Obama Picks New York City DOH Commissioner Tom Frieden for C.D.C. Director
Obama budget short on AIDS funding
Green Tea Offers Hope for Vaginal Gel
HPV Vaccine Potential for Young MSM
Pediatric warning on Testim and Androgel
Obama Picks New York City DOH Commissioner Tom Frieden for C.D.C. Director
Gardiner Harris and Anemona Hartocollis reported on May 15 in the NY Times that President Obama announced the choice of Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the New York City health commissioner, as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Frieden, a 48-year-old infectious disease specialist, has led the crusade to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, pushed to make HIV testing a routine part of medical exams, and defended a program that passes out more than 35 million condoms a year.
"I found he's willing to challenge the status quo in an effort to make a difference," said Dennis deLeon, president of the Latino Commission on AIDS in New York City.
At the CDC, he will inherit a host of immediate and long-term problems, including serious morale and organizational issues even as the administration struggles to overhaul the nation's health care system.
"I think the administration selected Tom Frieden because he can take public health to a new place," said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, a nonprofit public health advocacy organization. "He's a transformational leader."
discuss this news brief in our discussion forum
Obama budget short on AIDS funding
According to a report by Bob Roehr in the NATAP newsletter of May 15, the “trickle of new money” for HIV/AIDS proposed by President Obama in the 2010 budget falls short of increasing support for already-inadequate programs and services.
While all in the HIV/AIDS community applaud the end of the $99-million abstinence-only approach to public health crises like HIV, STIs and teen pregnancy, there was no inclusion of HIV prevention in the new $110-million program to prevent teen pregnancy.
The $2.2 billion Ryan White Care Act will increase by $54 million, or 2.2%, over the current year. That is substantially less than the $72 million (3.3%) increase last year. The greatest portion of the new money, $20 million, will go to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP).
Through the Ryan White Care Act, prevention got a $53 million boost to $745 million. Most of the "new" money will go to increased testing to identify more of the estimated quarter-million Americans who do not know they are carrying the virus. Outreach to communities of color also will increase.
Combined with the elimination of HIV-related funding in the economic stimulus package and the lack of new funding in the budget for housing (HOPWA) and needle exchange, disappointment and, perhaps even disillusionment, ripples through the HIV/AIDS community.
"AIDS advocates can't keep giving Obama a pass on his lack of movement in fighting the AIDS epidemic," said Charles King, president of Housing Works, a major service provider in New York City.discuss this news brief in our discussion forum
Green Tea Offers Hope for Vaginal Gel
According to a May 18, 2009 posting on WebMD by Daniel DeNoon, green tea may be the key to effective anti-HIV vaginal gels, new studies suggest.
Triggering the new studies was the recent finding that semen contains a semen-derived enhancer of virus infection (SEVI) that escorts HIV to the front door of the cells it likes to infect.
In lab studies, researcher Ilona Hauber, Ph.D., of the Heinrich-Pette Institute for Experimental Virology and Immunology in Hamburg, Germany, and her colleagues have found that EGCG, a natural ingredient of green tea blocks SEVI and therefore fights HIV infection. In addition, the green tea molecules did not harm human cells.
One of the challenges in the search for a vaginal gel that women could use to protect themselves from HIV infection during sex has been that such a gel would have to cause no irritation, and the active ingredients must thrive in the acidic vaginal environment.
EGCG is stable in acidic environments, so Hauber and colleagues suggest that it would be an important addition to anti-HIV vaginal gels, possibly in combination with an anti-HIV drug.
The findings appear in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
discuss this news in our discussion forum
HPV Vaccine Potential for Young MSM
According to a study presented at the International Papillomavirus Conference in Malmö, Sweden, the vaccine Gardasil provides at least short-term protection in men who have sex with men (MSM) against human papillomavirus (HPV) strains known to cause cancer.
Specific strains of HPV, particularly types 16 and 18, have been linked to cervical, penile and anal cancer. HPV types 6 and 11 are believed to be a cause of noncancerous lesions and genital warts. Gardasil has been shown to significantly reduce infection with these four strains of HPV in young women.
In a comparison of Gardasil with a placebo in 602 MSM between the ages of 16 and 26, the vaccine was remarkably effective, reducing the number of external genital lesions by HPV types 6, 11, 16 or 18 by 79% and protecting against persistent infection in blood or swab samples by 94%. In addition, 89% or more of the participants developed antibodies to the four HPV types by month seven.
Joel Palefsky, M.D., from the University of California in San Francisco, and his colleagues initiated this study and plan further studies to see if these results are maintained over time.
discuss this news brief in our discussion forum
Pediatric warning on Testim and Androgel
The FDA has added a boxed warning on the drug labels for Testim and Androgel after receiving reports of adverse effects in children who were inadvertently exposed to these testosterone products through contact with another person being treated with them. According to an FDA announcement,
“The gels are approved for use in men who either no longer produce testosterone or produce it in very low amounts, and are often used by men living with HIV who have below normal testosterone levels.”
Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch for more information.
discuss this news brief in our discussion forum
