Posts tagged HIV/AIDS
Why Millions of HIV-Positive Individuals Go Undiagnosed
8 years ago
As HIV prevention, testing and treatment continue to advance, HIV positive patients on a treatment plan remain healthier, living longer lives. As new information pours in, researchers scramble to further progress their understanding and approach to the disease. Methods used to slow disease progression and curb mortality rates are proving more and more successful. Yet, in spite of such advances, the struggle with HIV is still a slow, tragic war. Why might you ask?
What Is Holding Us Back from Defeating HIV?
More cases are reported every year, and it is estimated that millions have the infection without knowing it. Herein lies the danger. Those unaware HIV carriers often infect others. Spreading of the virus is one of the major roadblocks to its eradication.
Why Individuals Avoid Testing
Studies on why so many people with HIV refuse testing or treatment have come to a simple conclusion: fear. Fear is helping HIV survive the war. Whether it’s fear of the disease or the associated social stigmas, it remains the number one reason people do not get tested.
The psychology behind the behavior needs to change. Any chronic condition carries with it a strong measure of fear. HIV is no exception. However, those advances mentioned earlier are reason for hope. Hope supported by reality. Today, HIV testing can be performed at home. If the result is positive, treatments are available. What once arrived with a death sentence is now a treatable condition. Slowing the progression from HIV to AIDS is now a regular occurrence. HIV positive people can enjoy a long life and enjoy a full and happy one too. And more than every the public needs to understand this new chapter in the war on HIV.
Courage Reaps Benefits
Fear of a diagnosis is no reason to put off testing. Hope lives. Fear kills. Early detection leads to more positive outcomes, like HIV prevention, and management of the viral infection. This is the message healthcare professionals encourage. Educating the public on the facts, rather than the fears of HIV, saves lives, prevents future infections, and will help us to one day eliminate the virus for good.
HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder
9 years ago
How HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder Affects the Mind as a Person Ages
Year after year, advancements made in the treatment of HIV are helping many to lead longer and healthier lives. As individuals enter their later years, it is important to know what to expect when living with HIV.
Current Standards for Testing
For example, at least one-third of HIV-positive patients will develop what is termed HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder. The medical community knows of this disorder, and very often tests older adults who are HIV-positive. New information on the cognitive functions of those living with an HIV infection may change how physicians test for the disorder.
Normally, doctors will administer a standard neuropsychology exam. If a patient scores well on this test, he is usually deemed cognitively normal. This standard test seemed to be doing the job—until the matter was further investigated. Researchers examined a group of patients who had passed this test, but then subjected them to different types of testing. The surprising results exposed the need for further probing when looking to diagnose HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder.
What the Research Revealed
Older, HIV-positive adults were asked to perform certain mental tasks on cue. At times, the tasks were changed from one to another. This is where physicians began to notice a lag between healthy participants and those with HIV. This response to switching tasks was significantly slower in the HIV group.
To delve a bit deeper, brain scans were ordered. The scans revealed that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex was reacting differently in the control group than the HIV-positive one. This area of the human brain is linked to both executive and apathetic deficits. These cognitive impairments may come in under the radar with standard testing.
The Latest Developments
At this time, we have no way to treat the disorder. Efficient testing, however, is still vital to patients, as well as their families and caregivers. Understanding that some functions might come a little slower to HIV-positive individuals during their later years is important for those who interact with them daily. Effective testing and education are the keys.
These studies are recent. More study and research are underway.
The Importance of “Safe Spaces” in HIV Testing and Prevention
9 years ago
by ADMIN
in HIV Management
How HIV Testing and Prevention Can Be Improved
Despite advances in the treatment of HIV, some find it challenging to continue treatment, or even seek HIV testing or treatment in the first place. More and more research points to certain social stigmas as a possible cause. Some such stigmas are gay or bisexual black men are at the highest risk of contracting HIV. While they make up a small percentage of the population, they have the highest percentage of new cases – nearly 75% in just a span of a couple years. Experts are not only concerned with proper treatment of the disease, but also the lack of prevention tactics. Areas called Safe Spaces have proven beneficial for individuals with HIV or those at the highest risk of contracting the virus.
What Is a Safe Space?
A Safe Space can be a physical location or one on the Internet. It’s a place where individuals who feel shunned by society, their families, religion, or other institutions can come together and feel welcomed. Studies continually show that when people feel connected to others and receive support, they fare better with their diagnosis and maintain treatment schedules. It is well documented that Safe Spaces become acceptable and common hangouts for those who are HIV positive.
Challenges Facing Safe Spaces
The main challenge with the safe spaces program is, of course, funding. Budget cuts are common, and Safe Spaces are often the first to go. It is hoped that further studies of the value of such programs will be acknowledged instead of underestimated. Current research is underway as to how such spaces might contribute to the prevention of HIV. Those who frequent the Safe Spaces, but do not test positive, can be given medication to help the body prevent a future infection. As long as the safe space is there, this preventative measure could help many from contracting HIV. Other studies are examining how Safe Spaces may help other health issues, such as Hepatitis C, that carry a stigma.
The sense of community provided by Safe Spaces allows individuals to feel secure and open to have HIV testing, prevention and treatment. Experts are convinced that these spaces will prove invaluable tools for reaching those who lack other options.
New Drug Make Awaken Dormant HIV Cells for Complete Eradication
9 years ago
by ADMIN
in HIV Research
Current treatments for HIV infections have come a long way over the past decade. Still research continues to try and find a cure for this tenacious viral invasion. While antiretroviral therapies may control the infection, treatment does not eliminate it completely from the body. There are some cells that have been infected with HIV that remain dormant and undetected by the immune system. Should a patient cease treatment, these cells could reactivate. However, recent research teams have noted a new class of drug that may be the key to purging these dormant cells. That could mean an HIV cure.
Cells that contain the HIV gene are difficult to find because they are wrapped up in the DNA. Certain drugs that are used to unravel this gene to treat other conditions still have a tough time finding the virus. Also, it is not easy to wake the virus as many of these types of drugs have not been successful in doing so. Here is where the new drug comes in. Smac mimetics, as it is called, works by acting as an alarm. This alarm acts quickly and is effective at awakening latent HIV-infected cells. It can do this without the risk of also activating the immune system which, if drastic enough, could prove fatal. But, the awakening of these cells can lead to detection by the immune system and eradication. All of this is accomplished because the drug uses the so-called back-door of the cell when it enters. Thus, a complete purge of the virus from the host occurs. If used together with the gene unraveling drugs, it is believed that Smac mimetics will prove successful.
With so much new information and so many trials underway, sometimes promising results do not make it into therapy for quite a while. This brings us to the other benefit of Smac mimetics – it is already being used for clinical trials in cancer treatments. The trials already conducted have gone very well. So while HIV-1 specific testing and formulating needs to be done, it is possible to see the drug being used for HIV in a much more reasonable timeframe than if it was a new development for an HIV cure.
The Body’s Immune Cells Actually Cause HIV Patients to Develop AIDS
9 years ago
by ADMIN
in HIV Research
That AIDS is brought about through an HIV infection is not new knowledge. Results from a recent investigation on the process from HIV infection to AIDS, however, sheds light on the topic. Actually, the findings show that it is the body’s own cells that cause AIDS, rather than the virus directly. This new concept could change how to proceed with treatment and HIV cure.
The virus, upon entering the host, infects a healthy immune system cell (CD4 T cells). The cell in turn can infect other healthy cells. Therefore, infection is spread either from the free-floating HIV itself or via the infected cells. While this has been common knowledge for some time, it was unknown that the latter is much more destructive when it comes to disease progression. Not only is cell to cell transfer much more efficient and effective, but it can also be deadly.
Once a healthy immune cell has been infiltrated, HIV DNA fragments begin to accumulate within the cell. At first it goes undetected, but the cleaning up of these fragments becomes too much for the cell, and it is eventually detected. This overload signals the cell’s defense system. This, in turn, triggers a molecular response. The chain of events that follows is fatal, cell suicide, if you will. Once the enzyme caspase-1 is activated, what usually follows is cell death (pyroptosis). This preprogrammed response in immune cells is a type of self-defense. Cell to cell infection is so successful because mass cell ‘suicides’ are what can eventually lead to disease progression, a wiped out immune system, and AIDS.
Upon this discovery, a number of experiments were performed to confirm the findings. The results supported what had been uncovered. Scientists are sure that it is due to the efficiency in which the infection transfers from cell to cell that leads to mass cell death. In turn, treatment of HIV and preventative measures against AIDS may now focus on inhibiting cell to cell transfer rather than just on the unattached virus itself. Turning attention to CD4 T cells and coming up with solutions that will prevent infection transfers should assist in halting not just the spread of infection, but also disease progression into AIDS and thus promise of an HIV cure.
