CDC Announces $31.5 Million Expansion of HIV Testing Initiative
San Francisco Endorses New Policy for Early Treatment of HIV
The HIV Research Catalyst Forum: Treatment, Prevention, Advocacy
CDC Announces $31.5 Million Expansion of HIV Testing Initiative
According to an April 1 press release, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a new three-year, $31.5 million expansion of the successful HIV testing program that began in 2007 and will end in September 2010 when the new project begins. Funding for the new phase of the initiative is expected to total approximately $142.5 million over the next three years.
In the first two years of the 2007 initiative, “more than 10,000 HIV-infected individuals were newly diagnosed, with 75 percent linked to care. Most tests (62%) were conducted among African-American men and women,” according to the release.
The new phase of the initiative will now reach more U.S. jurisdictions and populations at risk. The original design was primarily for African Americans but the new initiative will include gay and bisexual men, as well as male and female Latinos and injection drug users. The new phase will build on the progress of the previous effort and ensure that many more Americans know their status.
“Far too many Americans with HIV—more than 200,000 people—are unaware of their infection and may be unknowingly transmitting the virus to others,” said Jonathan Mermin, M.D., director of CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. “The expansion of this initiative reflects CDC’s continued commitment to ensure that far more Americans are tested for HIV, especially among vulnerable men and women most in need of HIV services.”
For more information, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/funding/PS10-10138/index.htm.
MTV, Kaiser Family Foundation, CDC, Planned Parenthood, and Others Launch GYT: Get Yourself Talking and Tested
In response to the staggering rate of sexually transmitted infections (STDs) among youth in the U.S., MTV and the Kaiser Family Foundation, as part of a longstanding public information partnership, are working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and its network of health centers, and other partners nationwide, to kick-off National STD Awareness month with the return of the award-winning campaign, GYT: Get Yourself Tested, according to a joint press release issued on April 6.
According to the release, “As many as one in two sexually active young people will contract an STD by age 25—and most won’t know it. GYT encourages Americans under age 25 to talk with health care providers and partners about getting tested for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).”
"The burden of STDs on young people in the United States is far too high, and it is urgent that we reach them with testing and treatment information to protect themselves from the long-term health effects of these infections," said Kevin Fenton, MD, PhD, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. "A lack of information, misconceptions, and social stigma keep many people from getting tested. Others mistakenly think they have been tested as part of routine health care. Since many STDs have no symptoms, most of those who are infected do not know it. The only way to know for sure is to be tested."
The release noted that playing off mobile and Web slang in young people’s everyday vernacular, such as "OMG" and "LOL," GYT is an easy way for young people to talk about sexual health and getting tested for STDs. This year, GYT is rolling out a series of new initiatives on-air, online, on the ground at college campuses and in more than 4,000 health centers and clinics across the nation.
The campaign’s website, GYTNOW.org, provides a community toolkit with promotional materials that can be customized and localized for easy distribution.
"We’re committed to partnering with our audience to reverse the course of the rising national youth STD trend," said Stephen Friedman, General Manager of MTV. "GYT connects with young people everywhere they are, and prompts them to take control of their sexual health—arming them with tools that make it easier to talk openly about testing and take action to know their status."
San Francisco Endorses New Policy for Early Treatment of HIV
San Francisco public health doctors have begun to advise patients to start taking antiviral medicines as soon as they are found to be infected, rather than waiting—sometimes years—for signs that their immune systems have started to fail, reports Sabin Russell in The New York Times on April 2.
Russell writes, “Ever since combinations of antiviral drugs were found to slow progression of the disease in the mid-1990s, doctors and patients have wrestled with the question of when to begin a lifetime regimen of costly and sometimes toxic medicines. The answer remains in dispute, but public health leaders here are now making a case for a change.”
There has been evidence reported that those who start antiretroviral treatment early are likely to achieve suppression of the virus, leading to a longer life and fewer instances of cancer, kidney disease, and other ailments that long-term survivors often suffer. On the other hand, there is the issue of possible cardiac effects, metabolic effects, and bone weakness and loss caused by the antiretrovirals.
According to the report, Dr. Diane V. Havlir, chief of the HIV/AIDS division at San Francisco General Hospital, said the new policy is already in effect for her patients. Although a decision whether or not to take the medicine rests with the patient, all those testing positive for HIV will be offered combination therapy, with advice to take it.
“The history of HIV disease has always been about change,” she said. “We pride ourselves on working quickly with new data.”
There is also another factor prompting the change. Reducing the level of virus in the HIV-positive population may reduce the spread of the disease. “I do anticipate it will drive down the rates of new infections,” said Dr. Mitchell H. Katz, San Francisco director of public health.
San Francisco’s decision follows a split vote in December by a 38-member Department of Health and Human Services panel on treatment guidelines. Only half of the HIV
experts favored starting drugs in patients with healthy levels of more than 500 T-cells.
One panel member, Dr. James Neaton of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, contends that “a rigorous, randomized clinical trial is needed to show whether early intervention works. The risks of early treatment—giving powerful drugs to people at low risk of disease—could outweigh the ‘modest predicted benefit.’ That is why we do randomized trials.”
However, according to Russell, the changes make sense to Dr. Stephen Follansbee, director of HIV Services for Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco, who oversees a program that covers 2,100 people with the virus.
“The idea of living in happy symbiosis with this virus is delusional,” Dr. Follansbee said. “If you have a fire in one part of the house, but not in the living room, you don’t wait for it to reach the living room before you call the fire department.”
The HIV Research Catalyst Forum: Treatment, Prevention, Advocacy
The HIV Research Catalyst Forum (HRCF): Treatment, Prevention, Advocacy (formerly the North American Treatment Action Forum—NATAF) is a unique conference focusing on community advocacy in HIV treatment and prevention research. From identifying research priorities to overcoming research barriers, HIV advocates have driven groundbreaking discoveries that have changed the course of this relentless epidemic. But with no cure or preventive vaccines in sight, rising new infection rates, and the continuing death toll, the work is far from over.
The HRCF aims to revitalize the community response to the domestic and global AIDS epidemic by amplifying the voices of community advocates in HIV treatment and prevention research. This four-day conference will provide a rare opportunity for new advocates to gain knowledge, build capacity, and sharpen skills; for experienced advocates to exchange ideas, craft strategies, and tackle new challenges; and for advocacy networks to recruit new participants and collaborators to strengthen planned or ongoing research advocacy campaigns.
The forum will take place April 20-23, 2010 at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland. For more information, go to www.hivresearchcatalystforum.org.
