National News  | SC to Stop Separating HIV-Positive Inmates SOUTH CAROLINA :: HIV/AIDS
Herald Online, Charlotte, South Carolina (07.10.2013) :: By Meg Kinnard, Associated Press | | | According to South Carolina prison officials, the state soon will stop its policy of segregating HIV-infected inmates in its prisons. At present, the state has 366 HIV-infected inmates in two Columbia prisons. According to South Carolina Corrections Department Director Bill Byars, the change is part of an overhaul of the agency’s services, but they have not set a date for officially integrating the HIV-infected inmates into the general population. Byars explained that the medical staff had studied the issue and that officials considered it safe to change the policy.
South Carolina was one of two states still separating HIV-infected inmates; the other was Alabama. A judge struck down Alabama’s segregation policy last year on the grounds that it violated federal disabilities law after inmates, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued; however, it is not known if Alabama has integrated its prison population as yet. South Carolina was preparing for its own lawsuit after a 2010 US Department of Justice deadline to end the segregation of prisoners expired, but no lawsuit was ever filed. However, Byar, who took office as corrections department director in 2011, said that the department had been working gradually on the issue. |  Read Full Article | Share this Article     | | Back to Top  |  | | International News  | Non-African Middle-Income Countries Pay Four Times More for ARVs Than African Middle-Income Countries GLOBAL :: HIV/AIDS
AIDSMAP (07.09.2013) :: By Lesley Odendal | | | A recent study argued that although antiretroviral (ARV) treatment is available at relatively low prices in lowest income countries—those with gross national incomes (GNI) of less than US $1,025 per person per year—many middle-income countries with large HIV epidemics are paying very high prices because no established system exists for fair ARV pricing for these middle-income countries. In fact, no consistent correlation exists between drug prices and GNI for middle-income countries.
The study compared the cost of treatment with six key ARVs with the per capita annual GNI of countries in three income levels: low income, low-medium income, and medium income. The six low-income countries (GNI equal to or less than US $1,025 per person) were Ethiopia, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and Cambodia. The six low-medium countries (GNI US $1,026–$4,035 per person) were Nigeria, Vietnam, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Ukraine. The eight medium-income countries (GNI US $4,036–$12,475 per person) were Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Brazil, and Russia. The ARVs in the study included nevirapine, efavirenz, tenofovir, AZT/3TC, tenofovir/FTC, and lopinavir/ritonavir, including brand-name and generic versions.
The median cost of treatment per person per year in African higher middle-income countries for efavirenz (600 milligrams once daily) was US $60 (ranges US $51–$69), while in non-African countries the cost was US $241—four times higher. The price of efavirenz in non-African countries ranged from US $57 in Brazil to US $784 in Malaysia. The trend was the same for all the other ARVs the researchers examined. Malaysia, which had the third highest GNI of the medium-income countries, paid the highest price for ARVs, except for the drug tenofovir, for which Brazil paid the highest price.
Although upper-middle-income countries are expected to pay higher prices, the range in prices across upper-middle-income countries shows wide discrepancies. Dr. Andrew Hill, a senior research fellow in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool and author of the study, concluded that a new ARV pricing system was necessary for all middle-income countries with large HIV epidemics.
The abstract, “Is the Pricing of Antiretrovirals Equitable? Analysis of Antiretroviral Drug Prices in 20 Low and Middle Income Countries,” was presented at the Seventh International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment, and Prevention, June 30–July 3, 2013, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and is available online at http://pag.ias2013.org/Abstracts.aspx?SID=72&AID=3102. | | Read Full Article | Share this Article | | Back to Top | | | Medical News  | Hepatitis C Reinfection Rising Among HIV Patients HIV/AIDS,Viral Hepatitis
Medscape Medical News (07.11.2013) :: By Neil Canavan | | | According to the results of a study by Dr. Thomas Martin of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, United Kingdom, approximately 25 percent of HIV-infected individuals who are cured of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection acquired a second and sometimes a third HCV infection within 24 months of the initial cure. Martin noted that liver disease was one of the leading non-AIDS causes of death among HIV-infected individuals. Also, earlier studies showed that HIV coinfection reduced spontaneous clearance of HCV infection, reduced the rate of successful treatment, and could lead to cirrhosis three times faster.
Martin and colleagues analyzed reinfection rates in 191 HIV patients with primary HCV infection treated at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. The researchers defined reinfection as a new positive HCV RNA polymerase chain reaction 24 weeks or more after HCV treatment, spontaneous clearance of the virus, or the emergence of HCV with a different genotype in a 24-month period. The rate of reinfection was 7.8 per 100 patient-years among this group of participants. The HCV infection was cleared from the 17 of the 32 reinfected patients after treatment or by spontaneous remission. Eight of the 17 patients acquired a third HCV infection, resulting in a rate of 23.2 per 100 patient-years. The second and third reinfections cleared spontaneously in 20 percent of patients and, with treatment, complete viral clearance occurred in 80 percent.
Martin noted that researchers found no evidence of protective immunity from the first HCV infection and the participants remained at high risk for reinfection. The researchers concluded that gay men needed counseling to understand the risk of reinfection and the importance of prevention. Implications for future monitoring indicated that in cases where a patient had been cured of previous HCV infection, a clinician needed to use an RNA viral load test to diagnose reinfection.
This study was presented at the Seventh International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment, and Prevention, June 30–July 3, 2013, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. | | Read Full Article | Share this Article | | Back to Top | | | | Local and Community News | | News Briefs | | | |
7/12/2013
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