Celebrating 21 Years of Excellence!
New Vaccine Approaches Show Early Promise for HIV
Two experimental vaccine approaches, using mRNA protein delivery and germline targeting, are in the early stages of development. After more than three decades of research, scientists have had little success developing vaccines to prevent HIV. But advances in vaccine science—including those that led to the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines—could offer hope for the future.
Breakthrough HIV Test means people living with HIV can begin treatment sooner.
The Aptima HIV-1 Quant Dx assay, already approved for viral load
monitoring, has now received Food and Drug Administration approval for
initial HIV diagnosis, making it the first product OK’d for both
purposes. The Aptima HIV-1 was approved for viral load monitoring in 2016, and
its manufacturer, Hologic, announced Friday that the FDA had approved it
for HIV diagnosis. Read Full Article
But
even starting antiretrovirals with a high CD4 count doesn’t close the
wide gap in years lived without major health problems. The good news is
that the gap in life expectancy between people with and
without HIV has steadily narrowed in recent years, falling to nine
years. Furthermore, those who initiate treatment when
their CD4 count is at least 500 have a normal life expectancy. Read Full Article
There are a number of reasons why you may need to change your HIV treatment. You might experience side-effects which become unmanageable, have trouble taking your treatment, or the HIV drugs you take may not keep your viral load down. You might also need to change treatment because of interactions
between HIV drugs and drugs for other conditions or because
you experience drug resistance, which can develop when HIV
treatment does not work properly. Read Full Article
A recent analysis suggested that only one in four people on antiretroviral treatment take 95% or more of their doses. Only perhaps a quarter of people living with HIV in the United States
are adherent to, or faithfully take, their daily antiretroviral (ARV)
regimen. Read Full Article