January 2001

Contents

Treatment alerts

• Serious adverse events attributed to nevirapine regimens for postexposure prophylaxis after HIV exposures – worldwide, 1997-2000

• US FDA and Bristol-Myers Squibb issue caution for combination HIV therapy with stavudine (d4T) and didanosine (ddI) in pregnant women

Antiretrovirals

• HAART initiated during primary HIV infection leads to faster and more complete immune reconstitution

• Viral response to antiretroviral therapy slower during acute HIV-1 infection

• European Commission approves GlaxoSmithKline’s HIV triple therapy Trizivir

• Lamivudine withdrawal may reactivate HBV in HIV-positive patients

• CPMP delivers positive opinion on Kaletra

Treatment access

• Glaxo blocks importation of generic Combivir into Ghana

Women's health

• HIV infection increases susceptibility to Chlamydia trachomatis pelvic inflammatory disease

• Pregnancy does not accelerate progression of HIV-1 infection

• Human papillomavirus (HPV) may speed HIV progression

Pregnancy

• Is the chance to cut a chance to cure? The Caesarean section controversy revisited

• Protease inhibitors safe and effective in HIV-positive pregnant women

Paediatric care

• Medication adherence poor for many HIV-infected children

• Oral ganciclovir safe, effective for children co-infected with CMV and HIV

• High cancer incidence in perinatally HIV-infected children

• Functional aerobic impairment detected in HIV-seropositive teens

• Most untreated African HIV children will die by age 3

Guidelines

• French guidelines updated

Side effects

• Vitamin based protocol for the treatment for lactic acidosis

• Osteonecrosis in HIV

• Indinavir nephrolithiasis more prevalent than initially thought

• HIV protease inhibitors associated with hepatic cytolysis

• Inflammatory stimulus may contribute to HIV lipodystrophy

Coinfections and complications

• HIV related oral lesions are less common since HAART

• HIV-1 protease inhibitor treatment clears human herpesvirus 8

Cancer and HIV

• Spontaneous regression of CIN and delayed-type hypersensitivity to HPV-16 oncoprotein E7

• Will cidofovir be useful against cervical lesions?

HIV prevention and transmission

• Diagnosis of acute HIV infection: it’s time to get moving!

Basic science and immunology

• Nef gene defects identified in paediatric long-term HIV survivors

• NIH scientists highlight role of macrophages in HIV infection

• Chronically infected HIV patients can mount anti-HIV immune response

• Structured treatment interruption: important controlled trial in monkeys

• Baseline HIV levels, age determine degree of immune restoration with treatment

• Anti-HIV CD4+ and CD8+ assay allows rapid estimation of anti-HIV T cell response

• Interleukin-7 mediates T-cell homeostasis and increases HIV-1 replication

Other news

• Alpha-1 antitrypsin, a natural protein may block HIV

• Plasma viral load in HIV-1 and HIV-2 singly and dually infected individuals in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa

• Influenza vaccination does not accelerate HIV infection

• Perceived pain in AIDS patients often linked to anxiety, depression

• New report on depression in HIV patients

• Website for ESPRIT IL-2 study

On the web

• Before seroconversion: the clinical and scientific events of acute HIV infection and the immunologic benefits of treatment

• The relevance of pharmacologic monitoring in HIV disease

• Recent issues in primary HIV: from diagnosis to oral sex transmission

PDFs

• Volume 2 Number 1 January/February 2001 PDF