April is STD Awareness Month.
Posted by on April 1, 2015 - 8:16am

 Know the facts! GYT: Get Yourself Tested

False assumptions about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)—how they're spread, treated, and prevented—are everywhere and it can be especially hard for people to get the facts. Here are five you need to know:

  • You can't tell someone has an STD just by looking at them.
  • STD tests aren't always a part of a regular doctor visit.
  • Almost all STDs that can be spread via unprotected vaginal sex can also be spread through unprotected oral and anal sex.
  • Using a condom can take a lot of the worry out of sex, since it can prevent unintended pregnancy and protect you from STDs.
  • STD testing is a basic part of staying healthy.

Because half of the estimated 20 million STDs that occur in the United States each year are among young people, STD Awareness Month 2015 is focused on this population. This month-long observance provides an opportunity to clear up misperceptions about STD prevention and testing, and confront the unique challenges that young people face when it comes to preventing these infections.

To learn more:  Visit HERE.

Research May Indicate HIV Diagnosis Reversal at Birth
Posted by on October 6, 2014 - 3:15pm

A new drug treatment administered to HIV positive babies at birth shows high success rates in reversing an HIV positive diagnosis. While HIV positive mothers in the United States rarely pass HIV along to their children (due to preventative drugs and procedures), the likelihood of HIV positive babies being born in other parts of the world is still troubling. Research indicates that roughly 330,000 babies are infected with HIV each year. Women in less-developed countries are less likely to be treated during pregnancy, and therefore a post-birth option for HIV prevention or remission could be groundbreaking.

Babies in this trial received a high dose of AZT, 3TC, and nevirapine and were found to be HIV-negative and sero-reverted after being born with HIV. Researchers still need to closely monitor the children as they grow older to observe any long-term effects. While some researchers still remain skeptical, advising further research, these results could be an early indication of a game-changer in HIV prevention.

Source: The New York Times

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New Device Effective in Reducing HIV
Posted by on October 9, 2013 - 9:44am

It’s often said that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has a woman’s face. The proportion of women infected with HIV has been on the rise for a decade; in sub-Saharan Africa, women constitute 60 percent of people living with the disease. While preventative drugs exist, they have often proven ineffective, especially in light of financial and cultural barriers in developing nations.

A new intravaginal ring filled with an anti-retroviral drug could help. Developed with support from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases by Northwestern University visiting associate professor Patrick Kiser, PhD, the ring is easy to use, long lasting and recently demonstrated a 100 percent success rate protecting primates from the simian human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV). The device will soon undergo its first test in humans.

“After 10 years of work, we have created an intravaginal ring that can prevent against multiple HIV exposures over an extended period of time, with consistent prevention levels throughout the menstrual cycle,” said Kiser, an expert in intravaginal drug delivery who joined Northwestern from the University of Utah, where the research was conducted.

The research was published Sept. 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Previous studies have demonstrated that antiviral drugs can prevent HIV infection, but existing methods for delivering the drug fall short. Pills must be taken daily and require high doses; vaginal gels that must be applied prior to each sex act are inconvenient, yielding poor usage rates. The new ring is easily inserted and stays in place for 30 days. And because the drug is delivered at the site of transmission, the ring -- known as a TDF-IVR (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate intravaginal ring) -- utilizes a smaller dose than pills.

The upcoming clinical trial, to be conducted in November at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, will evaluate Kiser’s ring in 30 women over 14 days. The trial will assess the ring’s safety and measure how much of the drug is released and the properties of the ring after use.

The paper is titled “Intravaginal Ring Eluting Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate Completely Protects Macaques from Multiple Vaginal Simian-HIV Challenges.”

Source:  Megan Fellman on Oct 03, 2013

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

March 10 National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
Posted by on March 10, 2013 - 6:32am

Nearly 25% of those infected with HIV/AIDS in the United States are female.   In recognition of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on March 10, take a few minutes to learn basic facts about prevention, testing, and issues specific to women. These resources will help:

Prevention -- Learn how HIV is transmitted and how you can protect yourself.
Testing -- Enter your ZIP code to find a testing site near you. If you have concerns about privacy, read about confidential and anonymous testing.
Treatment -- Learn about different treatment options, potential side effects, clinical trials, and related topics.
Issues Specific to Women with HIV -- Men and women need similar types of care for HIV, but there are some differences.
Campaign to Encourage African-American Women to Get Tested -- African-American women account for about 66% of women in the U.S. who have HIV/AIDS. The campaign shares facts and outlines reasons to get tested.

Source:   www.usa.gov

 

Sperm protein may influence AIDS vulnerability in female genital tissue
Posted by on February 27, 2013 - 3:07pm

It's generally known that women's genital tissue is more susceptible to the HIV virus that causes AIDS.  Researcher are studying the various types of epithelial cells in the reproductive tract and the possible protective role of mucus to try to determine what makes women more vulnerable to the spread of this virus.  A new study supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NCHID) at the NIH found that an immune system protein normally found in semen may enhance the spread of HIV to tissue from the uterine cervix.  The protein interleukin 7 (IL-7) belongs to a family of proteins that regulates the immune response and is present normally in semen but at even higher levels in the semen in men with HIV.

So far, this experiment is limited to cell cultures in the lab and more work is needed to see if this is true in the living human.   "These experiments show us again how vicious HIV is," said senior author Leonid Margolis, PhD, at NICHD.   "The virus is able to commandeer an immune protein for its own benefit."

 

Mother to Child Transmission of HIV: A hopeful update
Posted by on January 3, 2013 - 2:30pm

On Tuesday, December 18th the Women’s Health Research Institute hosted speakers at the monthly lunch series to discuss women’s health, HIV and the vast advances made in HIV care the past 20 years. Although many aspects of HIV transmission, susceptibility, physicality and progress were examined, I was intrigued most by the research presented by Dr. Patricia Garcia on HIV transmission from mother to child.

Dr. Garcia thoughtfully described her vision of a generation without HIV. In that vision, she touched upon the methods through which rapid testing can detect whether a mother is HIV positive, and how that information can be used, along with new prevention methods to create a generation born without HIV.

The data Dr. Garcia presented was very powerful, showing how changes in HIV diagnosis vary greatly by race and gender. She highlighted that of all AIDS diagnoses from 1985-2010, the estimated percentage among adult and adolescent females increased from 7% in 1985 to 25% in 2010.

  Dr. Garcia further showed how the state of Illinois had progressed greatly over the last 15 year, making rapid HIV testing easily available in 2005, at which point the knowledge of HIV status among pregnant women increased significantly. This development influenced the considerable reduction in HIV+ births in the state of Illinois.

 The message is one of continued hope and the success of good health care research. With hard work, women’s health experts and community members saw an issue amongst women and children that could be improved with access, knowledge and prevention, giving new life to an entire generation of children.

HIV in Teens
Posted by on July 7, 2012 - 2:30pm

Despite stable rates of HIV diagnosis in older populations, the rate of HIV diagnoses from 2006 to 2009 increased in teens 15-19 and youth 20-24 years of age, and was highest in the 20-24 year-old age group.  Undiagnosed HIV cases are also thought to be highest among young people. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates more than half of all undiagnosed HIV infections are youth ages 13 – 24.3.

Of adolescent HIV diagnoses, almost 70 percent are to black teens, even though they constitute a much smaller proportion of the adolescent population in the U.S.    Almost 80 percent of all adolescent infections are to males. Nine out of 10 adolescent male HIV infections result from male-to-male sexual contact. The same proportion of adolescent females is infected from heterosexual contact.

The highest concentrations of HIV diagnoses among adolescents are in the Southeastern United States and, specifically, Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana.
Although HIV testing is widely available, self-reported rates of HIV testing have remained flat in recent years. Forty-six percent of high school students have had sex at least once, yet only 13 percent report ever having had an HIV test.

HPV guidelines for boys and young men
Posted by on February 11, 2012 - 7:37am

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has strengthened and expanded its recommendation for vaccinating boys and young men with the quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, primarily to reduce the risk of anal cancer, penile cancer, and certain types of head and neck cancers caused mainly by HPV 16. The updated recommendations were published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report last October and online January 31 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

ACIP calls for the routine [HPV] vaccination of males aged 11 to 12 years, with catch-up vaccination recommended for males aged 13 to 21 years. The recommendations specifically call for vaccination with Gardasil, which protects against infection with four HPV types: 6, 11, 16, and 18. Types 6 and 11 cause genital warts, and types 16 and 18 cause cancer.

They also recommend that  HPV vaccination for previously unvaccinated males aged 22 to 26 years who are immunocompromised, who test positive for HIV infection, or who have sex with men.

 

Newer Contraceptive Methods Needed Among Developing Countries
Posted by on May 23, 2011 - 8:24am

Seven out of 10 women in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Central Asia and Southeast Asia who want to avoid pregnancy but are not using modern contraceptives report reasons for nonuse that indicate currently available methods do not satisfy their needs, according to new Guttmacher research. The findings suggest that substantially bringing down unintended pregnancy rates in these developing regions will require increased investment in the development of new methods that better address women’s concerns and life circumstances.

The report, Contraceptive Technologies: Responding to Women’s Needs, focuses on the three regions that together account for the majority of women in the developing world with an unmet need for contraception. Overall, 40% of pregnancies in these regions—about 49 million—are unintended. Each year, these pregnancies result in 21 million unplanned births, an equal number of abortions (three-quarters of which are unsafe) and 116,000 maternal deaths.

“The findings make clear that meeting the need for contraception requires not only increased access and counseling, but the development of new methods that better meet women’s needs,” says Jacqueline E Darroch, senior fellow at the Guttmacher Institute and one of the study’s authors.

To gain insight into why so many women in developing countries are not using modern contraceptives, researchers analyzed nationally representative data from Demographic and Health Surveys and other sources. They found that the majority of women with an unmet need for contraception are 25 or older and live in rural areas, and about four in 10 are poor. The reasons women most frequently given for not using a method are concerns about health risks or side effects (23%); infrequent sex (21%); being postpartum or breast-feeding (17%); and opposition from their partners (10%).
The findings shed light on the types of methods that could have the greatest impact on increasing contraceptive use: Developing new contraceptive methods that have negligible side effects, are appropriate for breast-feeding women and could be used on demand has the potential to greatly reduce unmet need for contraception. So would methods that women can use without their partner’s knowledge.

The report shows that overcoming method-related reasons for contraceptive nonuse could reduce unintended pregnancy by as much as 59% in these regions. Unintended births and induced abortions could be reduced by similar proportions, and 70,000 maternal deaths could be prevented. However, the researchers note that new contraceptive methods alone will not overcome all reasons for nonuse. Other causes, including poor access to and quality of contraceptive services must also be addressed.

Currently, 104 million women in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Central Asia and Southeast Asia have an unmet need for modern contraceptive methods because of method-related reasons. Taking into account projected population growth, this number will increase to 161 million in the next four decades if concerns about currently available methods are not addressed. The researchers note that there has been a lack of attention and resources dedicated to contraceptive research and development, and that there is a vital, immediate need to reinvigorate the field.
In addition to long-term work to develop new contraceptive methods, they point out that adaptations to current methods could make them more widely acceptable and easier to use. They conclude that immediate headway toward satisfying unmet need could be made by ensuring that women and couples receive more accurate information about the risk of unintended pregnancy and have greater access to quality counseling and services that offer a range of methods.
The report, Contraceptive Technologies: Responding to Women’s Needs, was funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions or policies of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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Source:  Guttmacher Institute

New Drug Regimen Reduces HIV Spread from Mom to Infant
Posted by on March 4, 2011 - 4:48pm

Pregnant women who are unaware that they have HIV miss the chance for drug treatment that can benefit not only their own health, but could also prevent them from transmitting the virus to their infants. When HIV is not diagnosed until women go into labor, their infants are usually treated soon after birth with the anti HIV drug zidovudine (ZDV), to prevent the infants from becoming infected with the virus.

Now, a National Institutes of Health study has found that adding one or two drugs to the standard ZDV treatment can reduce the chances by more than 50 percent that an infant will develop an HIV infection.

The study results were presented at the  Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, in Boston. The study was conducted at research hospitals in Brazil, South Africa, Argentina, and the United States, under contract to the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

An estimated one fifth of people in the United States who have HIV are unaware that they harbor the virus.  From 100 to 200 infants are born with HIV in the United States each year, many to women who either were not tested in early pregnancy or who did not receive treatment during pregnancy. Internationally, estimates of HIV testing vary, with only 21 percent of pregnant women in low and middle income countries having been tested for HIV during pregnancy.

"To reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission, it's best to begin antiretroviral treatment during pregnancy," said Heather Watts, M.D., a medical officer in NICHD and an author of the study. "However, when treatment during pregnancy isn’t possible, our results show that adding one or two drugs to the current regimen provides another important means to reduce the chance for mother-to-child HIV transmission."

At the 19 participating research sites, the NICHD/ HIV Prevention Trials Network 040 study evaluated 1,684 infants born to women whose HIV infections were not diagnosed until they were in labor. The infants were randomly assigned to three groups: those receiving the standard 6 weeks of therapy with ZDV, those receiving 6 weeks of ZDV plus 3 doses of nevirapine (NVP) during the first week of life, and those receiving 6 weeks of ZDV plus two weeks of lamivudine (3TC) and nelfinavir (NFV). The study results showed that treatment with the two and three drug regimens reduced HIV transmission by more than 50 percent.

"Our results showed conclusively that the two and three drug regimens are superior to the standard treatment with zidovudine," said study chair Karin Nielsen-Saines, M.D., clinical professor of pediatrics  at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles.

To read the entire NIH press release, click HERE.

 

 

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