Category Archives: HIV care

FDA Approves New HIV Treatment for Patients With Limited Treatment Options

July 15, 2020 administrator Leave a comment

From the FDA…

[On July 2, 2020], the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Rukobia (fostemsavir), a new type of antiretroviral medication for adults living with HIV who have tried multiple HIV medications and whose HIV infection cannot be successfully treated with other therapies because of resistance, intolerance or safety considerations.

“This approval marks a new class of antiretroviral medications that may benefit patients who have run out of HIV treatment options,” said Jeff Murray, M.D., deputy director of the Division of Antivirals in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “The availability of new classes of antiretroviral drugs is critical for heavily treatment-experienced patients living with multidrug resistant HIV infection—helping people living with hard-to-treat HIV who are at greater risk for HIV-related complications, to potentially live longer, healthier lives.”

Read the full article on HIV.gov.

HIV care, Research

Raltegravir-Based ART Regimens Appear Superior to Efavirenz for Use Among HIV-Positive Pregnant Patients

May 14, 2020 administrator Leave a comment

From AJMC.com…

Among the principal reasons for recommending initiating antiretroviral treatment (ART) among pregnant patients who are HIV positive is to prevent transmission of the virus to their unborn children. This number was estimated at 1.3 million pregnant pregnant women, as of 2018. However, optimal treatment regimens remain unclear.

An international team of investigators published their study results earlier this month in Lancet HIV showing the superiority of ART containing raltegravir, an integrase inhibitor, compared with efavirenz, a nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor. Both drugs are well established in their safety and efficacy for reducing the HIV viral load among nonpregnant patients, but the results of initiating them during pregnancy remain unclear. Is one superior?

Read the article on AJMC.com.

COVID-19, Health Alerts, HIV care

New Interim NIH Guidelines for people living with HIV regarding the COVID-19 pandemic

April 23, 2020 administrator Leave a comment

From the National Institutes of Health and Human Services…

New guidelines have been set by the NIH in regards to persons living with HIV. This interim guidance reviews special considerations for persons with HIV and their health care providers in the United States regarding COVID-19. Information and data on COVID-19 are rapidly evolving. This guidance includes general information to consider. People with HIV who have COVID-19 have an excellent prognosis, and they should be clinically managed the same as persons in the general population with COVID-19, including when making medical care triage determinations.

Follow this link to read the new guidelines (https://aidsinfo.nih.gov/guidelines/html/8/covid-19-and-persons-with-hiv–interim-guidance-/0).

This interim guidance was prepared by the following working groups of the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council:

HHS Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents
HHS Panel on Antiretroviral Therapy and Medical Management of Children Living with HIV
HHS Panel on Treatment of Pregnant Women with HIV Infection and Prevention of Perinatal Transmission
HHS Panel on Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections in Adults and Adolescents with HIV
HHS Panel on Opportunistic Infections in HIV-Exposed and HIV-Infected Children

COVID-19, HIV care

Does HIV raise risk of coronavirus? Experts weigh in

April 17, 2020 administrator Leave a comment

From Yahoo News…

Matthew, 30, keeps an emergency stockpile of his life-saving HIV medication at his home in Sacramento, California. He started building his stash shortly after he was diagnosed six years ago, on the recommendation of people he met through a forum for those living with HIV. Without his once-a-day pill, his viral load would increase and his general health would decline.

Now, over a month after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic, Matthew hasn’t broken into his stash. But, like many of the 1.1 million HIV-positive people in the United States, he has questions about how the ongoing crisis could affect his access to medication and his chances of contracting the coronavirus, and whether his chronic immune condition could put him at a higher risk of complications due to COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.

“Being positive, it puts it at the forefront of your mind,” Matthew, who requested that his last name not be used to protect his medical privacy, told NBC News. “You have to be present and aware.”

Read the article on Yahoo News.

Health Alerts, HIV care

Detectable Viral Load Tied to Uptick in Heart Disease Risk in Youth With HIV

April 16, 2020 administrator Leave a comment

From Poz.com…

Among young people living with HIV, having a detectable viral load is associated with a slight increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Sitaji Gurung, MD, PhD, MPH, of Hunter College at the City University of New York, presented findings from a study of HIV-positive youth 14 to 26 years old at the 2020 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston last month.

The study relied on electronic health records from the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network 154 Cascade Monitoring, which derives its data from clinics across the United States that care for adolescents with HIV.

Read the full article on Poz.com.

HIV care

Study Shows Newer Anti-HIV Drugs Safest, Most Effective During Pregnancy

April 1, 2020 administrator Leave a comment

From Pharmacy Times….

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have found that the antiretroviral drugs, dolutegravir and emtricitabine/ tenofovir alafenamide fumurate (DTG+FTC/TAF), may comprise the safest and most effective HIV treatment regimen currently available during pregnancy.

The findings come from a multinational study of more than 640 pregnant women with HIV across 4 continents.

Previous research has demonstrated that antiretroviral therapy (ART) to suppress HIV prevents perinatal transmission of the virus and benefits the health of both mother and child. In the current study, 3 ART regimens were compared, showing that the regimens containing DTG were more effective in suppressing HIV than a commonly used regimen containing efavirenz (EFV).

Read the full article.

HIV care, Research

Youth with HIV less likely than adults to achieve viral suppression

February 11, 2020 administrator Leave a comment

From the National Institutes of Health …

Despite similar rates of enrollment into medical care, youth with HIV have much lower rates of viral suppression — reducing HIV to undetectable levels — compared to adults, according to an analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health. Among more than 1,000 youth, most of whom were newly enrolled in care at treatment centers throughout the United States, 12% had attained viral suppression, far lower than the 32% to 63% observed in studies of adults over age 24. The findings suggest that after they enroll in an HIV treatment program, a low proportion of youth adhere to care regimens. The study appears in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

“Our findings indicate an urgency for research on how best to tailor HIV intervention services to the needs of youth,” said the study’s first author, Bill G. Kapogiannis, M.D., of the Maternal and Pediatric Infectious Diseases Branch at NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The analysis was funded by NICHD, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Mental Health.

Read the full news release.

HIV care, Research

Despite ART, Immune System Ages Faster Among People Living With HIV

January 16, 2020 administrator Leave a comment

From thebodypro.com…

Today’s powerful antiretroviral therapy (ART) helps fight back HIV infection and restore normal immune function. However, clinical evidence suggests that people with HIV who are virologically suppressed still have higher rates of comorbid viral infections than the general population.

Now, a new study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases suggests that ART does not restore the immune system completely back to normal. Instead, people with HIV may experience “immune amnesia,” in which the immune system slowly loses its capacity to recognize and fight off viral infections introduced during childhood or through a vaccine.

“Even with therapy, there’s something not quite fixed about the immune system,” said lead author Michael Augenbraun, M.D., FACP, FIDSA, who is vice chair of the Department of Medicine and director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and Kings County Hospital Center.

Read the full article.

Health Alerts, HIV care, Prevention

Care providers reluctant to explain undetectable equals untransmittable

September 12, 2019 administrator Leave a comment

From Medscape…

HIV treatment that leads to viral suppression for at least 6 months is 100% effective in preventing the transmission of HIV, even in the absence of condoms or HIV prevention drugs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But not all care providers tell their patients that.

A survey in the Midwest showed that 22% of HIV physicians still don’t feel comfortable explaining to patients the science behind what is known in the community as U=U, or undetectable equals untransmittable.

And that number is even higher among the physician assistants, nurse practitioners, advanced practice nurses, and traditional registered nurses who serve people living with HIV, said Emily Petran, MPH, from the Minnesota site of the Midwest AIDS Training and Education Center (MATEC) in Minneapolis.

HIV care, Prevention

NIH bolsters funding for HIV implementation research in high-burden U.S. areas

September 6, 2019 administrator Leave a comment

From HIV.gov…

The National Institutes of Health has awarded approximately $11.3 million to 23 institutions across the United States to collaborate with community partners to develop locally relevant plans for diagnosing, treating and preventing HIV in areas with high rates of new HIV cases.

The awards will help enhance the implementation science knowledge base needed for the proposed Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America. The plan aims to leverage the powerful data and tools now available to reduce new HIV diagnoses in the United States by 75 percent in five years and by 90 percent by 2030. President Donald J. Trump announced this bold new initiative during the State of the Union Address in February. If funds are appropriated by Congress, the 10-year initiative will begin in fiscal year 2020. The awards announced today are one-year awards to support pilot and formative studies to prepare for more extensive implementation science research proposals expected in 2020.

“With existing, powerful HIV treatment and prevention tools, we can end the epidemic in the United States,” said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at NIH. “The new initiative is a practical, achievable implementation plan. By working directly with health departments and other community organizations, researchers can find the best ways to use the highly effective methods at our disposal to diagnose, prevent and treat HIV in the United States.”