March 2003

Contents

Editorial

• Volume 4 Number 2 March 2003

Conference reports

• 10th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, 10-14 February 2003, Boston, USA

Antiretrovirals

• Efficacy and safety of a quadruple combination Combivir + abacavir + efavirenz regimen in antiretroviral treatment-naive HIV-1-infected adults: La Francilienne

Treatment access

• Bush plans $15 billion budget to treat two million people and prevent seven million infections in 14 countries – but meets criticism from activists

• The World Health Organisation must continue its work on access to medicines in developing countries

• Dr Jong-Wook Lee nominated to be WHO director-general

• AAI Pharma access programme providing treatment for 36,000 people in Africa

• Pharmacia to launch pilot programme for expanding access to medicines in the poorest countries

• Heineken to offer antirerotviral drug coverage to African workforce

• Five pharmaceutical companies to halve antiretroviral drug prices for central America

• Patent law overrides would not expand access to drugs for low-income nations, opinion piece says

Side effects

• Efavirenz effects worse than reported, study says

• Protease inhibitors and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with HIV-1

• HIV protease inhibitors promote atherosclerosis independent of dyslipidemia

Lipodystrophy and metabolic complications

• 30-year study links vitamin A to risk of fracture in humans

• Bone turnover elevated in HIV-positive patients and linked to duration of HAART

• HAART-associated hyperlipidaemia linked to low risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD)

• Patient on human growth hormone develops tumours with growth hormone receptors

• Review of trials shows testosterone increases lean body mass, and is most effective when given intramuscularly

Coinfections and complications

• Functional MRI can find brain abnormalities in asymptomatic patients

Cancer and HIV

• Rituximab and chemotherapy is highly effective in patients with CD20-positive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and HIV

• Lung cancer in HIV positive HAART-users

Hepatitis coinfection

• Hepatitis C virus viraemia in HIV-positive individuals with negative HCV antibody tests

• Roche’s Copegus (ribaviran) available in UK for use in the treatment of Hepatitis C

• PEG-Intron plus ribavirin in non-responders and relapsers

• Dangers of HIV/hepatitis B coinfection

Basic science and immunology

• Antiretroviral treatment increases adult thymic volume

Drug resistance

• Subtle decreases in stavudine (d4t, Zerit) phenotypic susceptibility predict poor virologic response to stavudine monotherapy in zidovudine (AZT, Retrovir)-experienced patients

• Medical care providers have very limited knowledge of resistance-associated drug mutations

• Inhibitory quotient useful as indicator of effective protease inhibitor therapy

Other news

• SILCAAT IL-2 study saved as investigators take over responsibility and Chiron agrees to continue funding

• Drug industry contributions influence clinical research, JAMA study says

• Accuracy of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals

• Lack of new drugs is reaching crisis point, says review

• Medicines Control Agency must be more open

On the web

• 4th International Workshop on Adverse Drug Reactions and Lipodystrophy

• Drug Development for Antiretroviral Therapies (DART) 2002

• 40th Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America

• 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD)

• Medscape article including: Is there a pipeline? and AIDS articles in full

• The Hopkins HIV Report, PRN Notebook, IAPAC, TAGline, IAVI Report

• Spanish guidelines on management of HIV coinfection with Hepatitis A, B and C

• Think tank explores liver transplants in HIV/AIDS

• In HIV vaccine efforts, new strategies and patience are needed in equal measure

• Treatment issues for women

• Depression and HIV

• Resistance algorithms updated

PDFs

• Volume 4 Number 2 March 2003 PDF