Zambians contract HIV after volunteering for AIDS gel clinical trials

A Zambian traditional leader has fumed over reports that a number of his female subjects who underwent a microbicide gel clinical trials have contracted HIV, the virus that cause AIDS. Close to a quarter of volunteers that took part in a microbicide gel clinical trials in Southern Zambia contracted HIV, 12 months after the commencement of the trial. Zambian authorities have remained mute over the development while officials from the Microbicide Development Programme in Zambia and United Kingdom have pains to explain what went wrong during the clinical trials. Chief Mwanachingwala who presides over the affected site in Mazabuka of southern Zambia has expressed regret at the leaked results of the trials. The traditional leader has claimed that the Microbicide Development Programme enrolled illiterate and uneducated women who did not understand the nature of the clinical trials and its consequences.
Read article at africanews.com

Contaminated Aids drug, Viracept, recalled.

Contaminated Aids drug is recalled throughout Europe - Guardian

Extracts:

"An unprecedented emergency recall of all stocks of an Aids drug in the UK and the rest of Europe was ordered last night because the tablets contain a dangerously high level of a cancer-causing chemical.

All those taking the drug Viracept are being asked to see their doctor immediately so that they can be prescribed an alternative medicine.

Investigators are trying to find out what happened at the plant in Switzerland where Viracept is manufactured. It is understood that the contamination could have occurred in March and affected supplies of the drug for three months. That would mean large quantities of contaminated drugs have already been consumed."

"Roche, the Swiss manufacturers, said last night that some 550 people were on Viracept in the UK. It is one of the earlier antiretroviral drugs and most people who were on it will now have been switched to something newer. But there will still be many thousands on Viracept across Europe, particularly in less wealthy countries.

It is also widely used in Africa since campaigners fought a long battle in 2002 to persuade Roche to drop the price there. They succeeded in the following year."

"Roger Pebody, treatment adviser of the Terrence Higgins Trust, said that anybody taking the drug should not miss a dose, because it can lower the effectiveness of the virus suppression, but should contact their doctor immediately.

"It is essential that people who are taking it go to their doctor immediately in the next day and work out with their doctor the best way to proceed," he said. "That is putting people under a lot of pressure but you would not want to leave off one or two doses.""


Boost your body's natural defences against infection by cutting down on salt and salty food!

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Lord Winston considers this imported blood products scandal "the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS".

Officials 'knew of Aids risk' in US blood imports - Telegraph

Extracts:

"Government advisers were aware that patients were in danger of contracting Aids from imported blood products as early as 1983 but decided against a ban due to fears of causing a shortage of supply.

The Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) knew that "patients who repeatedly receive blood clotting-factor concentrates appear to be at risk" of Aids.

It was also aware that the risks were highest if the blood products came "from the blood of homosexual and IV drug users in areas of high incidence - e.g. New York and California" and for those who repeatedly received high doses of the blood plasma products.

A possible link between Aids and blood transfusions was known about in December 1982, but it took another four years before safer, heat-treated products reached Britain. However, the CSM still ruled that the risk of contracting Aids had to be balanced against their "life-saving" benefits."

"Yesterday at the resumption of an inquiry into what the Labour peer, Lord Winston, has described as "the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS", victims and their relatives gave emotional accounts about living with HIV and/or hepatitis C.

Stephen Martin-Hanley, 37, who also has haemophilia, told the hearing that he felt the stress of him having HIV and hepatitis C status had killed his father. He said he was 13 years old when he was told he had been given HIV-contaminated treatment.

Reading a statement from his mother, after she became too emotional to read it herself, he said it was likely that his father, who administered his treatment, had given him the "fatal injection"."

UN calls for mass circumcision of men to tackle Aids epidemics

UN calls for mass circumcision of men to tackle Aids epidemics - Guardian

Extract:

"The United Nations yesterday urged all countries with devastating Aids epidemics to launch mass male circumcision programmes following evidence that the surgical procedure can protect against HIV infection.

The World Health Organisation and UNAids, the joint UN programme on HIV/Aids, made the official recommendations after a meeting of experts in Montreux, Switzerland, to consider the evidence from three trials in Africa, which were stopped early when it became clear that men who had been circumcised were up to 60% less likely to get HIV than those who had not.

Experts accept circumcision is a sensitive issue, tied in to social and religious traditions. During sectarian fighting in India, Muslims and Hindus at one time would tell friend from foe by pulling down their trousers - all Muslims were circumcised.

But research suggests men and women in Africa would accept male circumcision if it lowered the risk of Aids, and WHO experts yesterday held out the prospect of cultural change over a decade or more. Catherine Hankins, associate director of the WHO, said that within about a decade in the 1980s and 1990s, South Korea went from no circumcision of boys to circumcising 90%, influenced by the example of the US."

Male circumcision to fight HIV may pose risk to women

Male circumcision to fight HIV poses risk to women - from the New Scientist

Extract:

"Policy-makers must exercise caution when including male circumcision among their tactics for fighting AIDS, researchers said on Tuesday. Early data from a trial in Uganda suggests the practice could increase infections in women."

Writing in the BMJ, Roger England, chairman of the Grenada based Health Systems Workshop, says that HIV funding is being spent inefficiently.

HIV funding is being spent inefficiently claims Dr Roger England.

Extract:

"He claims that when measured by disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost, HIV only contributes to five per cent of the burden of disease in low and middle income countries.

The charity chairman adds that although Aids causes 2.8 million deaths every year worldwide, this is still less than deaths attributable to diabetes.

He says that funding could be better spent on bed nets, immunisation programmes or family planning, claiming that HIV interventions are "not cost effective enough to justify this disproportionate spending"."


As I have written previously, if you have HIV+ status and are unable to obtain antiretroviral drugs, or would prefer not to take these drugs anyway, you may like to minimise your salt/sodium intake. - A 40 year old man who is HIV+, and whom I have been advising for many years, chose not to take these drugs although he had/has been offered them at no cost. Instead, he has optimised his diet and he takes vitamin and mineral supplements, and he has eliminated all avoidable salt/sodium from his food intake. - He has been HIV+ since the early or mid-80s and he is still alive...(o: - and still working (part time now) and still quite well most of the time. And of course since he doesn't take the drugs, he doesn't suffer from the adverse side-effects of the drugs...(o:

And read about a good way to reduce your risk of developing type 2 Diabetes here: http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2006/08/have-you-noticed-that-diabetes-is.html

No US antiretroviral monopoly - US authorities have not sought antiretroviral drugs market monopoly, says Mark Dybul, outgoing US Aids coordinator.

Dybul denies US antiretroviral monopoly

Extract:

"American authorities have not sought to monopolise the antiretroviral drugs market, the outgoing US global Aids coordinator Mark Dybul has stated.

He refuted claims that the US has monopolised the market to the point where the drugs have become too expensive for African countries to purchase for their Aids population.

Many have said that the US has blocked the production of generic antiretrovirals, resulting in the cost of the drugs staying high."

If you have HIV+ status and are unable to obtain antiretroviral drugs, or would prefer not to take these drugs anyway, you may like to minimise your salt/sodium intake. - A 40 year old man who is HIV+, and whom I have been advising for many years, chose not to take these drugs although as a British citizen he had/has been offered them on the NHS. Instead, he has optimised his diet and he takes vitamin and mineral supplements, and he has eliminated all avoidable salt/sodium from his food intake. - He has been HIV+ since the early or mid-80s and he is still alive...(o: - and still working (part time now) and still quite well most of the time. And of course since he doesn't take the drugs, he doesn't suffer from the adverse side-effects of the drugs...(o:

His friends who had HIV/Aids, and who took the antiretroviral drugs, have all died...)o: - He believes, and so do I, that optimal nutrition is far more useful than drugs in combating HIV, and that the antiretrovirals benefit the drug companies rather than the patients who take the drugs.

You can read further about this on Dr Rath's website: http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/