AIDS

[sanlee 49]

panachereport.com

 

Many people with HIV are also infected with the herpes type 2 virus and scientists have long known that herpes sores on the genitals can make it easier to become infected with HIV and could increase the risk of transmitting to others. There are 40,000 new HIV infections in the United States each year and 4.3 million new cases worldwide.

Previous studies have shown that herpes infections can TRIPLE A PERSON’S CHANCE OF ACQUIRING HIV and make HIV-positive individuals more infectious. As we stated before, condom's do "NOT" prevent herpes.

Source: Alicia Chang, AP

[sanlee 49]

panachereport.com

 

Jon King had been interested in pornography since finding a “Playboy” magazine his father owned when he was twelve years old.

King and his then-lover went to Los Angeles while on summer vacation in 1980, with plans to go back to school in Florida after he had finished having fun.

This changed when his lover got a job and the two young men decided to stay. Eventually Jon picked up a guy cruising who was a model who had an appointment later that day with a photographer. Jon tagged along to the interview, and was soon on his way as an adult film performer. He was one of the most popular gay adult film stars of the 1980s. When asked in interviews, Jon rarely discussed his life in Florida in much detail, except that it involved quite a bit of "getting into trouble.”

 

In 1982, just as he was at the seeming peak of his popularity, he stole a Corvette on a test drive, robbed a Burger King in Gainesville FL then wrecked the car, and for this spent eleven months in prison.

 

His last video, Pumping Iron, came out in 1995. Jon King had been HIV positive for a number of years, and soon after completing Pumping Iron, he became extremely ill with AIDS.

He moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to live with a friend who looked after his needs. It was here that Jon King died from AIDS complications on 8 March 1995 at the age of 32.

[sanlee 49]

POPULAR VIDEO MODEL CAUGHT IN CAM'RON AIDS SCARE!!

 

 

March 09, 2007.

A few days ago rapper 50 Cent came out with a new diss song that sent shockwaves throughout the hip hop community. In it, he claimed that rival rapper Camron is infected with the AIDS virus.

 

The track, which has been making its way across the internet, has 50 disputing the Harlem emcee claim that he has Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). 50 is heard saying, "You taking about you got IBS, you got A-I-D-S, that's why they call you Killa." And he continues, "F**k around and brush your teeth, your teeth bleeding, ni**as drink behind you and have all kinds of s**t. They show up 30 pounds lighter, taking about 'All I remember is I had a little bit of Cam Snapple.'"

 

And these lyrics have been particularly troubling to one very popular video model. The popular vixen, who asked to remain anonymous, reached out to MediaTakeOut.com and asked us to investigate whether 50's claims were accurate. Here's the exact email the model sent us:

 

 

This is [NAME REDACTED] and I have a favor to ask you. I know that you guys are good at finding things out, so can you please find out if Cam'ron really has AIDS. I know that 50's going around saying that and I really need to know if it's true or not.

 

Real talk, I got with Cam a couple of months ago and we didn't use a condom. I know its stupid, but I've known him for a while and didn't think it would be a problem.

 

Anyway, I already got myself checked and I'm negative. But the doctor told me that it could take up to 6 months to show up on an exam - and I'm going crazy. This is really the scariest thing that has ever happened to me.

 

So please try and find out the truth for me. If you do, I'll give you inside info on all the rappers (and I know all kings of things).

 

BTW. I spoke with your editor Fred at a party and he promised me that you guys never reveal your sources. So if you decide to do a story, please make sure my name is kept out of it.

 

 

MediaTakeOut.com has reached out to Camron's reps. So far, we haven't received any official comment

[sanlee 49]

panachereport.com

 

Rudy Galindo is a professional ice skater-who started off skated pairs with Kristi Yamaguchi, winning the 1988 World Junior Championship and the U.S. senior championships in 1989 and 1990.

After his partnership with Yamaguchi broke up in 1990, Galindo returned to singles competition. In 1996, Galindo won the men's title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the San Jose Arena, becoming the oldest male (27) to win this title in almost 50 years.

Since Galindo won this championship in his hometown of San Jose, a car dealer gifted him with his dream car, a new Corvette.

 

Galindo is openly homosexual, and his brother George and two coaches died of AIDS.

Galindo briefly retired from eligible competition in the summer of 1996 after being diagnosed as HIV positive.

Galindo returned to competition shortly thereafter.

In 1996, The AIDS drugs created a problem with the blood supply to his hips and Galindo underwent surgery for double hip replacement. He waited until 2000 to publicly reveal that he was HIV positive.

 

During the 2006 Winter Olympics, Galindo challenged the news media to ask American Olympian Johnny Weir about his sexual orientation, and apparently claimed that Weir copied his skating style.

The conflict, however, was short lived. Galindo and Weir both performed in the 2006 tour of “Champions on Ice,” and reconciled during that time.

[sanlee 49]

HIV positive man 'wanted to infect'

 

A committal hearing in Melbourne has heard a HIV positive Coburg grandfather wanted to infect as many people as possible with the virus.

 

Michael Neal, 48, is charged with infecting two people with HIV and deliberately attempting to infect 14 others.

 

The DPP alleges Neal told some of his victims he was intent on infecting as many men as possible with HIV to widen his pool of potential partners.

 

The court heard he lied many times about his HIV status and heard his sexual practices were driven by personal choice and not by mental illness.

 

A witness said Neal boasted about breeding youth, meaning infecting them in Coburg toilets.

 

The witness said he did not believe him but Neal told him he had video evidence.

 

Victoria's Human Services Department has told the court it only went to police with concerns about Neal when he was caught with child pornography.

 

The director of public health, Dr Robert Hall, told the Magistrates Court Neal was being monitored, to ensure he engaged in safe sex practices.

 

His monitoring was relaxed in April 2005, but the DPP told the court that in the five years prior, Neal was lying about his HIV status and allegedly boasting that he wanted to infect as many people as possible.

 

Dr Hall said he received a number of allegations about Neal, but his case was only referred to police in late 2005 when those allegations spread to include child pornography.

 

ABC NEWS ONLINE

[sanlee 49]

panachereport.com

 

 

Joey Stefano was a porn star who appeared in gay adult films. He was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His real name was Nicholas Anthony Iacona, Jr.

 

 

Nick Iacona grew up in suburban Philadelphia (Chester, Pennsylvania). His father died when he was 15. After several years of prostitution and drug use in New York City, Iacona moved to Los Angeles and enjoyed a meteoric rise to stardom in gay pornography.

 

 

A notable reason for his popularity-was his early mastery of the "hungry bottom" (sexually submissive but verbally demanding) persona.

 

He was HIV (positive) in the latter part of his film career, allegedly because he was prostituting when he couldn't find porn work.

 

 

His image and success caught the attention of Madonna, who used him as a model in her 1992 book “Sex.”

 

 

During his lifetime, he was the subject of rumors regarding his relationships with prominent entertainment industry figures who were known to be openly or secretly gay.

 

Stefano died of an overdose of cocaine, morphine, heroin and ketamine at age 26. His body was shipped back to Pennsylvania and he was buried next to his father.

[sanlee 49]

Panachereport.com

 

(PLATTERS LEAD SINGER HAS AIDS)

 

The Platters frontman Curtis Bridgeforth (no photo available) has quit the rock 'n' roll group to seek AIDS treatment. The 51-year-old singer released a statement two days ago, confirming he will leave the Platters at the end of the month. He said, "I found out in 1990 that I was HIV positive and I've been living with HIV for the last 17 years.

"Then two years ago, after suddenly losing 20 pounds and 30 percent of my eyesight, I learned that I had diabetes, in all probability stemming from my HIV medication. "Right now, my sugar count and cholesterol count are dangerously high, so to prevent a major heart attack or stroke, as well as deal with the HIV issue, I need to seek treatment in New York.

There is a program offered there for people like me who don't have health insurance. "Ninety-nine per cent of the people I work with every night knew nothing of my HIV until now, although our management company has been aware since 2003.

I don't want to hide it anymore - I'm an example of how to survive it and maybe I can help other people in the same situation. "After I get my health in check, I want to come back to performing. I've already been offered some opportunities.

The most important thing I do on this planet is sing to people - I can make people smile and that's a God-given gift." Bridgeforth joined the group in 1994 and has recently been performing with them at the Sahara in Las Vegas.

[leaivory 2]

Nice.

Filed under: AIDS , Lance Bass , T.R. Knight

 

 

A bunch of celebs came out for AIDS Walk New York. Now I know I'm complimenting this and I was totally stank about Nick Carter getting feted for being the rep for "The Year of the Dolphin" or the "Epoch of the Porpoise" or whatever. But come on - terrifying epidemic vs. the reason why I can't get good tuna anymore. Dolphins caught in nets. Please. Dang, T.R. Knight is lookin' hittable lately. Look me up, T! Lance Bass is so happy embracing liking the D as his new career. Go get em', Bass.

 

 

More photos from the AIDS Walk New York after the jump.

 

 

 

 

Posted by: J. Harvey

http://socialitelife.com/2007/05/21/nice.php

[sanlee 49]

Rush & Molloy - NY Daily News

 

Arafat died of AIDS, says rival chief

July 20th 2007

 

Yasser Arafat died of AIDS, a rival Palestinian leader has claimed in an interview that's spurred new political infighting over Arafat’s mysterious 2004 death.

 

Ahmad Jibril, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, alleges that current Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his staff confirmed to him that Arafat was afflicted with AIDS.

 

Like other Palestinians, Jibril had suspected that Israel had poisoned Arafat, who was being treated in Paris for a complex blood disorder.

 

"When [Abbas] came to Damascus with his team, I asked them, 'What happened to the investigation into the death of [Arafat]?'" Jibril said on the Hezbollah group's Al-Manar TV.

 

"They were silent, and then one of them said to me: 'To be honest, the French gave us the medical report that stated that the cause of [Arafat's] death was AIDS."

 

Israel Today reports there had long been speculation that Arafat, though married, "had numerous homosexual relationships."

 

A spokesman at the Palestinian Authority in Washington declined to comment on Jibril's claim yesterday. But one senior Palestinian diplomat told us: "There's nothing to support such accusations. Jibril never liked Arafat and sided with Arafat's enemies. So whatever he says about him is questionable."

 

Jibril added in the interview that Abbas and every other member of Arafat's Fatah party "should be happy that we got rid of the plague, which had been imposed upon them. … The Fatah movement now has an opportunity to renew itself."

 

Blogging for The New Republic, James Kirchick wrote this week that "no amount of evidence will convince the Palestinians that Arafat was a homosexual, or that his death was caused by anything other than Israel’s machinations."

 

There is no mention of AIDS in Arafat’s final medical records. Doctors who examined them in 2005 told The New York Times that the pattern of Arafat's illness was inconsistent with that of a typical AIDS patient. But Ashraf al-Kurdi, Arafat's personal physician, claimed in an Israeli newspaper that French doctors had told him Arafat had AIDS when he died. The physician, who said Arafat had tested HIV-negative three months earlier, suspected Arafat was infected with HIV to hide the poison that supposedly killed him.

[TubaGirl 7]

Microchips mulled for HIV carriers in Indonesia's Papua

 

 

Lawmakers in Indonesia's Papua are mulling the selective use of chip implants in HIV carriers to monitor their behaviour in a bid to keep them from infecting others, a doctor said Tuesday.

 

John Manangsang, a doctor who is helping to prepare a new healthcare regulation bill for Papua's provincial parliament, said that unusual measures were needed to combat the virus.

 

"We in the government in Papua have to think hard on ways to provide protection to people from the spread of the disease," Manangsang told AFP.

 

"Some of the infected people experience a change of behaviour and can turn more aggressive and would not think twice of infecting others," he alleged, saying lawmakers were considering various sanctions for these people.

 

"Among one of the means being considered is the monitoring of those infected people who can pose a danger to others," Manangsang said.

 

"The use of chip implants is one of the ways to do so, but only for those few who turn aggressive and clearly continue to disregard what they know about the disease and spread the virus to others," he said.

 

A decision was still a long way off, he added.

 

The head of the Papua chapter of the National AIDS Commission, Constant Karma, reportedly slammed the proposal as a violation of human rights.

 

"People with HIV/AIDS are not like sharks under observation so that they have to be implanted with microchips to monitor their movements," he told the Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

 

"Any form of identification of people with HIV/AIDS violates human rights."

 

According to data from Papua's health office cited by the Post, the province has just over 3,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. Some 356 deaths have been reported. Papua has a population of about 2.5 million.

[MissuTam 85]

Why don't the idiots just tattoo a scarlet letter on the their foreheads.

[sanlee 49]

Exploring the AIDS rumors surrounding Rev. James Cleveland's death:

 

Gospel icon James Cleveland died in 1991 in Culver City, California. Though his death is often recognized as having been a result of heart failure, there has been an enduring controversy as to whether or not Cleveland actually succumbed to AIDS-related complications. Subsequent to these rumors circulating, Christopher Harris, a former member of Cleveland's church levied allegations of homosexuality and pedophilia against Cleveland in a 1994 news article, BELOW. Neither are widely discussed within the gospel music community.

 

"LEGALLY I BECAME HIS," by Christopher Harris

 

The case of the Rev. James Cleveland may best epitomize the magnitude of the silence. Christopher Harris certainly feels that way.

 

 

When he was 13, Harris was the only boy alto in the choir at Cleveland's Los Angeles church. He was strapping 6 feet tall and looked 20.

 

Cleveland was a giant in the industry. He wrote more than 400 songs, recorded more than 100 albums, 16 of them gold, and won four Grammy's. He founded the Gospel Music Workshop of America and mentored a young Aretha Franklin.

 

When he died in 1991 at age 59, 6,000 attended his funeral. Harris is now 25 and has HIV. "It has its moments, but mostly it doesn't affect me unless there is stress," said Harris, who is Cleveland's former foster son.

 

Harris once went by the name Christopher Cleveland. That was before he filed suit against Cleveland's estate alleging five years of sexual contact that ended with Harris testing positive for HIV.

 

"Legally, I became his," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles.

 

The case was settled out of court. The terms prohibit him from discussing the settlement. But he is free to discuss his life with Cleveland.

 

"I went to his church. He looked into my face and saw my dreams and he used it," he said. "I wanted to sing, I didn't want to be like him. He promised that he would help me. He just played it to his advantage, he used my naiveness to his gain," Harris said.

 

Harris said his sexual encounters with the older singer were not molestation. Nor, he said, were they his first such encounters with a man. He says that they were typical of the secretive lifestyle of many of the people to whom he was exposed.

 

"People in [Cleveland's] inner circle knew, people at church knew," he said. "But they pretended it didn't exist. I guess what you don't see you can't say. But I can."

 

"No. He didn't die of heart failure--heart failure is just a delusion," Harris said, nearly laughing. The he hesitated. "Let's just leave it at that."

 

Panachereport.com

Source: grd.org

[sanlee 49]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Elton John blasts President Bush's AIDS policies

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

And for least supporting outfit, the Emmy goes to ...

Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne were among the black-tie guests making their way past cops, Secret Service agents and bomb-sniffing dogs surrounding the Waldorf-Astoria Tuesday night.

 

"Are you here to see the President?" one member of the security detail asked Ozzy and Sharon.

 

"No," said Sharon. "We're here to see the Queen!"

 

By that, she meant Sir Elton John. The Rocket Man was gathering his court for the Elton John AIDS Foundation's gala the very night President Bush was meeting with world leaders. Since he was sharing the hotel with Dubya, we asked Elton if he thought the Bush administration had made good on his grand plan to fight AIDS.

 

"They've made a grave error in giving millions to abstinence programs," he told us. "They don't work. They were told in the beginning that it wouldn't work. It's a tragic waste of money. Please don't listen to those idiots. God almighty."

 

And did he have a message for other leaders gathered at the UN, particularly South African President Thabo Mbeki, whom Elton said should be "ashamed" of his AIDS policy. (Mbeki has supported his health minister, who says garlic, beetroots, lemon and olive oil are better than antiretroviral medicines in treating AIDS.)

 

"There are some weird people in the world — what can I say?" said Elton. "I would just tell them, 'Don't let the AIDS crisis get lost.'" He mentioned that his foundation's latest target is the Caribbean, where "men who have sex with men [are] a highly stigmatized group, especially among reggae singers."

 

The evening was emceed by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who said he was looking forward to Elton performing with k.d. lang.

"I offered to do some interpretive dance," said Cooper. "But after a brief audition, I was told my services wouldn't be required."

 

Turning serious, Cooper went on: "I talk to young gay friends in New York, and some of them seem to think the AIDS problem is a thing of the past. … The reality is that it's getting worse, not better."

 

Also at the benefit, which raised over $2.25 million, were Elton's partner, David Furnish, Uma Thurman (with former Elle Macpherson beau Arky Busson), Petra Nemcova, Tommy Hilfiger, Milos Forman, Susan Lucci, Andrew Cuomo and Stephen Schwartzman. Honored with Enduring Vision awards were the Osbournes, candle king Harry Slatkin and Chopard co-president Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele.

 

As usual, Elton was his outspoken self. He defended that Nan Goldin photo that he'd loaned to a British gallery and which police seized on Tuesday to investigate as a possible breach of child pornography laws.

 

"I never cease to be amazed by people," said the musician, who noted on his Web site that the photo of two naked girls "has been widely published and exhibited throughout the world."

 

He also had some thoughts on the meal's first course — mozzarella balls in a Parmesan tostada.

 

"It's being sent to the Food and Drug Administration to find out what it was," he told guests. "It qualifies as the worst food I've ever seen at an event like this. My sincere apologies."

 

NYDaily News

[sanlee 49]

"Fort Worth Diocese Says Priest Accused Of Molesting Kids Is HIV Positive"

 

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- A former priest accused of sexually abusing children in two states is HIV positive, Catholic diocese officials said Thursday.

 

Last week, a leader in the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth heard someone mention that the Rev. Philip A. Magaldi has the virus that causes AIDS, said diocese spokesman Pat Svacina. The diocese leader then got verbal confirmation from Magaldi as well as a letter from his doctor who said he has HIV, Svacina said. Church officials said

 

Magaldi, 71, lives in a retirement center and diocese officials declined to disclose where. He has previously said he was innocent of the sexual abuse allegations, for which he has not been charged.

 

Magaldi was removed as a priest in 1999 amid claims of sexual misconduct in Providence, R.I., where he served from 1960-90, and the Fort Worth area, where he served from 1990-92 and 1993-99.

 

He was out of the ministry while serving a brief stint in prison in 1992 after embezzling about $200,000 from his Rhode Island parish, officials said.

 

In 2006, a pastor at a North Richland Hills Church apologized to the congregation amid reports that he didn't tell police in 2001 after learning of inappropriate material involving minors on a computer used by Magaldi. Magaldi was associate pastor of the church the last six years of his ministry.

 

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, urged the dioceses to aggressively seek out potential victims. He said it's impossible to know the number of victims because many children and teens abused by priests don't ever come forward.

 

He was out of the ministry while serving a brief stint in prison in 1992 after embezzling about $200,000 from his Rhode Island parish, officials said.

 

Allegedly, Magaldi is the second priest accused of molesting children who is HIV positive. The name of the other priest has yet to be released.

 

Source: Panachereport.com

[sanlee 49]

Vaccine failure is setback in AIDS fight

Test subjects may have been put at extra risk of contracting HIV

 

The two-decade search for an AIDS vaccine is in crisis after two field tests of the most promising contender not only did not protect people from the virus but may actually have put them at increased risk of becoming infected.

 

The results of the trials, which enrolled volunteers on four continents, have spurred intense scientific inquiry and unprecedented soul-searching as researchers try to make sense of what happened and assess whether they should have seen it coming.

 

Both field tests were halted last September, and seven other trials of similarly designed AIDS vaccines have either been stopped or put off indefinitely. Some may be modified and others canceled outright.

 

 

Numerous experts are questioning both the scientific premises and the overall strategy of the nearly $500 million in AIDS vaccine research funded annually by the U.S. government.

 

'Catastrophe'

"This is on the same level of catastrophe as the Challenger disaster" that destroyed a NASA space shuttle, said Robert Gallo, co-discoverer of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, and head of the Institute for Human Virology in Baltimore.

 

The recently closed studies, STEP and Phambili, used the same vaccine -- made from a common respiratory virus called adenovirus type 5 that had been crippled and then loaded with fragments of HIV. Both studies were halted when it became clear the STEP study was futile and possibly harmful.

 

The results of the Phambili vaccine trial, which was conducted in South Africa, were revealed last month and only worsened the gloom. Although the number of new HIV infections in that study was far smaller than in STEP -- and too few to draw firm conclusions from -- those results, too, hinted at a trend toward harm among vaccine recipients.

 

Many researchers are questioning the scientific premises on which all those studies were based and are wondering, along with AIDS activists, what effect this near-worst-case scenario might have on tests of future vaccines.

 

The working hypothesis for what went wrong is that the vaccine somehow primed the immune system to be more susceptible to HIV infection -- a scenario neither foreseen nor suggested by previous studies.

 

The National Institutes of Health, which funded the STEP and Phambili trials, is convening a meeting next week to reassess its AIDS vaccine program. But some respected scientists have already reached a verdict.

 

"None of the products currently in the pipeline has any reasonable chance of being effective in field trials," Ronald C. Desrosiers, a molecular geneticist at Harvard University, declared last month at an AIDS conference in Boston. "We simply do not know at the present time how to design a vaccine that will be effective against HIV."

 

He told a rapt audience that he has reluctantly concluded that the NIH has "lost its way in the vaccine arena" and that he thinks it should redirect its AIDS vaccine funds to basic research and away from human trials.

 

In this fiscal year, the NIH's budget for AIDS vaccine research is $497 million. The STEP and Phambili trials were each expected to cost about $32 million. Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. has spent an undisclosed amount developing the vaccine and helping to manage the studies.

 

'Stop and reassess'

"We can't afford to have any more trials like this," said Mark Harrington, head of the activist Treatment Action Group and a longtime observer of AIDS research. "We have to stop and reassess and recommit to basic science, or people will begin to lose faith."

 

At the moment, only two things are certain.

 

The first is that the vaccine, developed by Merck, could not have caused HIV infection because it contains only three proteins from HIV, not the entire virus. The second is that there are no obvious villains.

 

"I do not think that what happened in this trial is an example of scientists blindly rushing into dangerous things," said John P. Moore, an AIDS virologist at Weill Cornell Medical College, who has criticized vaccine trials he considered futile. "In the general HIV-research community, I didn't know anyone who said this was going to happen."

 

Both trials recruited people who were at high risk of HIV infection through sexual activity. The STEP subjects included many male homosexuals; the Phambili volunteers were male and female heterosexuals. Half the people in each trial were randomly assigned to get three shots of vaccine, and half to get three shots of a harmless liquid containing no adenovirus or HIV proteins.

Vaccine failure is setback in AIDS fight

 

Each trial was to have 3,000 participants. STEP had finished enrolling subjects in North and South America, the Caribbean and Australia. Phambili (which means "moving forward" in the Xhosa language of South Africa) had signed up 801 by the time it was shut down.

 

While scientists hoped the Merck vaccine might prevent some infections, its chief purpose was to stimulate "cell-mediated" immunity to produce a less severe illness. Specifically, the vaccine was expected to lower the "viral load" of HIV in the bloodstream, which in turn would both prolong survival and lessen the chance the person would infect others.

 

Many experts are questioning the wisdom of that strategy, even if it had worked perfectly. Urging millions of people to take an AIDS vaccine that probably would not protect them from the virus, they say, would be a hard and confusing task, even in places where the epidemic still rages.

 

For the moment, that is an academic question. The vaccine failed to achieve any of its goals.

 

How did it happen?

In both studies, people who got vaccine were more likely -- not less -- to become infected, with trends suggesting roughly a twofold risk. In the STEP study, which has many more cases to evaluate, nearly all that added risk was in people who had high levels of antibodies to adenovirus type 5 before they got their first shot -- evidence they had been previously infected with that strain. Uncircumcised men in that group had the highest risk.

 

So how could this have happened?

 

The leading theory is that activation of the immune system, a cascade of events that occurs naturally when a person is infected with a virus or bacterium or gets a vaccine against one of them, in some way increased the risk of HIV infection.

 

Activation causes cells called CD4 T-lymphocytes (among many other things) to proliferate. CD4 cells are the targets of choice for HIV. In their activated state, they are coated with molecules called CCR5 co-receptors, which HIV needs to attach itself to a cell.

 

The hypothesis is that people who received the vaccine had greater-than-normal activation and consequently produced more and fatter cellular targets for HIV. That then increased their chances of becoming infected should they encounter the virus in unprotected intercourse.

 

Two things undercut this idea.

 

People have been suffering immune-activating infections and getting vaccines for years, and there has never been evidence that those events increased a person's risk of acquiring HIV. These vaccine trials would be odd places to first notice such a thing. Furthermore, people in the STEP study who got the vaccine did not have more activated CD4 cells than people who got placebo -- something that Merck vaccine executive Mark B. Feinberg called "kind of an interesting and unexplained observation."

 

'Something very, very peculiar'

"There is something very, very peculiar" going on in the vaccine trials, said Anthony S. Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which sponsored them.

 

The multiple surprises have reminded researchers how much they still do not know about HIV's biology. It has also focused attention on questions they never asked.

 

For example, none of the monkey experiments with the Merck vaccine subjected animals to the kind of sexual exposure that people in the trial had -- namely, repeated encounters with low doses of HIV, with no single exposure being especially high-risk.

 

Why not?

 

The researchers did not have any reason to believe the vaccine might be harmful (although they acknowledged it might not be effective), and in any case such a study would have required quite a large number of monkeys, which are expensive to acquire and maintain for research.

 

Instead, researchers vaccinated a relatively small number of monkeys with the Merck vaccine and then injected them with the monkey equivalent of HIV in a manner that guaranteed they would become infected. Those animals did much better over the long run than infected but unvaccinated ones.

 

That was once enough to move a vaccine into human trials. But it probably never will be again.

 

Source: The Washington Post

[sanlee 49]

AIDS experts: Unprotected sex OK for some

 

The Swiss National AIDS Commission said patients who meet strict conditions, including successful antiretroviral treatment to suppress the virus and who do not have any other sexually transmitted diseases, do not pose a danger to others.

 

The proposal, published this week in the Bulletin of Swiss Medicine, astonished leading AIDS researchers in Europe and North America who have long argued that safe sex with a condom is the single most effective way of preventing the spread of the disease — apart from abstinence.

 

"Not only is (the Swiss proposal) dangerous, it's misleading and it is not considering the implications of the biological facts involved with HIV transmission," said Jay Levy, director of the Laboratory for Tumor and AIDS Virus Research at the University of California in San Francisco.

 

Decision up to HIV-negative partner

The Swiss scientists took as their starting point a 1999 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which showed that transmission depends strongly on the viral load in the blood.

 

The Swiss said other studies had also found that patients on regular anti-AIDS treatment did not pass on the virus, and that HIV could not be detected in their genital fluids.

 

"The most compelling evidence is the absence of any documented transmission from a patient on antiretroviral therapy," said Pietro Vernazza, head of infectious diseases at the cantonal hospital of St.Gallen in eastern Switzerland and one of the authors of the report.

 

"Let's be clear, the decision has to remain with the HIV-negative partner," he said.

 

The studies cited by the Swiss commission did not themselves definitively conclude whether people with HIV and on antiretroviral treatment could safely have unprotected sex without passing on the virus.

 

In practice the recommendation would affect about a third of HIV patients in Switzerland, Vernazza said, but added that patients and their partners would benefit from greatly increased quality of life, such as being able to have children without fear of passing on the virus.

 

Levy said there was no safe way of knowing whether a patient with HIV who has no detectable virus in the blood will not transmit the virus. More research into the links between viral load in the blood and the presence of the virus in genital fluid was needed, he said.

'An interesting experiment'

The World Health Organization said Switzerland would be the first country in the world to try this approach.

 

"There is still some concern that you can never guarantee that somebody will not be infectious, and the evidence I have to say is not conclusive," said Charlie Gilks, director of AIDS treatment and prevention at WHO.

 

"Many countries in western Europe would regard this as an interesting experiment," he said, adding it was unlikely they would follow suit anytime soon.

 

"We are not going to be changing in any way our very clear recommendations that people on treatment continue to practice safer sex, including protected sex with a condom, in any relationship," Gilks said.

 

In any case, of the two million people around the world currently receiving HIV treatment, only a tiny number would receive medical care comparable to that in Switzerland qualifying them to have unprotected sex as suggested by the Swiss, he said.

 

Even in Switzerland, where some 6,000 people are on antiretrovirals, as little as a third of patients could be considered suitable, Gilks said. The guidelines from the Swiss commission require patients to adhere strictly to their treatment regime and many people do not.

 

He said WHO was concerned that the Swiss proposal could be misinterpreted to imply that everybody who is on treatment can have unprotected sex.

 

"It may be fine for Switzerland, it may be fine for a few other countries who have similar small numbers of patients who are very carefully followed up," said Gilks. "But from our point of view globally, we are not going to be changing our recommendations."

 

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

[sanlee 49]

HIV drug study needs volunteers with dark hair

 

Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer

 

Wanted: Dark-haired HIV-negative men and women to participate in a study designed to measure drug levels in hair.

 

It's called the "Strand Study" and it's part of a larger effort by AIDS scientists to look at whether people who are HIV-negative can benefit from prophylactically taking anti-HIV drugs to reduce their chances of infection.

 

Researchers from the San Francisco Department of Public Health and UCSF want to test people's hair to see if it could be used to measure how well people are complying with their drug regimen along with how efficiently the drug is metabolized by the body.

 

"Currently, we don't have a truly accurate measure of how well people are taking their medications and how well they process drugs," said Dr. Albert Liu, director of HIV Prevention Intervention Studies for San Francisco's Health Department. Blood measurements show the short-term presence of drugs, but do not capture the effect of a drug in the body's system over time, he said.

 

Liu said researchers intend to use the hair method as a tool when conducting drug studies to determine whether results are being affected by adherence to the prescribed therapy.

 

But why dark hair?

 

That's simply a matter of pigment. Drug molecules bind to the pigment in hair. Because dark hair has higher levels of pigment, the drug is more likely to bind, making it easier to measure. Liu said binding quality has no relation to drug absorption; light-haired people are not known to metabolize drugs any differently than their dark-haired counterparts.

 

The Strand Study, which is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, requires volunteers to take various dosages of tenofovir, which is one of the drugs used in the global prophylactic studies. Liu said tenofovir has fewer side effects than other HIV drugs and a favorable safety profile.

 

Volunteers will be paid up to $1,300 to take three different dosing regimens of the drug, each lasting six weeks: one pill two times a week, four times a week and every day. Liu said the pill must be taken in the presence of the study researcher at UCSF or at the Van Ness offices of the Health Department.

 

The study also requires one 24-hour hospital stay, during which blood levels will be measured. "It's quite an involved study," Liu said.

 

Volunteers have already started enrolling and researchers hope to begin the study in the next couple of months. They are seeking just 24 people, and hope to have an equal mix of men and women, who are over 18 years old and are not pregnant or planning to get pregnant during the study.

 

The study

For more information about the study, go to www.helpfighthiv.org.

 

E-mail Victoria Colliver at vcolliver@sfchronicle.com.