September 2002

Contents

Conference reports

• XI International HIV Drug Resistance Workshop, Seville, 2-5 July, 2002

• Short resistance reports from Seville

• New anti-HIV compounds discussed at the Seville HIV Drug Resistance Workshop and the Barcelona World AIDS Conference

• Review of phenotypic resistance testing data presented at the XI International HIV Drug Resistance Workshop

• XIV International AIDS Conference Barcelona, 7-12 July 2002

• Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela promise to lead peer education among political leaders as world looks for $10 billion a year to fight HIV/AIDS

• South African activist unveils campaign to force compulsory licences

• MSF study shows treatment in resource-poor settings is effective

• ‘Barcelona Declaration’ demands 2m poor people are treated in the next two years

• Lives were lost as experts argued the merits of care versus prevention, says Stefano Vella

• Peter Piot sets out the global political agenda in the fight against HIV/AIDS

• Health should be a right, not a commodity, and medicine must be removed from the World Trade Organisation, argues key speaker

• Governments must act to cut drug prices, says Kenya’s health minister

• Civil society had to fight for universal access to AIDS drugs in Brazil

• Coalitions of local NGOs can effectively demand access to medicines, reports MSF

• Involvement of PLWHA is key to improving access to treatments

• ART can successfully tackle advanced disease in resource poor settings, reports MSF

• Investment in treatment and care significantly reduces company health and social expenditure in Abidjan

• Financing the global response to the epidemic will cost $9.2 billion a year, according to one estimate

• The Global Fund: what, where, how much?

• Leading businesses spurn Global Fund

• 14 Caribbean governments sign cut-price drugs agreement with six pharmaceutical companies

• Thailand offers low-cost transfer to African countries of technology for the local production of generic antiretrovirals

• Informal market plays a role in distributing antiretrovirals but exposes clients to risks

• Abacavir hypersensitivity reactions in patients who rechallenge after interruptions for reasons other than hypersensitivity

• Prolonged CNS side-effects of efavirenz can be severe and lead to treatment discontinuation

• Four drug regimen for infants

• Study of MTCT programme finds resistance in women on two doses of monotherapy

• Emergence of resistance in children treated with ddI/d4T after treatment to reduce MTCT

• Correlates of fatigue in HIV disease

• Optimum hydroxyurea dose determined

• Management of people with treatment experience and drug resistance

• HIV-associated malignancies in the HAART era: flickers of hope and understanding

• Lopinavir/r exhibits sustained virologic response in antiretroviral-naïve patients: 3-year data

• Patients will have options regarding T-20 (enfuvirtide) injection sites

• The role of tenofovir in antiretroviral-naive patients

• Treatment interruption strategy reports from the XIV International AIDS Conference

• New data from clinical trials of antiretrovirals

• Behind the headlines about vaccine research

Antiretrovirals

• Trial supports lopinavir/ritonavir as first-line therapy in HIV infection

• Ritonavir has anti-neoplastic effects independent of HIV inhibition

• Pharmacokinetics and further benefits of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM)

Pregnancy

• Antiretroviral use in pregnancy and the risk of an adverse outcome

Paediatric care

• Increased risk of heart abnormalities in children born to mothers with HIV-1

Side effects

• Triglyceride increase can predict lipodystrophy in HIV patients under highly active antiretroviral therapy

• Peripheral neuropathy: new data on risk factors, incidence and association with viral load

• High prevalence of osteonecrosis of the hip found in HIV-infection

Coinfections and complications

• Paclitaxel effective for advanced AIDS-related Kaposi Sarcoma

Cure-related research

• Investigations fault HIV/AIDS cure claims

Basic science and immunology

• Gene discovery offers fresh perspective on HIV/AIDS therapies

• Growth hormone effective in increasing thymic activity

• HIV long term nonprogressors have increased immune responsiveness to other viral pathogens

• Red blood cells new sensitive markers for HIV disease progression?

Other news

• Virus, damned virus, and statistics: the epidemic in numbers

• Study finds sexual dysfunction common in HIV-positive men receiving HAART but unrelated to protease inhibitors

• ViroLogic announces launch of ‘viral fitness’ assay for HIV infection

• US antitrust case could break GlaxoSmithKline’s hold on key drugs

On the web

• Adherence research roundup from the International AIDS Conference

• Additional AIDS 2002 reports at thebody.com

• NATAP reports from AIDS 2002 Barcelona

• Monkey puzzles

• Diversity considerations in HIV-1 vaccine selection

• Confronting the limits of success

• Mycobacterium avium complex and atypical mycobacterial infections in the setting of HIV infection

• Anaemia, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia: pathogenesis and evolving treatment options in HIV-positive patients