NEW YORK: University at Buffalo Gets Grant to Fight Global AIDS Epidemic
Jay Rey
Buffalo News (10.08.08) - Thursday, October 09, 2008
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has awarded the State University of New York-Buffalo
(UB) a seven-year, $7.6 million grant for improving quality control of clinical trials for new HIV/AIDS drugs.
Under the award, UB's School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science will create a broad-based program for
facilitating high-quality research. Working with a network of global scientists, UB will provide online pharmacology training for up to 200
clinical researchers annually. UB will also conduct on-site laboratory audits, disseminate HIV/AIDS data, and establish a centralized Web site
for worldwide access to research findings.
The program is building upon what Gene Morse, associate dean for clinical and transitional research, has been
doing for years at UB. Morse and his staff test and monitor the effects of the many medicines taken by HIV/AIDS patients at Erie County Medical
Center. "Our mission is to try to help all of them do what we're doing here in Buffalo," he said.
Morse said he hopes the lab's work can eventually expand to focus on cancer, diabetes, and other
diseases.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
CANADA: Another Catholic School Board in Alberta Decides Not to Offer HPV Vaccine
Stacy O'Brien
Canadian Press (10.08.08) - Thursday, October 09, 2008
On Tuesday, the Red Deer Catholic Regional School Division Board rescinded an earlier decision to allow fifth-
grade girls to receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination at school. The unanimous vote means Red Deer now joins several other Catholic
school divisions in Alberta that have declined to offer the vaccine.
In September, the board passed a motion that would have allowed girls with parental consent to get vaccinated
against HPV at Red Deer Catholic schools. The vaccine protects against two strains of the STD linked to 70 percent of cervical cancer cases.
But a number of Alberta Catholic bishops remain unconvinced that HPV vaccination is the most effective strategy
for preventing cervical cancer, and some have suggested it could lead to promiscuity.
"It was a really difficult decision, and we deliberated, and we discerned, and prayed about this because we are a
Catholic school," said Christine Moore, Red Deer board chairperson. "This was an issue that we felt we had to agree with the bishops and so we
rescinded that motion."
Red Deer Superintendent Paulette Hanna said a letter will go home to parents informing them of the board's
decision and explaining where they can take their daughters to get vaccinated. There is no cost for fifth-grade girls to get the vaccination
through the local health clinic.
"The health clinic has been very cooperative, very professional, and very non-judgmental in all of this. They
realize that this is a very controversial issue and a very difficult one for our board," said Hanna.
KENYA: Head of Nairobi AIDS Orphanage Warns of Growing Resistance to Drug Treatment
Joe DeCapua
Voice of America (10.06.08) - Thursday, October 09, 2008
While HIV-infected children at the Nyumbani orphanage in Nairobi can access pediatric AIDS treatment, some face
the prospect of failing already limited treatment options. Executive Director Sister Mary Owens recalled the case of one 13-year-old boy named
Sammy who died after he stopped responding to AIDS drugs, and she sees in it a warning.
"If our children develop resistance, well, first of all, we're back to square one and it is a fatal disease
again," Owens said. "But also, resistance builds up in our world to the drugs. They're ineffective. So, you just think 10 years down the line
what it could be, the scenario could be."
Owens said some of the orphans are on second-line and even third-line AIDS drugs due to their virus growing
resistant to first-line treatments.
"I am not a scientist," Owens said. "I am a mother caring for children. These are my children and I want the best
for them."
The Jesuit-founded Nyumbani facility cares for thousands of children through home, village, and community
programs, and many of them are taking antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). Much of its drug funding comes through the US President's Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief.
Owens hopes someday to be able to tailor the children's AIDS treatment by genetic testing, which can identify the
ARVs best suited to combat particular HIV strains. But a genetic analyzer costs more than $50,000, and each test costs about $260, she said.
"Ideally, before you ever go on ARVs, you should have a resistance test. Because now, you see, especially in the case of children, they can
inherit a resistant virus."
Owens is calling on drug makers to manufacture a greater variety of pediatric AIDS drugs to combat the growing
trend toward drug resistance.
MEDICAL NEWS
UNITED STATES: Trends in Perinatal HIV Prevention in New York City, 1994-2003
Vicki B. Peters, MD; Kai-Lih Liu, PhD, MPH; Lisa-Gaye Robinson, MD; Kenneth L. Dominguez, MD, MPH; Elaine J. Abrams, MD; Balwant S. Gill,
PhD; Pauline A. Thomas, MD
Am Journal of Public Health Vol. 98; No. 10: P. 1857-1864 (10..08) - Thursday, October 09, 2008
The study authors examined trends in perinatal HIV prevention interventions implemented from 1994 to 2003 in New
York City to ascertain their success in reducing perinatal transmission.
Data from infant records at 22 hospitals were used, with multiple logistic regression employed to analyze factors
associated with prenatal care and perinatal HIV transmission.
A total of 4,729 perinatally HIV-exposed singleton births were analyzed. Of mothers with prenatal care data, 92
percent had prenatal care. The overall proportion who received prenatal care and were diagnosed with HIV prior to delivery was 86 percent in
1994 to 1996 and 90 percent in 1997 to 2003. From 1994 to 2003, cesarean births among the entire sample rose from 15 percent to 55 percent.
During 1997 to 2003, the perinatal HIV transmission rate among the total sample was 7 percent; 45 percent of mothers of infected infants had
missed opportunities for perinatal HIV prevention. During 1997 to 2003, maternal illicit drug use was significantly associated with a lack of
prenatal care. Perinatal HIV transmission was significantly associated with lack of prenatal, intrapartum, and neonatal antiretrovirals;
maternal illicit drug use; and low birth weight.
"Interventions for perinatal HIV prevention can successfully decrease HIV transmission rates," the authors
concluded. "Ongoing perinatal HIV surveillance allows for monitoring the implementation of guidelines to prevent mother-to-child transmission
of HIV and determining factors that may contribute to perinatal HIV transmission."
LOCAL AND COMMUNITY NEWS
CALIFORNIA: Rare Case of TB in Fresno County
Barbara Anderson
Fresno Bee (10.07.08) - Thursday, October 09, 2008
A man now hospitalized in medical isolation has Fresno County's first-ever case of extensively drug-resistant
tuberculosis (XDR-TB).
Dr. Kenneth Bird, the county's TB control and deputy health officer, said the man is from a group at high risk
for TB, which can include immigrants and homeless persons. King said the patient is not homeless. The man was diagnosed with TB in early
August, "but he had gone a long time undiagnosed with TB. By the time it was diagnosed, it had advanced," King said. Late last month, doctors
diagnosed the man's TB strain as extensively drug-resistant.
County health workers have been contacting everyone potentially exposed to the patient. Test results so far
indicate that only one person, a child in the man's home, may have TB. The health department has not yet confirmed the child is infected, and
if so, whether the strain is XDR-TB.
While much more difficult to treat, XDR-TB is no more contagious that common TB strains, Bird said.
California has up to three XDR-TB cases each year, according to Dr. Jennifer Flood, chief of surveillance and
epidemiology at the state Department of Public Health TB control branch. This represents less than 1 percent of the nearly 3,000 TB cases
recorded annually in the state. California has had 20 XDR-TB cases since 1993.
The patient seems to be improving, Bird said, but will remain contagious for weeks or months and will need
treatment for at least two years.
CALIFORNIA: Supervisors Cut Health Services
Barbara Anderson
Fresno Bee (10.07.08) - Thursday, October 09, 2008
On Tuesday, Fresno County supervisors reluctantly approved significant cuts to Department of Public Health
programs. Tuesday's hearing was the second on plans for trimming $1.6 million from the department this fiscal year. Another hearing on the DPH
budget will be held Oct. 21.
By a 3-2 vote, the board eliminated public health laboratory screening for HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, rubella and
other communicable diseases. The county now must send samples to neighboring health department labs or to private labs, possibly increasing the
time people must wait for results.
Fresno County will continue to test HIV/AIDS patients for levels of virus in their blood, said Health Director
Dr. Edward Moreno. It will also continue running tests for chlamydia, gonorrhea, rabies, and TB, he said.
The board approved trimming administrative costs and cut positions for restaurant inspections, STD management,
paramedic training, and childhood vaccinations. However, it balked at proposed cuts to night medical shifts at the jail and juvenile-justice
campus. These cuts would have saved around $1.3 million annually.
Supervisor Susan Anderson, a dissenter, said she believes cutting health services is a mistake and that the
county should use general-fund money to support DPH. "I believe public health is a part of public safety," she said.
ARKANSAS: Finance Committee Votes to Support HIV Clinic
Tom Treweek
Benton County Daily Record (10.08.08) - Thursday, October 09, 2008
On Tuesday, the Benton County Finance Committee approved an allocation to the 2009 annual budget to hire an
administrator for the Washington County HIV Clinic for one year. The $34,000 appropriation passed by a 4-2 vote.
Benton County residents make up 37 percent of the clinic's patients, said Beverly Williams, a justice of the
peace who visited the clinic on the county's behalf. "They have patients there from every district in Benton County," she said.
The clinic's preventive services also make it important to Benton County residents. "If a woman is pregnant and
she has HIV, they immediately send this woman and put her on medicine, and that baby is protected," Williams said. The clinic serves between
six and 12 pregnant patients annually, she noted.
While recognizing the importance of the clinic's work, Justices Debra Hobbs and Marge Wolf voted against the
allocation. Wolf said she is concerned about the clinic's financial viability.
Williams said the clinic is forming a committee charged with finding alternative funding sources, including the
possibility of seeking 501(c)3 status or creating a support organization - a "friends of the clinic" nonprofit. Without nonprofit status, she
acknowledged, the clinic's grant funds are largely limited to start-up money.
NEWS BRIEFS
GLOBAL: Laureates: Financial Crisis May Hit AIDS Funding
Associated Press (10.08.08) - Thursday, October 09, 2008
Two French scientists who are receiving the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering HIV are worried that the
global financial crisis may reduce funding to fight AIDS. In a meeting Wednesday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Luc Montagnier and
Francoise Barre-Sinoussi voiced their concerns over how the crisis may affect the funds available to research and respond to the epidemic.
Sharing in the prize for medicine is Germany's Harald zur Hausen, who discovered the link between human papillomavirus and cervical
cancer.
Guelph Mercury (10.07.08) - Thursday, October 09, 2008
Joan Larsen, owner of Stigmata Body Art on Carden Street in Guelph, was fined $400 (US $348) on Monday after
pleading guilty to one violation under the Health Protection and Promotion Act. Larsen acknowledged she did not comply with a July 2007 order
by Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health to produce the results of spore tests, which check for proper sterilization of equipment. The
department sent letters in July 2007 advising people who patronized the shop in February, April or May 2007 to be tested for hepatitis and HIV.
There was no reason to believe anyone had been infected or that the equipment was contaminated, the department said, but screening was prudent
in light of the missing test results. Stigmata also placed a newspaper ad explaining the situation. The shop has "religiously supplied their
test results" since then, prosecutor Paul Dray said Monday.
NORTH CAROLINA: AIDS Envoy Speaks at Duke for WISER Week
Jared Goodman, Duke Chronicle
University Wire (10.03.08) - Thursday, October 09, 2008
Duke University's WISER Week included a lecture on Oct. 2 by Stephen Lewis, the former UN special envoy for AIDS
in Africa and now co-director of the non-governmental organization AIDS Free World. Lewis' talk dealt with the impact of HIV/AIDS on Africa's
women and girls. "Why is the life of a woman or child worth so much less in Africa than in our countries?" he asked. "I believe with every
fiber in my body that the single most important battle we face is for gender equality." Lewis said the international community must do more to
prevent HIV transmission between sex partners and from mothers to babies. He noted the role that sexual violence plays in political conflicts
in Kenya and other countries where "rape is no longer a weapon of war, it is a strategy of war." WISER is a Duke-based NGO that is working to
build a boarding school for girls in Muhuru Bay, Kenya, a politically isolated region hit hard by AIDS.
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