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|  5/21/2014 | National News  | South Carolina Senate Committee Approves HPV Vaccine Bill, Amid Opposition SOUTH CAROLINA :: STDs
RH Reality Check (05.19.2014) :: By Martha Kempner | | | RH Reality Check reported that the South Carolina Senate Medical Affairs Committee passed a bill last week that would allow the state to offer the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to underinsured seventh graders and create information brochures about the vaccine. The availability of the vaccine would depend on funding, and the bill would not require the state to provide, nor parents to accept, the vaccine. The committee estimated that 2,400 students would be eligible to receive the vaccine if the bill becomes law.
There is still opposition from other lawmakers, including the governor, who believe medical and health decisions should remain between parents and doctors. The governor supported the bill when she was a state representative. Critics also argue the vaccine would become mandatory. “What part of optional do they not read in the bill? I don’t understand. The bill says it is not mandated. It is an informational thing that [the Department of Health and Environmental Control] will provide to let people know about it,” said Sen. Ray Cleary (R-Georgetown), chair of the Medical Affairs Committee. Cleary argued that the bill allows parents to become educated about HPV and the availability of the vaccine.
The HPV vaccine will protect men and women from getting the disease that is responsible for 70 percent of all cervical cancers, as well as other head, neck, penile, and anal cancers. According to CDC, 12,000 American women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year, causing 4,000 annual deaths, and approximately 79 million Americans currently have HPV. |  Read Full Article | Share this Article     | | Back to Top  |  | | International News  | 'We Demand Action': Death Toll from Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Must Be Slashed Within a Year SWITZERLAND :: TB
MSF International (05.19.2014) | | | Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that it will distribute “Test Me, Treat Me” manifestos to World Health Assembly delegates. Patients with drug-resistant TB (DR TB) and their caregivers wrote the manifesto to convince governments to concentrate on improving DR TB testing and care for patients in the next 12 months.
The World Health Assembly is on course to adopt a 20-year global plan focusing on TB and DR TB. Manica Balasegaram, executive director of MSF’s Access Campaign, commented that a 20-year plan does not help people who are dying now due to lack of proper treatment and diagnosis. Also, Phumeza Tisile, co-author of the DR TB manifesto and a former patient, emphasized the urgent need for diagnosis and treatment. Tisile lived through a three-year battle with extensively drug-resistant TB and saw many die of the disease.
More than 800 DR TB patients and 1,500 caregivers are participating with more than 50,000 people in the year-long “Test Me, Treat Me” DR TB manifesto campaign. The manifesto includes three demands from patients and caregivers: “universal access to testing and treatment, which will require governments to scale up DR TB programs; better treatment regimens to drastically improve cure rates; and full funding for these efforts.”
MSF has proposed certain steps that can be implemented immediately to improve the likelihood of patients completing treatment and surviving DR TB, as well as longer term changes including new affordable, effective drugs resulting from new funding and new research and development models. | | Read Full Article | Share this Article | | Back to Top | | | Medical News  | Researchers Find Key to HIV Comorbidities UNITED STATES :: HIV/AIDS
Drug Discovery & Development (05.16.2014) | | | Drug Discovery & Development reported on a study funded by the National Institutes of Health, in which researchers from the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Vaccine Research (CVR) found that a drug given to patients receiving kidney dialysis significantly reduced the levels of bacteria that escape from the gut and as a result, lessened health complications for non-human primates with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the simian form of HIV.
Ivona Pandrea, professor of pathology at CVR, and colleagues administered the drug sevelamer (brand names Renvela and Renagel) to monkeys recently infected with SIV. Protein levels in the treated monkeys indicated low microbial translocation whereas protein levels in untreated monkeys were four times higher after one week of SIV infection. Treated monkeys with lower microbial translocation had lower levels of a biomarker for blood clotting, proving what doctors had believed––heart attacks and strokes in HIV-positive individuals are probably related to chronic immune system activation and inflammation rather than HIV drugs.
According to Pandrea, findings show that stopping bacteria from leaving the gut reduces rates of many HIV comorbidities. Pandrea noted that interventions for HIV-positive people begin after chronic infection when the gut is already severely damaged, hence treatments may not be as effective later in the infection. The study emphasized the importance of early and sustained drug treatment in HIV-positive individuals.
The full report, “Early Microbial Translocation Blockade Reduces SIV-mediated Inflammation and Viral Replication,” was published online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation (2014; doi:10.1172/JCI75090). | | Read Full Article | Share this Article | | Back to Top | | | Local and Community News  | SF Group Handing Out Free Crack-Pipe Kits Expects to Expand CALIFORNIA :: HIV/AIDS,Viral Hepatitis
The Examiner (San Francisco) (05.15.2014) :: By Chris Roberts | | | The Examiner reported that in the face of opposition from officials, an unofficial crack pipe distribution program is still operating after more than a month. Six volunteers with the Urban Survivors Network started handing out kits that contain alcohol wipes and clean glass tubes to drug users in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood in March.
Organizers hope the city will initiate an official program soon. “Our goal is to demonstrate that you can do this and all hell won’t break loose,” said Isaac Jackson, the main organizer behind the endeavor, as well as a Tenderloin resident and drug user. Jackson said they have already handed out 200 kits on the streets. Funding for the kits, which cost less than a dollar each, was provided by a donor who wants to stay anonymous.
Other city-sponsored programs provide clean needles to injecting drug users, but San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Barbara Garcia, director of the city’s health department, dismissed a proposition to distribute crack pipes. If used when broken, crack pipes can facilitate the transmission of HIV and hepatitis C. Jackson was surprised by the opposition and hopes to expand the program by providing the kits in an indoor location. | | Read Full Article | Share this Article | | Back to Top | | | | News Briefs | | | | |
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