The AIDS Institute, Nobel Prize Winner Join on World AIDS Day to Call for More Therapeutic Vaccine Funding
Friday, 23 April 2010 08:32
The AIDS Institute, Nobel Prize Winner Join on World AIDS Day to Call for More Therapeutic Vaccine Funding
Washington, DC (Marketwire) -- In honor of World AIDS Day, The AIDS Institute (TAI), one of the nation's leading advocacy organizations for support of people with HIV/AIDS and their providers, joined Nobel Laureate Dr. Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, in calling for government leaders, patient advocates and the research community to expand therapeutic HIV vaccine research.
TAI believes with more research funding, biotechnology treatments such as therapeutic vaccines could lead to dramatic improvements in care for the estimated 33.4 million people living with HIV.
"This kind of research needs a lot of money," said Dr. Barre-Sinoussi. "For basic research, but also for the trial to see if it's working or not. We need to have more funding for new scientists, young scientists that would like to come to us with innovative, new, creative ideas. This is the future."
New Path to Therapeutic HIV Vaccine Discovered by Studying Immunologic Profile of Rare HIV Controllers
Friday, 23 April 2010 08:28
Oslo -- Based on encouraging results from pre-clinical research, Bionor Immuno AS, today announced intentions to take the therapeutic and potentially preventative HIV-vaccine candidate Vacc-C5 into a Phase I/II clinical trial. The research results indicate that Vacc-C5 may induce a protective antibody response in HIV patients similar to that found in patients with slow or non-progressing disease.
"The very slow or non-progressing HIV infection observed in a small minority of patients, often referred to as 'controllers' because of their ability to live symptom-free with HIV, has been the subject of academic interest for years. The discovery of these antibodies in such patients could lead to a significant shift in the approach to treating HIV. The results have been presented to the Company's Clinical Advisory Board and with very encouraging feedback," said Birger S?rensen, CEO of Bionor Immuno.
Vacc-C5 is the second vaccine in Bionor's pipeline. Vacc-4x, acting by a different mechanism (cell mediated immunity), has undergone a multi-centre placebo-controlled Phase IIB trial with 134 HIV-patients who have temporarily stopped taking daily ART. Results from the study are expected in October 2010.
Clinical Trials in South Africa Help Fight HIV/AIDS
Friday, 23 April 2010 08:20
South African scientists are launching clinical trials that will study preventive and therapeutic HIV vaccine candidates. The vaccines, developed by the South Africa AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) and the University of Cape Town, will undergo human testing at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto and the Desmond Tutu HIV Center in Cape Town.
Elise Levendal, interim director of SAAVI, said South Africa is one of the few developing nations to design an HIV vaccine and see it progress to human clinical trials. The therapeutic approach attempts to stymie the progression of HIV if infection occurs during the trial, and tests whether the vaccine can boost the immune response in HIV-positive volunteers. In the preventive approach, HIV-negative volunteers will be studied to assess whether the vaccine can prevent infection.
President’s Plan to Improve the Increase of HIV/AIDS
Thursday, 08 April 2010 08:06
“Let there be no more shame, no more blame, no more discrimination and no more stigma,” says President Zuma.
In the midst of all the economic struggles facing many South Africans, the country is still in working tirelessly to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic in order to create a better future.
According to media reports, South Africa is experiencing the largest HIV and AIDS epidemic in the world. An estimated 5.6 million South Africans are HIV positive1 in 2008, the largest number of any country in the world. Different provinces in South Africa however experience different levels of HIV infections and AIDS related deaths. This illustrates the fact that the epidemic is in different stages of development in each province and that a different approach to addressing the epidemic in each province is necessary to stem the course of new infections and deaths.
South Africa as a country is experiencing a mature epidemic with total new HIV infections and AIDS deaths converging to a level of between 400 000 and 500 000 per annum (see Graph 3). As the HIV epidemic progresses over time, the new infections will peak and then decline until it reaches a stable level per annum (mature epidemic). The growth in AIDS deaths typically lags that of new infections and converges at the same stable level over time. The SA epidemic has peaked in the late nineties and is approaching a stable level at the moment. Although new infections in all the provinces have peaked, the different provinces are in different stages of decline.
Creating a possibility for love is Ben Sassman, owner of The Positive Connection, a love website created uniquely for people living with the HI Virus.
If you have never contemplated on the positives of the HI Virus, perhaps now is a time to look beyond your thoughts. Ben Sassman who grew in the dusty roads of Steenberg, in the Western Cape, made a conscious decision to help others and this stems from his upbringing where his parents taught him to always help the less fortunate. “I come from a poor background and if I see a situation where I can help with my skills then I will step up to the plate. I love and hurt just like everyone else so I am no different with my mistakes, but I feel a small contribution is better than no contribution at all”, Ben said.
UNDERAGE DRINKING PLAYS A ROLE IN SEXUAL VIOLATION OF TEENAGERS
Friday, 29 January 2010 08:01
Teenage alcohol abuse is a huge problem in South Africa
Each year more and more young people become statistics as underage drinking is increasingly becoming an acceptable part of daily life. The physical and psychological effects of drinking on young people are devastating. “Of particular concern to Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA) is the number of teenagers that seek help at crisis centres, clinics and police with symptoms of sexual violence, physical abuse, STD's and pregnancy and where these have occurred in situations where they themselves have been drinking,” says Miranda Friedmann, director of WMACA.
What does Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Anita Baker, The Rolling Stones, Luther Vandross, Black Eyed Peas, Madonna, Whitney Houston all have in common? They are a part of the elite list of performers and musicians worldwide who have been recognized by their peers with the infamous Grammy Award.
South Africa’s management of tuberculosis has improved significantly compared to what it was in 2005. This is a finding by a joint review of the TB programme by the World Health Organization (WHO), development partners and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Waging war against HIV in the country’s textile industry
In the tiny landlocked Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho, the textile industry is the largest formal employer. Of some 39 000 textile industry employees, 85% are women – the group most vulnerable to HIV/Aids. Each woman is estimated, conservatively, to support five people. And almost one in two, or 43%, are estimated to be HIV-positive.
There was a time when “AIDS” meant “multiple forms of help, support or assistance”. In a country such as Botswana, “AIDS” has become synonymous with a pandemic that is ravaging an entire nation. There has not yet been a more desperate cry for help. And in Botswana, it is an emergency.
Speaking at a United Nations Assembly in 2001, former Botswanan President Festus Mogae said, “We [the people of Botswana] are threatened with extinction. People are dying in chillingly high numbers. It is a crisis of the first magnitude.”
The AIDS vaccine carries much hope for our developing country, however, some activists are questioning the wisdom of using valuable time and resources in an area that has been fraught with disappointment. But what if this works?
In July, South Africa launched clinical trials of the first AIDS vaccine created by a developing country.
Oslo -- Based on encouraging results from pre-clinical research, Bionor Immuno AS, today announced intentions to take the therapeutic and potentially preventative HIV-vaccine candidate Vacc-C5 into a Phase I/II clinical trial. The research results indicate that Vacc-C5 may induce a protective antibody response in HIV patients similar to that found in patients with slow or non-progressing disease.
South African scientists are launching clinical trials that will study preventive and therapeutic HIV vaccine candidates. The vaccines, developed by the South Africa AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) and the University of Cape Town, will undergo human testing at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto and the Desmond Tutu HIV Center in Cape Town.
“Let there be no more shame, no more blame, no more discrimination and no more stigma,” says President Zuma.
Creating a possibility for love is Ben Sassman, owner of The Positive Connection, a love website created uniquely for people living with the HI Virus.
Waging war against HIV in the country’s textile industry
The AIDS vaccine carries much hope for our developing country, however, some activists are questioning the wisdom of using valuable time and resources in an area that has been fraught with disappointment. But what if this works?