Jolie-Pitt Foundation Funds Ethiopian AIDS and TB Center

September 15, 2008 poz.com

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt donated $2 million through their Jolie-Pitt Foundation to the Global Health Committee, which will establish a center for children in Ethiopia affected by HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, MSNBC.com/Access Hollywood reports.

The center will be an expansion of the Cambodian Health Committee, which has fought both life-threatening diseases in that country since 1994.

“Our goal is to transfer the success we have had in Cambodia to Ethiopia where people are needlessly dying of tuberculosis, a curable disease, and HIV/AIDS, a treatable disease,” Jolie told Access Hollywood.

The couple’s oldest son, Maddox, was born in Cambodia, while Zahara, their adopted daughter, hails from Ethiopia.

“It is our hope when Zahara is older she will take responsibility of the clinic and continue its mission,” Pitt said in a statement.

Positive Man Gets 5 Years in Prison for Unprotected Sex

Sept 10, 2008
An HIV-positive man in London, Ontario, in Canada has been sentenced to five years in prison for having unprotected sex with a female partner without disclosing his HIV status, The London Free Press reports. The woman remains HIV negative.

The man, Edward Kelly, had already served a three-year prison term for not disclosing his HIV status to four women with whom he had sex. None of those women tested positive.

“I realize the severity of the crime I have done, and I realize what I did was wrong,” Kelly told Justice Johanne Morissette. “Hopefully, it will never happen again,” he said before correcting himself. “No, it will never happen again.”

poz.com

Scientists Unmask Key HIV Protein, Open Door For New AIDS Drugs

Latest Medical News For: HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 27 Sep 2008 - 0:00 PDT
University of Michigan scientists have provided the most detailed picture yet of a key HIV accessory protein that foils the body's normal immune response. Based on the findings, which appear online in the journal PLoS Pathogens, the team is searching for new drugs that may someday allow infected people to be cured and no longer need today's AIDS drugs for a lifetime.

"There's a big hole in current therapies, in that all of them prevent new infection, but none attack the cells that are already infected and hidden from the immune response," says Kathleen L. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., the study's senior author and a U-M associate professor in both internal medicine and microbiology and immunology.

In people infected with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), the virus that causes AIDS, there's an unsolved problem with current anti-viral drugs. Though life-saving, they cannot root the virus out of the body. Infected cells are able to live on, undetected by the immune system, and provide the machinery for the virus to reproduce and spread.

"People have to be on the existing drugs, and when they're not, the virus rebounds. If we can develop drugs that seek out and eradicate the remaining factories for the virus, then maybe we could eradicate the disease in that person," Collins says.

Research details:

The new research details the complex actions of a protein, HIV-1 Nef, that is known to keep immune system cells from doing their normal jobs of detecting and killing infected cells.

Collins and her team show how Nef disables two key immune system players inside an infected cell. These are molecules called major histocompatability complex 1 proteins (MHC-1) that present HIV antigens to the immune system, and CD4, the cell-surface receptor that normally locks onto a virus and allows it to enter the cell.

Collins likens MHC-1 to motion detectors on a house, which send the first signal to a monitoring station if an invader breaks in.

"The immune system, especially the cytotoxic T lymphocytes, are like the monitors who get the signal that there's a foreign invader inside the cell, and send out police cars," she says. "The 'police' are toxic chemicals produced by T lymphocyte cells, which kill the cell that harbors the invader."

By in effect pushing the MHC-I proteins into an infected cell's "trash bin" so they fail to alert the T lymphocytes, Nef's actions allow active virus to hide undetected and reproduce. Also, once a cell has been infected, Nef destroys CD4. The result is that this encourages new virus to spread to uninfected cells.

Nef's activities are variable and complex. But the research team's findings suggest that the many pathways involved may end in a final common step. That could make it possible to find a drug that could block several Nef functions.

Implications:

Collins' lab is now screening drug candidates to find promising Nef inhibitors. Such drugs, which are at least 10 years away from use in people, would supplement, not replace, existing anti-viral drugs given to HIV-infected people. The new drugs would target the reservoirs where the virus hides.

In developing countries, the new drugs could have a huge impact, Collins says. Today, children born with HIV infection start taking the existing anti-HIV drugs at birth. It's very hard to continue costly treatments for a lifetime. But if children could be cured within a few years, global HIV treatment efforts could spread their dollars further and be much more successful, she says.

Additional U-M authors are first author Malinda R. Schaefer, Ph.D.; Elizabeth R. Wonderlich, Jeremiah F. Roeth and Jolie A. Leonard.

Funding for the research came from the National Institutes of Health and U-M.

Citation: PLoS Pathogens, doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1000131

University of Michigan Health System
2901 Hubbard St., Ste. 2400
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2435
United States
http://www.med.umich.edu

What Time Is The Presidential Debate?

The first debate between Barack Obama and John McCain is at 9 p.m. EST tonight (26 Sep 08). The reason I post this is because, when I typed this question into google I couldn’t find the time anywhere. I guess now it can help others if they google it they can get their answer. Thanks and Feel free to leave a message.

PLAY THE GAME

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If you are having trouble connecting to the game through these links, visit www.posornot.com

AIDS 2008 | Antibodies Could Prevent HIV Transmission, Research Indicates

Antibodies that prevent some HIV-positive people from progressing to AIDS could be used to develop microbicides or a vaccine to prevent HIV-negative people from contracting the virus, according to research presented Thursday at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, the Washington Post reports.
Read more...

HIV+ with undetectable virus are ‘non-infectious’: Swiss experts

HIV+ with undetectable virus are ‘non-infectious’: Swiss experts
Posted in virus on 31 January 2008 at 18:04.
A panel of Swiss HIV experts have declared that HIV-positive people with undetectable viral load are sexually non-infectious. This is the first time that medical experts anywhere have agreed that well-suppressed blood viral levels are a reliable measure of sexual infectivity. This will be controversial, but it’s a fascinating development.

The statement’s headline statement says that “after review of the medical literature and extensive discussion,” the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV / AIDS resolves that, “An HIV-infected person on antiretroviral therapy with completely suppressed viraemia (“effective ART”) is not sexually infectious, i.e. cannot transmit HIV through sexual contact.”

It goes on to say that this statement is valid as long as:

the person adheres to antiretroviral therapy, the effects of which must be evaluated regularly by the treating physician, and
the viral load has been suppressed (< 40 copies/ml) for at least six months, and
there are no other sexually transmitted infections.
The experts noted the essential conundrum of proving the negative hypothesis (i.e. proving that something can never happen) but said “The situation is analogous to 1986, when the statement ‘HIV cannot be transmitted by kissing’ was publicised. This statement has not been proven, but after 20 years’ experience its accuracy appears highly plausible.”

A report on Aidsmap.com canvasses the implications of the announcement for medical practitioners, people with HIV, HIV prevention and the legal system.

As one colleague observed today, “I guess we know now what they’ll be fighting about at this year’s International AIDS Conference.”

Lose Myself

Lauryn Hill Lose Myself Lyrics
Songwriters: N/A I used to do it for the love a long time ago
And all I ever wanted was love
I used to love without fear a long time ago
And all I ever wanted was love
Then somebody came around and tried to hurt me
Tried to make me feel like I was unworthy
Took a pure love and tried to make it dirty
Truth was they never did deserve me
No!

Chorus:
I had to lose myself so I could love you better
I had to lose myself, had to lose myself so I could
love you better
Had to lose myself, had to lose myself
So I could love you better
Had to lose myself in love
And that’s just the way it is…

Couldn’t tell me I was love when I needed it
When, all I ever wanted was love.
Should a told me just me because!
I’m worth receiving it
But all I ever wanted was love
There’s is something awkward about the selflessness it
takes to
Give love and the good that it makes you!
True love can never really forsake you
But it took a little while just for me to see!

Chorus:
I had to lose myself so I could love you better
I had to lose myself, had to lose myself so I could
love you better
Had to lose myself, had to lose myself
So I could love you better
Had to lose myself in love
And that’s just the way it is…

I had a paralyzing fear of facing failure
And I couldn’t love you perfectly with fear in my head
So I peerlessly had to face the danger
So I could come back and love you whole instead
All of your soul I said!
So I could make it better

Chorus:
I had to lose myself so I could love you better
I had to lose myself, had to lose myself so I could
love you better
Had to lose myself, had to lose myself
So I could love you better
Had to lose myself in love
And that’s just the way it is…

B-Sec:
And so it goes that I never meant to hurt you
Couldn’t stay but I never meant to desert you
Whole lot a things I just had to work thru
Time to heal and restore myself worth too
Confrontation of my fears and anxiety
Cried a whole lot years I suffered quietly
And though it may have taken years I can finally!
Tell you that you were always on my mind!

Chorus:
I had to lose myself so I could make it better
I had to lose myself, had to lose myself so I could
make it better
Had to lose myself, had to lose myself
So I could make it better
Had to lose myself in love
And that was just the way!

Bridge:

Takes strength to absorb all the abuse I did
Great love to absorb all the misuse I did
Hey baby it’s not an excuse I give.
And I’d do it all again because for you I live

Takes strength to absorb all the abuse I did
Great love to absorb all the abuse I did
Hey baby it’s not an excuse I give.
And I’d do it all again because for you I live

Chorus:
I had to lose myself so I could make it better
I had to lose myself, had to lose myself so I could
make it better
Had to lose myself, had to lose myself
So I could make it better
Had to lose myself in love
And that was just the way!
And that was just the way it is…

Masliah & Soloway Immigration Updates: Repeal Ban on HIV Immigrants

Masliah & Soloway Immigration Updates: Repeal Ban on HIV Immigrants

Bush signs sweeping AIDS bill

Landmark measure repeals longtime ban on HIV-positive immigrants, visitors

LOU CHIBBARO JR
Friday, August 01, 2008

President Bush signed a sweeping global AIDS relief bill at a White House ceremony Wednesday afternoon that includes language repealing the U.S. ban on HIV-positive foreign visitors and immigrants.

The bill-signing ceremony took place less than a week after the House of Representatives voted 303 to 115 to approve a Senate-passed version of the legislation, which reauthorizes the highly popular U.S. foreign aid program known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

The Senate passed the bill one week earlier by a vote of 80 to 16.

First Lady Laura Bush and Mark Dybul, director of the U.S. global AIDS office, accompanied the president at the bill signing ceremony.

The president, along with a large, bipartisan majority in the House and Senate, agreed to include a provision in the PEPFAR bill that repeals a 1993 U.S. immigration law prohibiting HIV-positive visitors from entering the country. The 1993 law to be repealed by the PEPFAR bill also bars most foreign nationals with HIV from being eligible for legal immigrant status.

However, as the president prepared for Wednesday’s bill signing ceremony, the White House had yet to disclose whether he and his Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, would approve one more administrative action needed to end the U.S. ban on HIV-positive visitors and immigrants.

In 1987, HHS used its existing legal authority to add HIV to a list of communicable diseases that disqualifies HIV-positive visitors from entering the country as well as foreigners with HIV from being eligible for immigrant status.

The PEPFAR bill that Bush signed allows the 1987 administrative policy to remain in place unless HHS or one of its component agencies, such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, reverses the policy.

An HHS spokesperson last week agreed to make inquiries into Leavitt’s position on the issue of repealing the HIV ban, but the spokesperson did not get back with additional information by press time.

A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for the president’s position on the HHS administrative ban.

“The legislation Congress has passed will move us from the emergency phase to the sustainability phase in fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,” said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), after the House voted to approve the PEPFAR bill.

“It will authorize $48 billion over five years to provide life-saving HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention for men, women and children in the poorest countries of the world,” she said.

Pelosi also noted that the bill would eliminate the HIV travel and immigrant ban, a policy that Pelosi and Democratic leaders, along with many Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate, have long opposed.

“Congressional backing for the repeal of this unjust and sweeping policy that deems HIV-positive individuals inadmissible to the United States is a huge step forward for equality,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “The HIV travel and immigration ban performs no public health service, is unnecessary and ineffective.”

The 1993 immigration law and the HHS policy directive putting the HIV visitor and immigrant ban into place allow for some exceptions. But groups like Immigration Equality, which advocates for immigrants who are gay or who have HIV, have said the exceptions are limited and have helped only a small number of HIV-positive foreign nationals seeking access to the U.S.

Under the 1993 law and the HHS policy, foreign nationals seeking to visit the U.S. can obtain a temporary waiver from the ban, which allows short-term visits for tourism or business purposes. Foreign nationals seeking a waiver must register their names and HIV status with U.S. consular offices in their home countries in a process that immigration activists say could violate privacy rights. Waivers also place certain limitations on HIV-positive visitors.

The law and policy allows foreigners with HIV to be eligible for immigrant status if they can demonstrate that an immediate family member, such as a spouse, parent or child, who already has legal U.S. immigrant status or citizenship, is dependent upon them for care and support. Activists say U.S. immigration officials rarely grant this exemption and that it is off limits to same-sex partners whose relationships are not recognized under U.S. law.

Some Capitol Hill insiders have speculated that the Bush administration might decide to leave the HHS policy in place, preferring to let the next president decide whether to repeal it. That would leave the ban in place until at least late January.

A spokesperson for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said Obama opposes the ban and would take action to end it if he’s elected president.

A spokesperson for the campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, did not return a call seeking McCain’s position on the issue.

AMERICANS ADOPT HIV-POSITIVE KIDS FROM ETHIOPIA

Parents say they are driven by a desire for social change and confidence that the disease is more manageable than ever before.

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA - When Solomon Henderson was a year old, his birth parents left him at an Ethiopian orphanage with three things: a picture of Jesus, a plastic crucifix, and HIV.
As one of 14,000 Ethiopian newborns diagnosed with the virus every year, Solomon's prospects for survival – much less adoption – were grim. But Erin Henderson's heart stirred when she saw him, and she decided on the spot to adopt him. "They told me that they weren't sure he would live through the weekend," Henderson said by e-mail from her home in rural Wyoming. Solomon, now an active 2-year-old, is part of a small but growing movement: Americans adopting children from abroad diagnosed as HIV-positive.
Figures from US-based Adoption Advocates International, the agency that arranges the majority of HIV-positive adoptions in Ethiopia, show a clear and steady rise, from two such adoptions in 2005, four in 2006, 13 in 2007, and 38 either completed or pending this year.
The motivations are wide-ranging – some parents say they were driven by religion, a desire for social change, or because the disease is more manageable than ever before. Over the past decade, HIV has become a chronic disease, rather than a death sentence. Some children, like Solomon, take daily medication that can cost between $700 and $1,500 a month, though all parents planning to adopt children diagnosed with HIV are required to carry health insurance, so costs are usually less.
American adoptions of Ethiopian children peaked at 1,255 in 2007, and the adoption of children diagnosed as HIV-positive is growing in step, according to US government figures. American adoptions in Ethiopia have steadily risen from 135 in 2003, to 289 in 2004 to 440 in 2005 to 731 in 2006.
Margaret Fleming, the founder of Chances By Choice, an international HIV-positive adoption advocacy group, said her group also has overseen adoptions of children from Haiti, Guatemala, and Russia.
Fleming, who has three children diagnosed as HIV-positive in her own brood of 12 children, said she wanted to make a difference in the world. "I feel like I'm on the cutting edge of making an impact on this epidemic," Fleming said by telephone from her office in Chicago. "It's given us a chance to be ambassadors, and our children to be ambassadors."