Illinois Advisory Panel Recommends Immediate Waiting List for AIDS Drugs
New Vaginal Microbicides May Block HIV
amfAR Consortium Searches for HIV/AIDS Cure
CDC Offers Help Promoting National HIV Testing Day
Illinois Advisory Panel Recommends Immediate Waiting List for AIDS Drugs
The following is taken from a press release issued on May 24 by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago:
Facing an historic budget crisis that could destabilize HIV treatment access for more than 4,000 low-income Illinoisans with HIV/AIDS, a state advisory panel voted on May 21 to urge Illinois to immediately close the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) to new applicants and begin a waiting list. The recommendation is now under review by state officials.
“Because the program is deeply underfunded, Illinois must take immediate steps to preserve services for those who rely on ADAP for their life-saving care,” said David Ernesto Munar, vice president of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC), and a member of the ADAP Medical Issues Advisory Board, which made the recommendation. “The program faces total fiscal collapse unless immediate actions are taken.”
The Medical Issues Advisory Board, comprised of doctors, pharmacists, legal experts, advocates, and people with HIV, advises the Illinois Department of Public Health on ADAP policy. Jointly funded by the state and federal governments, ADAP provides HIV
medications to low-income, HIV-positive Illinoisans who have no other means to afford the costly HIV therapies they need.
“Denying urgent HIV care will only heighten Illinois’ already acute HIV crisis and result in greater numbers of preventable HIV deaths and new infections,” said AFC President/CEO Mark Ishaug. “We call on Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, the Illinois General Assembly and the federal government to provide immediate assistance to maintain this and other core public health and HIV programs.”
“Investing in ADAP is good public health policy and good fiscal policy,” said John Peller, AFC’s director of government relations. “To close the state’s $12 billion budget deficit, state lawmakers should approve fair-minded tax increases. Meeting Illinois’ current and future health, education, public safety, child care, and senior needs, depends on an adequately funded public safety net.”
The Illinois General Assembly will convene this week in Springfield to finalize the fiscal
year 2011 state budget. Governor Quinn’s proposed budget would under-fund HIV-related services by more than $4 million.
“The General Assembly and Governor Quinn must act this week to avert ADAP waiting lists by allocating sufficient funding for the program,” continued Peller. “For the past decade, Illinois ADAP has been one of the strongest ADAPs in the nation. We urge the state’s leaders to uphold their promise that people with HIV in Illinois can get help from the state when they need it the most.”
Advocates estimate that an additional $9.68 million in state funding in fiscal year 2011 is needed to avert a waiting list. In April 2010, 4,391 Illinoisans with HIV obtained HIV medications through ADAP, a new record. Each month, more than 100 people join the
program.
Without ADAP or adequate insurance, HIV medications are simply too costly to afford for most people. An HIV medication regimen can cost as much as $20,000 per year.
“People of color will be most impacted by a closed program and waiting list,” said Rev.
Doris Green, AFC director of correctional health and community affairs. “Two out of three people using Illinois ADAP are African American or Latino. People of color are disproportionately impacted by HIV and they tend to be diagnosed at later stages of disease than their white counterparts. An ADAP waiting list will only worsen existing health disparities.”
Because of the weak economy, many people with HIV have lost their jobs and are turning to ADAP for help. Thanks to the medications they receive, HIV-positive individuals already on ADAP are living longer and needing uninterrupted services for longer periods of time. Additionally, expanded HIV testing efforts are increasing the number of low-income people who know their HIV-positive status and need medical assistance.
ADAPs across the nation are facing financial crises. Illinois would become the 12th state to institute a waiting list if the advisory panel’s recommendation moves forward. More than 1,000 individuals are currently on ADAP waiting lists across the U.S.
“It’s a national embarrassment that people with HIV can’t get access to the medications that will allow them to work, thrive and contribute to society,” said Munar, who is living with HIV. “The United States is failing to meet the most basic need of people with HIV— medications that will extend their lives.”
For more information about ADAP and the Illinois state budget crisis, visit
www.aidschicago.org/budget.
New Vaginal Microbicides May Block HIV
On May 17, the Associated Press reported that after many failed attempts to develop vaginal microbicides that could repel the AIDS virus, researchers are now testing to see if a drug used to treat HIV infection might work — by infusing the medicine into vaginal gels and contraceptive-style rings. There is even research into quick-dissolving anti-HIV films, like those now used for breath-fresheners, made for fingertip application in the vagina. This kind of protection, which can be controlled by women, is considered key to fighting the HIV epidemic, especially in developing countries where women too often can't get their partners to use a condom.
Results from a study in which South African women tested a gel made with the HIV drug tenofovir aren't due until July, but researchers gathering for the biennial International Microbicides Conference in Pittsburgh this week expressed cautious optimism.
"Frankly, blocking transmission of the virus appears to be a lot harder than anyone understood it would be at the beginning," says meeting co-chair Dr. Sharon Hillier of the University of Pittsburgh and a principal investigator of the Microbicide Trials Network.
"The reason we're not depressed in the microbicide world? We actually have learned a lot and moved on to think about potent drugs and really cool delivery methods."
Dr. Salim Abdool Karim of the Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa at the University of KwaZulu-Natal led the pending tenofovir gel study, his ninth microbicide study since 1994. He perseveres because of the continued alarming rate of infection among girls and women. "I have in fact so little to offer them in terms of HIV prevention that I sort of tear my hair out," he says.
His study recruited 900 HIV-negative heterosexual women to test whether tenofovir gel, applied up to 12 hours before intercourse and again within 12 hours afterward, lowered the risk of infection. Drugs like tenofovir block HIV's replication in the already infected, suggesting they're a good try for that window period. And tenofovir concentrates in vaginal tissue at far higher levels via a gel than a pill with little spread of the drug elsewhere, easing side-effect concerns, adds Karim.
While awaiting results of this study, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding the next step: Researchers now are recruiting up to 5,000 healthy women in several African countries to use either vaginal tenofovir gel—daily rather than timed around intercourse — or daily pills containing the drug. It's the first comparison of the two strategies.
amfAR Consortium Searches for HIV/AIDS Cure
In a May 11 press release, the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) announced that “Four teams of leading researchers will receive amfAR funding to establish a groundbreaking collaborative effort to pursue HIV eradication.”
“amfAR has a long history of funding breakthrough research, and developing this consortium gives me great hope that we will catalyze the research for a cure for HIV/AIDS,” said amfAR CEO Kevin Robert Frost. “We believe that a collaborative research effort has the potential to dramatically accelerate the search for a cure.”
According to the release, the initial round of funding for the newly constituted amfAR Research Consortium on HIV Eradication (ARCHE) includes projects in each of three areas that are widely considered central to HIV eradication:
- Finding a sterilizing cure that would eliminate all HIV from the body;
- Finding a functional cure that would achieve permanent viral suppression without therapy; and
- The characterization of viral reservoirs, the barrier that must be overcome to achieve a cure.
“There is a growing sense within the scientific community that the search for a cure for AIDS is ripe for a concerted research effort,” said Dr. Robert Siliciano, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University whose team will receive some of the funding.
“Researchers supported by amfAR’s ARCHE initiative will gather regularly to discuss their progress. Recognizing the long-term commitment required for these complex investigations, amfAR has designated ARCHE grants to be potentially renewable in subsequent years,” the release continued.
amfAR’s commitment to a cure for HIV/AIDS is consistent with comments recently made by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, the lead agency on federally-supported AIDS research. Dr. Fauci described research towards a cure as “high risk, but very high impact,” and continued, “I feel strongly that this is a direction we should go, even though years ago this would have been unimaginable.”
CDC Offers Help Promoting National HIV Testing Day
Across the country, thousands of state and local health departments and community-based organizations will participate in National HIV Testing Day (NHTD) events on June 27. To assist in promoting these events, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Prevention Information Network (NPIN) is offering the following tools:
- An NHTD Twitter Town Hall: Thursday June 3rd from 3 to 4:30 p.m. ET. The Town Hall will help partners share their successes, resources, and challenges around National HIV Testing Day in a real-time Twitter discussion, moderated by CDCNPIN staff, hosted by CDC and joined by the National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA) and AIDS.gov. Follow it at www.cdcnpin.org.
- An online registration form for organizations to list their NHTD events. This listing will help inform the public, the media, and partners in the field about the events taking place locally and across the country
- NHTD posters including bilingual (English/Spanish). New posters are being added and can be downloaded in PDF format at the CDCNPIN website.
- A mobile device-friendly version of HIVTest.org available at www.m.HIVTest.org
- Widgets and web buttons
- One-on-one assistance in locating NHTD resources – available by clicking “Live Help” from the CDCNPIN home page OR by calling 1-800-458-5231.