Release Date: March 10, 2015
A possible “functional cure” for HIV has recently been granted FDA approval for further human testing. The method uses genetic modification to cause a specific mutation in the white blood cells of HIV patients which mirrors those found in the naturally immune. It has so far shown to be both receptive and long-lasting. The novel therapy involves taking stem cells from HIV-infected patients and using a gene editing tool to cause them to form into white blood cells with a specific mutation. The mutation affects a protein known as CCR5, and interferes with the virus’s ability to latch onto blood cells. The mutation occurs naturally in a small percentage of the world’s population and gives these individuals a life-long resistance to HIV infections. Although the virus may remain in their body, without being able to enter the T cells, it cannot replicate and therefore will stay at low numbers, uncompromising the immune system. http://www.medicaldaily.com/functional-hiv-cure-step-closer-reality-fda-approval-clinical-human-trials-325048 # # # |
|
Date for AIDS WALK LOS ANGELES 2015 Announced
OCTOBER 11, 2015
Join TEAM TODD this summer and start in on the fun
OCTOBER 11, 2015
Join TEAM TODD this summer and start in on the fun
HIV is evolving to become less deadly and less infectious, according to a major scientific study.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30254697
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30254697
On World AIDS Day 2014, President Obama thanks all those who are fighting AIDS on the frontlines and are helping the world to achieve an AIDS-free generation. December 1, 2014.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2014/12/01/president-obama-world-aids-day-2014
Release date: July 30, 2014
http://www.jconline.com/story/news/2014/07/30/future-ryan-white-program-clear/13376961/
The program was not renewed by Congress when the authorizing legislation expired last year. President Barack Obama’s administration is still supporting $2.3 billion in funding for the fiscal year that starts in October. But the annual spending bill that funds the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program is in limbo.
# # #
http://www.jconline.com/story/news/2014/07/30/future-ryan-white-program-clear/13376961/
The program was not renewed by Congress when the authorizing legislation expired last year. President Barack Obama’s administration is still supporting $2.3 billion in funding for the fiscal year that starts in October. But the annual spending bill that funds the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program is in limbo.
# # #
Release July 19. 2014
(Reuters) - The annual rate of diagnosis with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, fell by a third in the United States between 2002 and 2011, researchers reported on Saturday. Fewer people in all U.S. groups tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus except for gay and bisexual men ages 13 to 24 and over 45, they wrote in a special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/19/us-usa-aids-diagnosis-idUSKBN0FO0W120140719 # # # |
"AIDS at 30: The U.S. Epidemic" chronicles the thirty years since the first cases of a rare pneumonia found in young gay men were reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. This four minute video highlights landmarks in the history of AIDS from the discovery of the AIDS virus and the banning of Ryan White from attending school to the early twenty-first century when the CDC recommends HIV testing for virtually every American.
http://youtu.be/QPEONF3hUBI
# # #
http://youtu.be/QPEONF3hUBI
# # #
Release date: March 6, 2014
The first time, it happened almost by accident. Just hours after delivery, a baby born with HIV in Mississippi was given high doses of three antiretroviral drugs. More than three years later, doctors say the little girl has no evidence of the life-threatening disease in her blood, despite being off medication for nearly two years. Now doctors say another child born with the virus appears to be free of HIV after receiving similar treatment. The case report was presented at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston this week.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/06/health/hiv-baby-cured/
# # #
The first time, it happened almost by accident. Just hours after delivery, a baby born with HIV in Mississippi was given high doses of three antiretroviral drugs. More than three years later, doctors say the little girl has no evidence of the life-threatening disease in her blood, despite being off medication for nearly two years. Now doctors say another child born with the virus appears to be free of HIV after receiving similar treatment. The case report was presented at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston this week.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/06/health/hiv-baby-cured/
# # #
Release date: March 5, 2014
White House Announces Way To Treat HIV Without The Use Of Drugs
http://instinctmagazine.com/post/white-house-announces-way-treat-hiv-without-use-drugs
# # #
White House Announces Way To Treat HIV Without The Use Of Drugs
http://instinctmagazine.com/post/white-house-announces-way-treat-hiv-without-use-drugs
# # #
Release date: March 3, 2014
A look at PrEP, a prevention strategy for people at high risk for contracting HIV. Researchers at the University of California explain how pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) works as they describe a four-year, multi-pronged study of men who have sex with men in Los Angeles and San Diego. Participants agree to take a Truvada pill daily to reduce their risk of getting infected by up to 99%.
But will they follow through? Methods to increase adherence among the participants are also being tested, including daily reminders via text messages and tracking usage of the medication with special "Mems caps" for the pill bottles. http://youtu.be/XAxl5A_laOI
# # #
A look at PrEP, a prevention strategy for people at high risk for contracting HIV. Researchers at the University of California explain how pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) works as they describe a four-year, multi-pronged study of men who have sex with men in Los Angeles and San Diego. Participants agree to take a Truvada pill daily to reduce their risk of getting infected by up to 99%.
But will they follow through? Methods to increase adherence among the participants are also being tested, including daily reminders via text messages and tracking usage of the medication with special "Mems caps" for the pill bottles. http://youtu.be/XAxl5A_laOI
# # #
Everyone Deserves an Equal Chance at Love
www.hrc.org/blog/entry/everyone-deserves-an-equal-chance-at-love
This Valentine’s Day, HRC and The Stigma Project have teamed up with Olympic silver medalist, Ji Wallace, to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and celebrate love even in the face of stigma and adversity.
# # #
www.hrc.org/blog/entry/everyone-deserves-an-equal-chance-at-love
This Valentine’s Day, HRC and The Stigma Project have teamed up with Olympic silver medalist, Ji Wallace, to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and celebrate love even in the face of stigma and adversity.
# # #
Released December 30, 2013
Many experts hailed Truvada as an opportunity to reduce new infections among high-risk groups like young gay men, people in relationships with H.I.V.-positive partners, and prostitutes.
See story below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/31/health/a-resisted-pill-to-prevent-hiv.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
# # #
Many experts hailed Truvada as an opportunity to reduce new infections among high-risk groups like young gay men, people in relationships with H.I.V.-positive partners, and prostitutes.
See story below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/31/health/a-resisted-pill-to-prevent-hiv.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
# # #
This is an amazing site to view the AIDS Quilt.
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/aidsquilt/
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/aidsquilt/
Release 11/19/2013
Here’s some amazing news out of Denmark: Scientists believe they may have found a viable cure for HIV. The treatment—which involves flushing the HIV out to the surface of cells, where the immune system can destroy it— has already been found to work in laboratory tests.
Researchers have now moved foward with human trials, and expect to see results “within months.”
“I am almost certain that we will be successful in releasing the reservoirs of HIV,” said Dr. Ole Søgaard of the Aarhus University Hospital.
Søgaard did caution that this advancement shouldn’t be seen as a magic bullet: “The challenge will be getting the patients’ immune system to recognize the virus and destroy it,” he explained. “This depends on the strength and sensitivity of individual immune systems.
# # #
Here’s some amazing news out of Denmark: Scientists believe they may have found a viable cure for HIV. The treatment—which involves flushing the HIV out to the surface of cells, where the immune system can destroy it— has already been found to work in laboratory tests.
Researchers have now moved foward with human trials, and expect to see results “within months.”
“I am almost certain that we will be successful in releasing the reservoirs of HIV,” said Dr. Ole Søgaard of the Aarhus University Hospital.
Søgaard did caution that this advancement shouldn’t be seen as a magic bullet: “The challenge will be getting the patients’ immune system to recognize the virus and destroy it,” he explained. “This depends on the strength and sensitivity of individual immune systems.
# # #
Millions wear purple on #SpiritDay in a stand against bullying and to show their support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth. Getting involved is easy! Take the pledge now at http://glaad.org/spiritday to wear purple and go purple online on October 17th and help create a world in which LGBT youth are celebrated and accepted for who they are.
# # #
# # #
Promising AIDS Vaccine Being Developed
A promising new AIDS vaccine being developed at Oregon Health & Science University has demonstrated the capacity to effectively remove all traces of an AIDS-causing virus from non-human primates, according to a newly published report in the journal Nature.
The vaccine is being tested on a primate form of HIV, called simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), which causes AIDS in monkeys. After working further to refine the vaccine, OHSU scientists said they hoped an HIV-form of the potential vaccine could soon be tested in human subjects.
“To date, HIV infection has only been cured in a very small number of highly-publicized but unusual clinical cases in which HIV-infected individuals were treated with anti-viral medicines very early after the onset of infection or received a stem cell transplant to combat cancer,” said Dr. Louis Picker, associate director of the OHSU Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute. “This latest research suggests that certain immune responses elicited by a new vaccine may also have the ability to completely remove HIV from the body.”
# # #
28 Years Ago This Was Shocking News
On this day, July 25, 1985, HIV/AIDS was given a global spotlight when it was announced that screen icon Rock Hudson was suffering from the disease.
Looking gaunt and almost unrecognizable, rumors began to circulate about his health earlier in the summer when the actor had made a public appearance to promote a new cable series of his friend and former co-star Doris Day.
After collapsing in Paris in July 1985, he was diagnosed with AIDS and given treatment with the drug HPA-23, which at the time was unavailable in the United States.
Hudson's AIDS diagnosis put the disease into the headlines and changed the way the public thought of AIDS patients, as well as gay stereotypes. Before his death he created the Rock Hudson AIDS Foundation, donating the $250,000 he received from an advance of a biography to the foundation.
Hudson's death is also credited with jumpstarting Elizabeth Taylor's fundraising crusade to fight AIDS and Chairman of California's AIDS Advisory Board Committee Bruce Decker said upon Hudson's death: "His illness and death have moved the fight against AIDS ahead more in three months than anything in the past three years."
# # #
Looking gaunt and almost unrecognizable, rumors began to circulate about his health earlier in the summer when the actor had made a public appearance to promote a new cable series of his friend and former co-star Doris Day.
After collapsing in Paris in July 1985, he was diagnosed with AIDS and given treatment with the drug HPA-23, which at the time was unavailable in the United States.
Hudson's AIDS diagnosis put the disease into the headlines and changed the way the public thought of AIDS patients, as well as gay stereotypes. Before his death he created the Rock Hudson AIDS Foundation, donating the $250,000 he received from an advance of a biography to the foundation.
Hudson's death is also credited with jumpstarting Elizabeth Taylor's fundraising crusade to fight AIDS and Chairman of California's AIDS Advisory Board Committee Bruce Decker said upon Hudson's death: "His illness and death have moved the fight against AIDS ahead more in three months than anything in the past three years."
# # #
Breaking News: 07/03/2013
Two men who became free of HIV infection after bone marrow transplants have stopped taking Aids drugs without any sign of the virus returning, according to scientists.
Talk of a cure is premature, the doctors told the International Aids Society conference in Kuala Lumpur, but the news will raise hopes that progress can be made towards a treatment that will not only keep the virus at bay but eventually eradicate it.
The two men, who had longstanding HIV infections, were given bone marrow transplants at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Centre in Boston because they were suffering from cancers of the blood. Tests showed that as their own cells were replaced by cells from the bone marrow donor, the levels of virus in their blood steadily dropped to undetectable.
# # #
http://aidswalk.net/losangeles/fundraise/fundraising-tips-tools
Fundraising Tips and ideas
AIDS Walk LA 2013 Website is up
and running.
Let the fundraising begin !
Click on the logo
and running.
Let the fundraising begin !
Click on the logo
Release 05/02/2013 7:24 pm EDT
HIV Cure 'Within Months?' Not So Fast, Foundation For AIDS Research Warn
HIV Cure 'Within Months?' Not So Fast, Foundation For AIDS Research Warns
The Huffington Post | By Sara Gates
Get Healthy Living Alerts: Sign Up Follow: HIV Cure, Video, Aids Cure, Cure For Aids, Cure For Hiv 2013, Hiv, Hiv Cure 2013, Hiv Cure Claim, Hiv Cure Within Months, Hiv Cure Within Months Danish Scientists, Hiv News, Healthy Living News An HIV cure "within months?" Not exactly.
Researchers from Denmark have begun human clinical trials in their experimental HIV treatment, The Telegraph first reported. However, the team is not on the "brink" of a cure for HIV, as some have said; they instead expect the first results from the trial "within months."
"We're not months away from a cure," Kevin Robert Frost, CEO of amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, told The Huffington Post. "There is still a lot of work that has to be done."
Funded by amfAR, Danish researchers recently launched the initial stage of their clinical trial following an in vitro laboratory study conducted at Aarhus University Hospital. In the study, the researchers found success in using a specific drug to reactivate the hidden form of HIV. Only then, once the virus is drawn out of the "reservoirs" it forms in immune cells, can researchers even attempt to neutralize the HIV infection.
"Essentially, the biggest obstacle to a cure for people with HIV is that the virus lives in viral reservoirs which are not susceptible to the current drugs we have," Frost explained. "What a lot of scientists have been trying to do lately is figure out if there are drugs that can stimulate the viral reservoirs so that we may begin to target them."
While expanding the scientific understanding of these reservoirs is only one path toward a functional cure for HIV -- other researchers have sought to develop vaccines to create an immunity to the virus -- Frost warns that we can't establish a specific time frame for success.
"It is very risky business to try and predict the pace of scientific research," Frost told HuffPost.
# # #
The Huffington Post | By Sara Gates
Get Healthy Living Alerts: Sign Up Follow: HIV Cure, Video, Aids Cure, Cure For Aids, Cure For Hiv 2013, Hiv, Hiv Cure 2013, Hiv Cure Claim, Hiv Cure Within Months, Hiv Cure Within Months Danish Scientists, Hiv News, Healthy Living News An HIV cure "within months?" Not exactly.
Researchers from Denmark have begun human clinical trials in their experimental HIV treatment, The Telegraph first reported. However, the team is not on the "brink" of a cure for HIV, as some have said; they instead expect the first results from the trial "within months."
"We're not months away from a cure," Kevin Robert Frost, CEO of amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, told The Huffington Post. "There is still a lot of work that has to be done."
Funded by amfAR, Danish researchers recently launched the initial stage of their clinical trial following an in vitro laboratory study conducted at Aarhus University Hospital. In the study, the researchers found success in using a specific drug to reactivate the hidden form of HIV. Only then, once the virus is drawn out of the "reservoirs" it forms in immune cells, can researchers even attempt to neutralize the HIV infection.
"Essentially, the biggest obstacle to a cure for people with HIV is that the virus lives in viral reservoirs which are not susceptible to the current drugs we have," Frost explained. "What a lot of scientists have been trying to do lately is figure out if there are drugs that can stimulate the viral reservoirs so that we may begin to target them."
While expanding the scientific understanding of these reservoirs is only one path toward a functional cure for HIV -- other researchers have sought to develop vaccines to create an immunity to the virus -- Frost warns that we can't establish a specific time frame for success.
"It is very risky business to try and predict the pace of scientific research," Frost told HuffPost.
# # #
Release April 16, 2013
Registration now open. Sign up family and friends.
When you register and fundraise for AIDS Walk Los Angeles, you save lives.
There is no fee to register, but we encourage everyone to raise funds. Last year, the average walker raised more than $272! Any amount you raise is much needed and greatly appreciated.Once you register, you will receive all of the AIDS Walk Los Angeles materials you need in the mail so you can begin fundraising. You will be emailed your username and password to create your personal fundraising web page.
Tip: Set your fundraising goal at $1000 to join the Star Walkers' ClubTM and/or be a Green WalkerTM and do all of your fundraising online!
# # #
Registration now open. Sign up family and friends.
When you register and fundraise for AIDS Walk Los Angeles, you save lives.
There is no fee to register, but we encourage everyone to raise funds. Last year, the average walker raised more than $272! Any amount you raise is much needed and greatly appreciated.Once you register, you will receive all of the AIDS Walk Los Angeles materials you need in the mail so you can begin fundraising. You will be emailed your username and password to create your personal fundraising web page.
Tip: Set your fundraising goal at $1000 to join the Star Walkers' ClubTM and/or be a Green WalkerTM and do all of your fundraising online!
# # #
Release Date February 25, 2013
Last week, Governor Jerry Brown released his proposed FY 2012/13 budget that includes dramatic cuts to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). The governor’s plan calls for low-income and uninsured HIV-positive people in the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Plan, or ADAP, to share costs and in some cases monthly co-payments could be as high as nearly $400 for life-saving medications. Requiring low-income people to meet substantial cost sharing obligations to receive life-saving HIV medications will have devastating short and long-term consequences for HIV/AIDS care and prevention.
ADAP provides medications to more than 40,000 low-income, uninsured, and underinsured people. Cuts to ADAP services will have costly implications for our state and will result in advanced HIV disease, increased co-morbidities, and even premature death for Californians.
Moreover, medications provided by ADAP help prevent the spread of HIV. People on effective treatment can reduce the amount of HIV in their blood to undetectable levels. Mounting evidence shows an undetectable viral load makes HIV-positive people less likely to spread the virus to others. In fact, a study published by the National Institutes of Health shows HIV-positive people who are on drug therapies are 96% less likely to transmit the virus to their uninfected partners. For every new HIV infection prevented, California saves an estimated $600,000 in lifetime treatment costs. ADAP is an essential bridge to the promise of health care reform in California and it’s critical that we ensure that the program remains available for everyone who needs it.
Ultimately, the proposed ADAP cuts will result in many HIV-positive people dropping out of the program altogether, in effect denying them the very medication they need to stay healthy. Generating savings for California by creating a system that denies medication to the most vulnerable among us is unjust, and certainly not the most effective way to deal with tough economic times. Over the coming months we will dedicate our time to fighting these devastating cuts and we will continue to update this page on our progress
# # #
Last week, Governor Jerry Brown released his proposed FY 2012/13 budget that includes dramatic cuts to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). The governor’s plan calls for low-income and uninsured HIV-positive people in the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Plan, or ADAP, to share costs and in some cases monthly co-payments could be as high as nearly $400 for life-saving medications. Requiring low-income people to meet substantial cost sharing obligations to receive life-saving HIV medications will have devastating short and long-term consequences for HIV/AIDS care and prevention.
ADAP provides medications to more than 40,000 low-income, uninsured, and underinsured people. Cuts to ADAP services will have costly implications for our state and will result in advanced HIV disease, increased co-morbidities, and even premature death for Californians.
Moreover, medications provided by ADAP help prevent the spread of HIV. People on effective treatment can reduce the amount of HIV in their blood to undetectable levels. Mounting evidence shows an undetectable viral load makes HIV-positive people less likely to spread the virus to others. In fact, a study published by the National Institutes of Health shows HIV-positive people who are on drug therapies are 96% less likely to transmit the virus to their uninfected partners. For every new HIV infection prevented, California saves an estimated $600,000 in lifetime treatment costs. ADAP is an essential bridge to the promise of health care reform in California and it’s critical that we ensure that the program remains available for everyone who needs it.
Ultimately, the proposed ADAP cuts will result in many HIV-positive people dropping out of the program altogether, in effect denying them the very medication they need to stay healthy. Generating savings for California by creating a system that denies medication to the most vulnerable among us is unjust, and certainly not the most effective way to deal with tough economic times. Over the coming months we will dedicate our time to fighting these devastating cuts and we will continue to update this page on our progress
# # #