2011 - MEDICAL UPDATES - 2011
Brain Impairment Might Be Less Common In People With HIV Than Originally Suspected People with HIV might be at much lower risk of brain impairment than a recent study suggested, according to two presentations at the 17th annual conference of the British HIV Association (BHIVA) held April 6 to 8 in Bournemouth, English. The results of the two new studies, reported by the website aidsmap, offer hope to prople with HIV and demonstrate the need to understand why brain impairment rates have varied so widely inb studies.
Long-Term Consistent Use of HIV Therapy Protects the Liver
People with HIV who aren’t also infected with viral hepatitis are at significant risk of developing liver disease, but long-term consistent use of antiretroviral (ARV) therapy appears to be protective, according to a study published in the May 9 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Irregular Heartbeat Linked to Raised Death Risk in Women TUESDAY, May 24 (HealthDay News) -- Women newly diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat known as atrial fibrillation have a significantly higher risk of death than women without this condition, suggests new research.
FDA Approves Incivek (Telaprevir), Second New Hep C Drug Nearly 70 percent of the estimated 3.2 million people in the United States infected with chronic HCV have the difficult-to-treat genotype 1. For them, the standard course of treatment with pegylated interferon combined with ribavirin means enduring up to 44 weeks of grueling treatment that frequently causes serious side effects—with only about a 50 percent chance that they will achieve what most experts call a cure for the disease.
June 7, 2011 "What's Happening with the National HIV/AIDS Strategy," you might ask? Well, as part of its pledge under the Strategy, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has just released guidance and an application template to make it easier for states to apply for waivers that will cover people living with HIV before they are disabled with AIDS! Additionally, on July 12th, the National Latino AIDS Action Network will host a webinar with Dr. Ron Valdiserri, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, Infectious Diseases, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Valdiserri will share reflections and next steps for the implementation of the Strategy, on the eve of its one year anniversary. Also, as a part of its Champions for Change campaign, the White House acknowledged the "month" that marks the 30th year of the HIV/AIDS pandemic" by inviting nine HIV advocates (including a founding member of the Coalition for a National AIDS Strategy, David Ernesto Munar) to share their ideas for winning the battle.
You can read all of this and more at www.nationalaidsstrategy.org
HIV Turns 30 HIV Turns 30: Reflections From Dr. Anthony Fauci of NIAID Dr. Fauci: I think we are really at a turning point -- a potential turning point and hopefully a real turning point. Let me explain what I mean. We've known since the mid 1990s (in 1996 the protease inhibitors were approved) and we had the first real "cocktail" or "triple combination" or HAART, however you want to refer to it, but from that time on, with new and better drugs and a more user friendly approach -- first 25 pills, then 3 pills, then 1 pill -- we have had a major impact on treating people who are HIV infected. At this anniversary time, I began to think back to when I was admitting patients to the NIH Clinical Center in the early 1980s before we even had AZT. People would come in to the hospital with advanced disease and the median survival was 28-29 weeks. It is not like today where you can get a serologic test that can tell you you were infected a month ago or 6 weeks ago. Now if a young person comes in to our clinic who was recently infected and is, let's say, 20 years old and you put him on appropriate therapy, you could mathematically model that that person will live an additional 50 years!
Updated Fact Sheet: HIV and TB
TB is particularly dangerous for people with HIV infection. People who have both HIV infection and latent TB infection (LTBI) are 20 to 30 times more likely to develop active TB disease as those who do not have HIV infection. Worldwide, TB is the leading cause of death among persons with HIV infection and almost one in four deaths among people with HIV infection is due to TB.
DIABETES MOVIE New Thoughts on Prevention and TreatmentIan W Campbell Authors and Disclosures Posted: 07/08/2011; British Journal of Diabetes and Vascular Disease. 2011;11(2):53-54. © 2011 Sage Publications, Inc. The diabetic foot represents a spectrum of disorders ranging from neuropathy (both somatic and autonomic), vascular insufficiency and infection, leading to gangrene and amputation.[1]
Emily L. Knezevich, PharmD, BCPS, CDE; Jon T. Knezevich, PharmD, BCPS; Mikayla L. Spangler, PharmD, BCPS Authors and Disclosures Posted: 07/11/2011; US Pharmacist © 2011 Jobson Publishing Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the most common benign tumor in men.[1] By age 50 years, up to 50% of men may have histologically distinguished BPH with reported prevalence increasing to90% by age 90.[2] |