September 2007

Contents

Editorial

• Volume 8 Number 8/9 August/September 2007

Treatment alerts

• Update on nelfinavir recall: plan for safety registries

• Pfizer issue Dear Doctor letter over EMS content in US formulation of nelfinavir

Conference reports

• 4th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention, 22-25 July 2007, Sydney

• HIV viraemia may explain increased risk of cardiovascular disease, death and other serious events in people interrupting treatment in the SMART trial: new study to randomise people with CD4 counts >500 to start immediate treatment or defer to <350 cells/mm3

• CD4 increases in immunological non-responders despite suppressive therapy following switch to nuke-sparing regimen of ATZ/SQV/r

• Darunavir/r shows superiority over lopinavir/r at 48 weeks in TITAN trial

• Maraviroc fails to show non-inferiority to efavirenz in treatment-naive patients: 48 week results

• Importance of using maraviroc in combination with other active drugs in treatment-experienced patients

• Week 48 raltegravir results in treatment-naive phase II dose-finding study

• DUET studies clarify antiviral efficacy of etravirine and cross-resistance profile to other NNRTIs

• Boosting atazanavir in treatment-naive patients, and impact on lipids after switching from lopinavir/r

• Saquinavir/r vs lopinavir/r in treatment-naive patients

• Fosamprenavir/r vs atazanvir/r in treatment-naive patients

• Antiretroviral therapy initiated before 12 weeks of age reduces early mortality in young infants; interim results from the CHER study

• Very low transmission rates among breastfeeding women receiving ART

• Use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) by sero-different couples wanting to conceive a child

• Increased incidence of miscarriage with efavirenz use

• No impact of HSV-2 suppressive therapy on HIV incidence

• Penile washing directly after sex increased the risk of acquiring HIV: circumcision effective for men in high prevalence populations no protective effect in gay men

• HBV or HCV coinfection produced higher risk from treatment interruptions: drug holidays and hepatitis don’t mix

• 9th International Workshop on Adverse Drug Reactions and Lipodystrophy in HIV, 19-21 July 2007, Sydney

• Can nevirapine be safely substituted for other agents in those with high CD4 cell counts and virologic suppression?

• Do children with perinatally acquired HIV infection have problems with metabolism and body shape?

• The growth hormone releasing factor analogue tesamorelin (TH9507) reduces visceral fat, but what else does it do?

• Does diabetes have the same impact on cardiovascular risk in HIV-positive patients as it does in the general population?

• Can nucleoside RT inhibitors directly cause insulin resistance?

• Do dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, and body shape changes differ according to race or ethnicity?

• Is lipoatrophy associated with vascular dysfunction?

Antiretrovirals

• Maraviroc approved in the US

• Monogram launches Trofile HIV co-receptor tropism test

Treatment access

• Mbeki draws international scorn for firing deputy health minister

• Lesotho to revise national guidelines to include tenofovir first line

• International AIDS treatment advocacy group says overhaul needed to reach new G8 treatment goals

• Indian court ruling in Novartis case protects India as the pharmacy of the developing world

• Abbott drops lawsuit against community action

Pregnancy

• UK (BHIVA) pregnancy guidelines online for comment (2007)

• Increased rates of pre-term delivery are associated with the Initiation of HAART during pregnancy: a single-centre cohort study

Paediatric care

• First paediatric fixed dose triple combination (Pedimune) is approved by FDA for use in PEPFAR

• Caution in dosing paediatric oral solution of Kaletra

• Paediatric formulation of fosamprenavir approved in the US

• Deferred treatment arm of CHER study stopped

Hepatitis coinfection

• BMS issue Dear Doctor letter about risk of entecavir in HIV/HBV coinfection

Other news

• The dispersal process for HIV positive asylum seekers

PDFs

• Volume 8 Number 8/9 August/September 2007 PDF