HIV Vaccine Study First to Show Some Effectiveness in Preventing HIV
Rally at National Equality March to Galvanize LGBT Community
Hepatitis C Therapy May Affect Men’s Sex Lives
U.S. Senators are currently considering two critical issues for people living with HIV/AIDS—the Ryan White CARE Act and health care reform.
The Ryan White CARE Act will officially expire on October 1. Unless Congress takes immediate action, or votes for a continuing resolution, the funding for HIV services for hundreds of thousands of HIV-positive people will be disrupted.
In addition, the Senate Finance Committee’s complicated health care proposal lacks the reforms needed to maintain, let alone improve, the health of HIV-positive people. It contains no public insurance option, isn’t affordable for middle-class families, and offers fewer benefits to those who depend on Medicaid.
Senate committee action on each of these issues started on September 24. Please call, write or e-mail your senators and urge them to fully fund Ryan White and work to achieve true health care reform.
To find out how to contact your senators, go to www.senate.gov.
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HIV Vaccine Study First to Show Some Effectiveness in Preventing HIV
A Phase 3 clinical trial involving more than 16,000 adult volunteers in Thailand has demonstrated that an experimental AIDS vaccine, made using two older vaccines, was safe and moderately effective in preventing HIV infection, according to a press release on September 24. According to final results released by the trial sponsor, the U.S. Army Surgeon General, the prime boost combination of ALVAC(R) HIV and AIDSVAX(R) B/E lowered the rate of HIV infection by 31.2% compared with placebo.
Lieutenant General Eric Schoomaker, Surgeon General, U.S. Army, pointed out, "This study is an outstanding example of international and interagency collaboration involving many partners from the Thai and U.S. governments, private companies, non-profit organizations and volunteers."
Collaborating partners on this study, referred to as RV144, include the U.S. Army, the Thai Ministry of Public Health, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, Sanofi Pasteur, and Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases (GSID).
In the final analysis, 74 placebo recipients became infected with HIV compared to 51 in the vaccine regimen arm. The efficacy result is statistically significant. Researchers were puzzled, having expected the vaccine to be ineffective, and cannot determine exactly why the combination is working.
"Myself, like others, did not think there was a very high chance that this would give any degree of efficacy," said Dr. Anthony Fauci of NIAID, which helped fund the study.
Though the unexpected results seem to confirm that a safe and effective vaccine is possible, there was also a down side - people who got the vaccine and who became
infected anyway had just as much virus in their blood and just as much damage to their immune systems as HIV-positive people who were unvaccinated. Researchers concluded that while the vaccine helps to prevent infection, it does nothing to affect the virus once it is in the body.
During a conference call with members of the media to discuss the study results, Positively Aware editor Jeff Berry noted that other vaccine combination studies had been tried before, and asked why they think it is that this vaccine showed some efficacy. In response, Fauci said, “There’s a simple answer to that question—we don’t know.” Fauci went on to point out that correlates don’t mean something if you don’t see an effect, and said the question now is—which immunological markers might correlate with the modest efficacy seen in this study?
Colonel Jerome Kim, Deputy Director, Science, MHRP and the HIV vaccines product manager for the U.S. Army, stated, “Knowledge gained through this study will be used to accelerate future study design and testing as researchers continue the search for a safe, globally-effective HIV vaccine.”
More detailed results of this study will be presented next month at the AIDS Vaccine Conference, October 19 through 22 in Paris.
For additional information, please visit www.hivresearch.org
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Rally at National Equality March to Galvanize LGBT Community
New York’s Housing Works issued a press release on September 21 announcing plans for dozens of people living with HIV to speak at a pre-march event on October 10. According to the release, “tens of thousands of LGBT Americans and their allies will converge on Washington next month to march for equal rights.” They will also use this opportunity to remind the nation that the AIDS epidemic is still with us and to remember those who have died from the disease.
The Equality To End AIDS rally and vigil will take place Saturday, October 10, the day before the massive Equality March. Equality To End AIDS will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 pm on the Ellipse, in front of the White House, and feature an inspiring roster of speakers and performers (most of whom are HIV-positive), culminating in a candlelight vigil.
“The weekend is about achieving full equality for LGBT Americans. We need to use that political power to remind the country that the AIDS epidemic continues. A great many young people will attend the march; we need them to continue the fight against HIV/AIDS,” said Cleve Jones, the founder of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and one of the National Equality March organizers.
“Many of our most energized LGBT activists are too young to remember the devastating impact AIDS has had on the gay community. We must re-engage the larger LGBT community in AIDS activism,” said Charles King, President and CEO of Housing Works, which is the fiscal sponsor of the rally and vigil. “Ending the HIV pandemic is an issue of justice that must be their fight as well.”
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Hepatitis C Therapy May Affect Men’s Sex Lives
“All three components of sexual health - desire, function, and satisfaction - may be negatively impacted for men taking standard therapy for chronic hepatitis C, new research shows,” according to a Reuters Health report on ABC News on September 16..
“Men planning to receive peginterferon and ribavirin should be counseled about the possibility of a decline in sexual health during treatment and receive adequate support if these side effects occur,” according to Dr. Lorna M. Dove of New York Presbyterian Medical Center, lead author of a study on sexual side effects.
The subjects of the study were 260 men taking the combination treatment for chronic hepatitis C. Before initiating therapy, 37% reported “at least some degree” of sex drive impairment; 26% reported erectile dysfunction; 22% reported impairment in ejaculatory function; and 44% reported dissatisfaction with their sex life.
When therapy ended, at either 24 or 48 weeks, 38-48% of the men said their “overall sexual function was worse than before treatment.” Caucasian men reported more impairment than African American men.
“By 24 weeks after treatment, sexual desire and satisfaction improved and were comparable to baseline levels,” the authors wrote. “However, among men who received 48 weeks of therapy, the estimated percentage of men reporting post-treatment erectile or ejaculatory problems remained higher than baseline, although persistent erectile impairment was limited to Caucasian patients.”
“Sexual impairment is common among men with chronic hepatitis C undergoing therapy with pegylated interferon and ribarvirin and should be considered as a potential side effect of antiviral therapy,” the authors concluded.
The report, “Decline in Male Sexual Desire, Function and Satisfaction During and After Antiviral Therapy for Chronic Hepatitis C,” was published in Gastroenterology.
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