Kaisernetwork.org (Washington, DC)
8 May 2008
Politics and Policy
AIDS Orphan Advocates Call for Increased Community-Based Programs, Passage of PEPFAR Bill
Science & Medicine
Biotech Firm GeoVax Labs To Launch Phase II Trials of HIV Vaccine Candidate
Rapid HIV Tests Highly Effective in Preventing Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission in India, Study Finds
Global Challenges
New HIV Cases Increasing in Germany, Institute Says
Namibia To Launch Pilot HIV Testing, Counseling Project
HIV/AIDS Funding in Tanzania Expected to Total $476M, Government Report Says
Politics and Policy
AIDS Orphan Advocates Call for Increased Community-Based Programs, Passage of PEPFAR Bill
[May 08, 2008]
Advocacy groups on Wednesday during a briefing about the millions of children worldwide who have lost one or both parents to AIDS called for an increase in community-based programs to assist AIDS orphans, as well as the passage of legislation to reauthorize the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, CQ HealthBeat reports (Cooley, CQ HealthBeat, 5/7). The House last month voted to approve a bill (HR 5501) that would reauthorize PEPFAR at $50 billion over the next five years, among other measures. The Senate version, which also would allocate $50 billion over five years, passed the Foreign Relations Committee in March and is awaiting floor consideration (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/3).
Speakers at the briefing -- which was hosted by the groups Global Action for Children and Francois-Xavier Bagnoud -- said that community-based efforts in addition to increases in PEPFAR funding are necessary to address HIV/AIDS. FXB Founder Albina du Boisrouvray said that local initiatives are needed to prevent children from "drifting" into commercial sex work or becoming child soldiers, which she called "ills that we spend so many billions fighting downstream instead of preventing upstream."
Jim Yong Kim -- a professor of health, human rights and medicine at Harvard University -- said, "We have to take a hard look at how we're spending our money." He and other speakers called for family-centered approaches to addressing AIDS orphans, adding that institutional care often is associated with poor outcomes. "Your average American, when thinking of the orphan crisis, thinks either of adoption or orphanages," advocate Diana Aubourg Millner said. She and Kim said that they support programs that encourage family members and communities to care for orphans.
Kim also said that money should be given directly to communities instead of large international and often faith-based groups. He said that cash transfers given directly to impoverished families have increased school enrollment and attendance in Honduras, Mexico, South Africa and Zambia. In addition, Kim emphasized the role of PEPFAR funding in supporting and expanding such initiatives. "Nothing has made me prouder of being an American than watching what PEPFAR has done," he said (CQ HealthBeat, 5/7).
Link to this story.
Science & Medicine
Biotech Firm GeoVax Labs To Launch Phase II Trials of HIV Vaccine Candidate
[May 08, 2008]
The Atlanta-based biotechnology firm GeoVax Labs plans to launch Phase II clinical trials of its experimental HIV vaccine this summer, company officials recently announced, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (Hendrick, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 5/8).
GeoVax while in midstage development of its HIV vaccine candidate enrolled 140 people in four independent national trials. The firm is developing the experimental HIV vaccine in collaboration with Emory University, CDC and NIH. According to Emory officials, a prototype of the vaccine provided long-term protection against development of AIDS in nonhuman primate studies conducted more than three years ago at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta. NIH awarded the firm a $15 million grant in October 2007 to further its research and continue human clinical trials (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 10/1/07).
The vaccine is the only candidate among several under development that is "on the verge" of being moved to Phase II trials by the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, the Journal-Constitution reports.
"The upcoming Phase II trial is being conducted in a larger number of healthy individuals," Bob McNally, president and CEO of GeoVax, said. He added, "Now that the delivery combinations of the vaccine have been worked out, the Phase II trial will expand the participants to 150 vaccinated volunteers and 75 volunteers as a control group who do not receive the vaccine."
The trial participants are not at risk of contracting HIV, and the purpose of the study is to gauge the CD4+ T cell and antibody response to the vaccine, according to McNally. "The significance of the results will be to give a level of comfort" to FDA and GeoVax that when the vaccine is given to at-risk participants, there will be a "high degree of likelihood that the patients will be protected from contracting the disease," McNally said.
"We've had excellent results in our early stage human trials," Harriet Robinson, chief scientific adviser to GeoVax, said. She noted that no vaccine has ever prevented infection but that she hopes the candidate will "prevent the development of disease and transmission." Robinson also said she hopes the vaccine might ultimately be administered to adolescents.
Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, said the vaccine's advancement to Phase II trials is a significant achievement. GeoVax's Phase I data are "compelling and warran[t] taking (the vaccine) into Phase II," he said. "But there is still much more to be done," Warren said. He added, "You are not looking for efficacy in these trials. That comes later in much larger trials. With GeoVax, they're still in the early phases of product development. The early data look good. If it looks good after Phase II, it will go into Phase III. There are still a number of more hurdles."
Warren noted that several candidates have advanced to Phase II trials, adding that two of three that advanced to Phase III have failed. Don Hildebrand, board chair of GeoVax, said that "only a handful of AIDS vaccines have reached" the same level of evaluation as GeoVax's (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 5/8).
Link to this story.
Rapid HIV Tests Highly Effective in Preventing Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission in India, Study Finds
[May 08, 2008]
Rapid HIV tests have been found to be highly effective in preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission in clinical trials in India, according to a study published online Tuesday in PLoS Medicine, the Times of India reports (Sinha, Times of India, 5/7). For the study, the researchers used OraSure Technologies' OraQuick Advance Rapid HIV 1/2 Antibody Test (Derfel, Montreal Gazette, 5/6).
The OraQuick test requires users to swab their gums and then place the swab in a holder. After 20 minutes, one line appears on the strip if the test result is negative and the person is HIV-negative, and two appear if the result is positive and the person is HIV-positive. Positive results require a follow-up test with a medical professional for confirmation (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/1). According to the Gazette, although standard blood tests are available in India, they are not always accessible. In addition, it can take up to two hours to receive results from standard blood tests, and laboratory technicians are not on call during the evening to administer the tests -- meaning that most women give birth without being tested for HIV (Montreal Gazette, 5/6).
For the study, Nitika Pant Pai of the division of infectious diseases at McGill University's Health Center and colleagues administered both an oral HIV test and a traditional blood test to 1,222 pregnant women during a nine-month period in the labor ward of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in India. The results from both tests corresponded in 100% of cases, the researchers found (ANI/DailyIndia.com, 5/6). Of the participants, about 82% had never taken an HIV test, according to the study. The tests found that 11 women were HIV-positive. These women were given antiretroviral drugs to prevent MTCT. According to the study, 10 of these infants survived and tested negative for HIV.
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