AIDS SURVIVORS SUMMIT SAN FRANCISCO CONVENED ON JUNE 5, 2014 NATIONAL HIV/AIDS LONG-TERM SURVIVORS AWARENESS DAY

San Francisco, CA — June 5, 2014 is the first-ever National HIV/AIDS Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day (NHALTSAD). On that day, Let’s Kick ASS—AIDS Survivor Syndrome convenes the AIDS Survivors Summit/San Francisco 2014at theSan Francisco LGBT Center on June 5, 2014 from 1:00-9:00 PM. Let’s Kick ASS is bringing together survivors, both HIV-positive and negative, with key Bay Area AIDS organizations in an effort to begin addressing the unique challenges facing those longest affected by the HIV epidemic.

With over half the People Living With HIV already over age 50 in the Bay Area we realize that providers are attempting to figure out how to best serve this cohort. There is growing evidence of an AIDS survivor syndrome (ASS). It manifests in depression, anxiety, anger, isolation, posttraumatic stress, and lack of future orientation during this second wave of the epidemic. Some give up hope and end their lives rather than life with the losses and survivor guilt. Other related concerns are Aging with HIV, and retirement after disability among others.

The daylong gathering is designed to empower participants through talk show-style discussions and presentations with an emphasis on optimizing survivors’ lives and envisioning the future they never imagined. We want to help survivors live the best lives they can now while we begin making plans for the next. We want the recall the resilience, strength and bravery the community exhibited.

Visit: LetsKickASS.org. Twitter: @AIDSsurvivors

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NationalHIVAIDSLongTermSurvivorsAwarenessDay

Bill sponsored by HIV-Positive Legislator Advances Tuesday to Help People with HIV-related Lipodystrophy

The bill was sponsored by Carl Sciortino, one of the nation’s few openly gay and openly HIV-positive legislators. The 35-year-old has since stepped down from the legislature to serve as executive director of the well-respected AIDS Action Committee.

The story of the young, handsome Sciortino is remarkable in and of itself. The child of a self-proclaimed Tea Party conservative, he told his dad in an endearing campaign ad in a bid for Congress that he is a “Massachusetts liberal.”

While most insurance companies pay for procedures to reconstruct a breast when a woman loses one to cancer, or at least a prosthesis, people with lipodystrophy and lipoatrophy must wear their deformity like a badge unless they have the resources to correct the problem. It’s a throwback to the days when people with HIV were thin and gaunt, essentially with bodies that screamed out “I have AIDS.”

Source: http://www.imstilljosh.com/breaking-news-hiv-positive-legislator-advances-bill-disfigured/

For more information about treatments for lipoatrophy and visceral fat accumulation in HIV, visit:

www.facialwasting.org

Lipodystrophy survey

Lipodystrophy presentation

Statin Therapy Does Not Improve Cardiovascular Risk for Patients With HIV and Low HDL

The main lipid abnormality of people living with HIV is low high density lipoprotein (HDL).  There are 5 subfractions of HDL: 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, and 3c, from largest (and most effective in cholesterol removal) to smallest (and least effective).

Neither pravastatin nor rosuvastatin changes the distribution of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) subfractions in patients who are HIV-seropositive with severe dyslipidaemia undergoing treatment with a combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) and protease inhibitor, according to substudy results presented at the 82nd European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) Congress.

In their substudy, Dr. Bittar and colleagues set out to determine the distribution of the HDL subfractions in 90% of these patients, both at baseline and following statin treatment.

Thirty-six patients (median age, 49 years; 81% male) were part of the pravastatin group (40 mg/day) and 38 patients (median age, 46 years; 76% male) were part of the rosuvastatin group (10 mg/day), all with 45 days of treatment.

At baseline, the HDL subclass distribution in the pravastatin and rosuvastatin groups was similar, with percentage distributions for HDLs 2a/b/3a/b/c of 27.1%/12.8%/31.7%/20.7%/7.3% and 26.6%/13.8%/31.3%/21.0%/7.1%, respectively.

After the 45 days of statin treatment, these values were unchanged, at 27.5%/12.4%/32.7%/19.9%/7.2% and 27.1%/14.6%/31.7%/19.1%/6.6%, respectively.

Source: http://dgnews.docguide.com/statin-therapy-does-not-improve-cardiovascular-risk-patients-hiv-and-dyslipidaemia

For natural ways to improve HDL: 

    

1. Get aerobic exercise. Moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise can boost HDL by 5% to 10%. Aim for five 30-minute sessions per week.
2. Lose weight if you need to. If you’re overweight or obese, you can boost your HDL level by about 1 mg/dL for every seven pounds lost, although any amount of weight loss will help.
3. If you smoke, quit. HDL levels rise by as much as 15% to 20% after you quit.
4. Eat a healthy diet. Avoid trans fats, which increase bad cholesterol and decrease good cholesterol. Avoid highly refined carbohydrates, such as white-flour products.
5. Consider medications. Niacin, available over the counter, is the most effective HDL-raising medication available. Niacin can be strong medicine — work with your clinician if you want to try it.    NAC  is also a good supplement to consider.
6. Avoid higher doses of testosterone

New CDC Guidelines: People at Risk for HIV Should Consider Truvada PrEP

Healthcare providers should advise people at "substantial risk" for HIV infection about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) using tenofovir/emtricitabine, or Truvada, according to new guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This includes HIV negative people in an ongoing sexual relationship with HIV positive partners, gay or bisexual men who have had sex without condoms during the past 6 months, heterosexual men and women who have sex without condoms with at-risk partners, and injection drug users.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Truvada for PrEP in July 2012. Only Truvada taken every daily has been approved for HIV prevention. Taking it sporadically before sex or as a "morning after pill" has not been proven effective. HIV testing is important before starting PrEP, as a person who already has HIV and takes Truvada without other antiretrovirals could develop drug-resistant virus.

http://www.hivandhepatitis.com/hiv-prevention/hiv-prep/4689-new-cdc-guidelines-people-at-risk-for-hiv-should-consider-pre-exposure-prophylaxis-prep

PMMA-microspheres for the treatment of HIV-associated buttock lipodystrophy.

Soft tissue augmentation with PMMA-microspheres for the treatment of HIV-associated buttock lipodystrophy.

Authors

Serra MS, et al. 

Journal

Int J STD AIDS. 2014 May 22. pii: 0956462414536878. [Epub ahead of print]

Affiliation

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Progression of lipodystrophy syndrome is a big challenge in HIV treatment. Nowadays, fat loss at the lower part of buttocks has become another problem as patients started to complain that it is painful to be seated for a long time and/or on hard surfaces. We developed a method for buttock lipoatrophy treatment with PMMA-microspheres, as silicone prostheses and autologous fat transplant were not completely efficient.

METHODS: The treatment consisted of net-crossed injections, in the subcutaneous layer, of a 30% PMMA-microspheres solution on the atrophic areas of the buttock.

RESULTS: One hundred and fifty-four patients were included. The amount of PMMA-microspheres used to treat buttock lipoatrophy depended on the degree of atrophy and size of the area to be treated. Patients were satisfied with this treatment and referred to be more comfortable to be seated for longer period of time.

CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that soft tissue augmentation with PMMA-microspheres is safe and efficient for the treatment of buttock lipoatrophy associated with HIV lipodystrophy.

For more information on PMMA use for buttock lipoatrophy visit: http://facialwasting.org/buttock_wasting.htm

The untold side of the movie "Dallas Buyers Club"

The movie Dallas Buyers Club brings attention to a little-recognized part of the AIDS activist movement: the desperate struggle to provide anything that might treat the disease when no treatment was available.

AL-721, Compound Q, Peptide T—buyers clubs formed around the country to bring in potential treatments, whether pharmaceutical or botanical, for both the virus and its effects. Many of these treatments, if not most, were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or not approved for the use for which they were taken.
Vitamins and other nutritional supplements were also sold, in many instances (if not most) at deeply discounted prices.

As shown by the smuggling in the movie, there were illegal risks taken, all in the name of saving lives. Also as shown in the movie, people with AIDS risked their lives on unproven therapies, all in the hope of surviving a disease at a time when it was killing people in large numbers.

“We wanted to live, but we were also desperate,” said longtime AIDS activist and writer Matt Sharp.

More here

Activists Condemn Gilead for Exhorbitant Price of Their New Hepatitis C Drug

For Immediate Release December 9, 2013
Contact: Lynda Dee 410-332-1170 or lyndamdee@aol.com

Fair Pricing Coalition Condemns Gilead Sciences on the High Price of New Hepatitis C Drug Sovaldi™, and Urges Rapid and Wide Dissemination of Support Program Details for Uninsured and Underinsured People Living with Hepatitis C

The Fair Pricing Coalition (FPC) today condemned Gilead Sciences for the price set for its direct acting antiviral (DAA) Sovaldi™ (sofosbuvir), a once-daily, first- in-class nucleotide polymerase inhibitor approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on December 6, 2013, for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C,including those co-infected with HIV. While FPC believes that all hepatitis C virus (HCV) drugs are priced too high, the coalition of HIV and viral hepatitis treatment activists is especially dismayed by the wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) of $84,000 for a 12-week course of Sovaldi™. For comparison purposes, the FPC notes the 12-week WAC for the recently approved NS3/4A protease inhibitor Olysio™ (simeprevir) is $66,360.

“Sovaldi™ is a very safe and highly effective drug that will significantly shorten HCV therapy and either reduce or eliminate the need for injected pegylated interferon,” explained FPC Co-Chair Lynda Dee. “However, this does not give Gilead unconscionable pricing carte blanche, particularly when considering that Sovaldi™ still needs to be combined with ribavirin for the treatment of HCV genotype 2 for 12 weeks or genotype 3 for 24 weeks.

Briefing at Congress: The Changing Face of HIV/AIDS in America

Briefing: 

 The Changing Face of HIV/ AIDS in America

September 18, 2013 

Briefing: 9:30-10:30 a.m.

Reception: 10:30-11 :30 a.m.

US Congress Capitol Visitors Center, Room SVC 212

Hosted by:

AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA) 

Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) 

National Hispanic Council on Aging

Once a Month HIV Medications - Cost Effectiveness

Long-acting antiretroviral (ARV) formulations, now in clinical development, could prolong survival in people with HIV, according to results of a modeling study [1]. But the benefit may hold true only in people with barriers to good adherence. Although long-acting antiretrovirals may not be cheap, the researchers determined they could be "a good value" when used mainly for poorly adherent patients.

ID Week: "The Clinical Role and Cost-effectiveness of Long-acting Antiretroviral Formulations" - Long-Acting ARV Formulations Could Improve Survival in People With Poor Adherence 

HPV vaccine wears off quickly in HIV-positive women

Women with HIV probably need a booster shot of HPV vaccine within 2 years to maintain efficacy, according to a Canadian study of quadrivalent HPV vaccine (Gardasil) in 136 HIV-positive women.

Antibody response to the vaccine is strong enough at 2 years to protect about 90% of HIV-negative women against HPV [human papillomavirus]. "But in our population, with approximately a year and a half of follow-up, that number decreased to about 63%. There’s a much more rapid decline in antibody levels" among HIV-positive women, "which suggests this population might in fact benefit from a booster," said lead investigator Erin Moses, R.N., a researcher at the Women’s Health Research Institute in Vancouver, B.C.

http://www.familypracticenews.com/news/infectious-diseases/single-article/hpv-vaccine-wears-off-quickly-in-hiv-positive-women/6c13159316dce4a302a07794cef74fa7.html