIV.

The president has released his budget for fiscal year (FY) 2020, which calls for converting Medicaid to a system of block grants and requiring all able-bodied Medicaid recipients to hold a job or perform community service. The $87.1 billion allocated to HHS, a 12% cut, would include increases to federal HIV funding, but drops in global funding, as well as cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Most patients with multidrug-resistant HIV can still be treated with existing therapies, explained Paul Sax, MD, clinical director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard University.