7 October 2006

Contents

Conference reports

• 46th Interscience Conference on Antiretroviral Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), 27-30 September 2006, San Francisco

• MK-0518 demonstrates potent efficacy in patients with triple-class resistant virus: 24 week results

• Lipid profile of integrase inhibitor MK-0518: 24 week results compared to efavirenz in treatment naive patients

• Cell studies predict cross-resistance among integrase inhibitors

• HIV may use different coreceptors in blood and brain

• Critical interactions between darunavir (TMC114), lopinavir, Viagra, and oral contraceptives

• NRTI elvucitabine active against HIV in a 7-day monotherapy study

• Efavirenz/tenofovir fails as 2-drug maintenance regimen

• Nucleoside inhibitor MK-0608 mediates suppression of HCV replication for >30 days in chronically infected chimpanzees

• Report from the 10th Annual UK Resistance Meeting, 21 September 2006, London

• Further reports from XVI International AIDS Conference, 13-18 August 2006, Toronto, Canada

• Prevalence and predictors of squamous intraepithelial lesions of the cervix in HIV positive women in Lusaka, Zambia

• Effect of herpes simplex therapy on genital and plasma HIV viral load

• Maternal health and prevention of mother to child transmission

• 18-month effectiveness of short-course perinatal antiretroviral regimens combined to infant-feeding interventions for PMTCT in DITRAME PLUS ANRS 1201/1202 2001-2005

• HIV prevalence rates amongst 6 week old infants in South Africa: the case for universal screening at immunisation clinics

• Maternal illness during pregnancy is associated with In utero mother to child transmission

• Extensively drug resistant TB (XTB) in South Africa

Antiretrovirals

• Early access programme for MK-0518 integrase inhibitor

• Etravirine (TMC-125) available on named patient programme in the UK

• Fixed dose combination (FDC) of tenofovir/FTC/efavirenz (Atripla) filed in EU

• Tipranavir available in Scotland – almost one year after EU approval

• FDA decision delayed on Biojector for administering T-20 pending additional safety information

Treatment access

• Gilead licenses tenofovir to Indian generic manufacturers

• Funding prospects improve for Round 6 Global Fund

Guidelines

• BHIVA draft report on UK standards for HIV care (2006)

• US adult treatment guidelines updated (2006)

TB coinfection

• Extensively drug resistant tuberculosis: a serious wake-up call for global health

• Global report on TB and HIV: new analysis of TB/HIV epidemics in Bangladesh, Brazil, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Thailand

Basic science and immunology

• Viral load is a poor predictor of CD4 decline at the individual level