A article which was published by Independent of UK offering potential vital key to ending HIV through a two stage attack on HIV. Anyone who is poz and reads this please be aware it is still a long way away from any actual therepy. Probably a decade or a little more.

British man might be first in the world to be cured of HIV after 'breakthrough' treatment

Pioneering new therapy launches two-stage 'kick and kill' attack on the virus

• Charlotte England 
• @charlottengland 
• Tuesday 4 October 2016
• 25 comments

32K

A pharmacist dispenses HIV drugs AFP/Getty Images

A 44-year-old British man may have become the first person in the world to be cured of HIV.

Tests showed the virus had become undetectable in the blood of the previously HIV-positive man, after he was treated with a pioneering new therapy designed to eradicate the virus. 

Researchers have cautioned that it is too early to tell if the treatment has really worked but said the man, a social worker, had made "remarkable progress". 

READ MORE

• High Court rules NHS England can legally fund new HIV prevention drug PrEP after charity wins case
• PrEP medicine 'could prevent around 7,400 extra HIV cases by 2020'
• HIV cure a step closer after scientists remove virus's DNA from living tissue

The patient was the first of 50 people to complete a trial of the ambitious treatment which launches a two-stage “kick and kill” attack on the virus.

The new therapy is unique in that it tracks down and destroy HIV in every part of the body —including in the dormant cells that evade current treatments. 

“This is one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for HIV,” Mark Samuels of Britain's National Institute for Health Research told The Sunday Times.

”This is a huge challenge and it's still early days, but the progress has been remarkable," he said.

The clinical trials, which are being paid for by the NHS, are the result of a collaboration between doctors and scientists at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, University College London and King's College London.

0:00

/

0:00

HIV in numbers

The man, who has not been named, said he participated in the trial to help others with the disease.

HIV, which stands for ”human immunodeficiency virus,“ is mainly transmitted through sexual acts or by using infected needles. The virus weakens a person's immune system by destroying T-cells which are crucial to fighting disease and infection.

About 36.7 million people are living with HIV worldwide, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Antiretroviral therapies target and suppress active infected cells but they leave millions of dormant infected T-cells lying in wait throughout the body. This means existing treatments can effectively control HIV but do not cure the disease. 

Preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS

• 12show all

The new treatment, however, would both suppress infections and kill the reservoir of dormant cells, The Sunday Timesreported. 

Sarah Fidler, a consultant physician and professor at Imperial College London, said medical tests of the potentially breakthroughtherapy would continue for the next five years.

”It has worked in the laboratory and there is good evidence it will work in humans too,“ Ms Fidler said. ”But we must stress that we are still a long way from any actual therapy."

• More about: 
• HIV
• HIV treatment
• HIV/Aids
• AIDS
• drug trial

#HIVTruth #FightStigma #SpeakOutHIV #HIV #HIVStigma #AIDS

Statistics on HIV infection shown in many different hypothetical sexual situations

Probabilities of HIV transmission per exposure to the virus are usually expressed in percentages or as odds (see chart at the end of this article). For example, the average risk of contracting HIV through sharing a needle one time with an HIV-positive drug user is 0.67 percent, which can also be stated as 1 in 149 or, using the ratios the CDC prefers, 67 out of 10,000 exposures. The risk from giving a blowjob to an HIV-positive man not on treatment is at most 1 in 2,500 (or 0.04 percent per act). The risk of contracting HIV during vaginal penetration, for a woman in the United States, is 1 per 1,250 exposures (or 0.08 percent); for the man in that scenario, it's 1 per 2,500 exposures (0.04 percent, which is the same as performing fellatio). 

As for anal sex, the most risky sex act in terms of HIV transmission, if an HIV-negative top—the insertive partner—and an HIV-positive bottom have unprotected sex, the chances of the top contracting the virus from a single encounter are 1 in 909 (or 0.11 percent) if he's circumcised and 1 in 161 (or 0.62 percent) if he's uncircumcised. And if an HIV-negative person bottoms for an HIV-positive top who doesn't use any protection but does ejaculate inside, the chances of HIV transmission are, on average, less than 2 percent. Specifically, it is 1.43 percent, or 1 out of 70. If the guy pulls out before ejaculation, then the odds are 1 out of 154.

http://www.poz.com/pdfs/P04-14p53.risk_transmission.pdf

#HIVTruth #FightStigma #SpeakOutHIV #HIV #HIVStigma #AIDS

Looking for Symptoms Is a Poor Way to Detect Early HIV Infection

A treatment news post I found on POZ.com that was originally published on medpagetoday.com. I found this interesting and completely fitting for the HIV/AIDS subreddit I frequent as many people tend to think they have contracted HIV if they wake up with a cold a week after an unprotected sexual encounter. The amount of posts that are describing symptoms and requesting opinion's from us who have HIV either to validate or ease their worries is ridiculous. I've only been a reddit'r for less than two years but it is eye opening in learning the social stand points on many things.

Because people newly infected with HIV often show few symptoms and signs of seroconversion illness, relying on such often nonspecific markers is a poor way to detect early infection with the virus in clinics, MedPage Today reports. Publishing their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers conduced twice-weekly blood tests of 2,276 high-risk individuals in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Thailand.

An individual is acutely infected with HIV when he or she tests positive for HIV RNA or the p24 antigen (each of which shows up in the body before antibodies to the virus) but tests negative for antibodies.

A total of 261 members of the cohort tested positive for HIV RNA, and 112, or 3.4 percent of the cohort, had their HIV status confirmed. Out of that group, 50 people gave two or more samples of blood that tested positive for HIV RNA before they tested positive for antibodies as well. The study’s analysis focused on this group.

The median peak viral load among the group was 5 million, occurring 13 days after the first positive test of HIV RNA. After the first RNA-positive test, a median 14 days passed before individuals tested positive for antibodies. After peaking, the viral load hit a low point of 20,000, which was close to the viral load’s ultimate plateau of 25,000.

Most commonly, physical symptoms of acute HIV, also known as seroconversion illness, took place around the time of the viral load peak. The most commonly reported symptoms were fever, headache and malaise. The most common signs the doctors observed were high heart rate and swollen lymph nodes. Participants reported a median of one symptom of acute infection at a median of two study visits. Physicians observed one sign of acute infection at a median of three visits.

The researchers concluded: “Nonspecific symptoms and signs [of acute HIV] were most common, severe manifestations were not observed, volunteers reported symptoms in only 29 percent of visits, and on any given visit day the likelihood of observing a symptom or sign was only 50 percent.”

To read the MedPage Today article, click here.

To read the study abstract, click here.

This actually sounds promising. It's the weekly antibody injection Charlie Sheen has talked about. He actually is part of this case study.

Weekly PRO 140 Antibody Injections May Work as HIV Maintenance Therapy

By Warren Tong

From TheBodyPRO.com

June 20, 2016

Weekly injections of a monoclonal antibody known as PRO 140 may work as a stand-alone treatment for individuals living with HIV, according to a study presented at ASM Microbe 2016, in Boston.

The phase-2b study followed 39 people who were living with CCR5-tropic HIV. CCR5 is a receptor on the CD4 cell that most strains of HIV use as a point of entry. PRO 140 is able to bind to CCR5, preventing HIV infection.

The study participants achieved undetectable viral loads (below 40 copies/mL) on standard once-daily antiretroviral therapy. They were then switched to weekly subcutaneous injections of PRO 140 monotherapy. After they maintained viral suppression for 13 weeks, 16 participants were trained to self-administer the weekly injections.

"The PRO 140 treatment was well tolerated by patients with no discontinuation or drug-related adverse effects," said lead author Paul J. Maddon, M.D., Ph.D., according to the study press release. "Importantly, PRO 140 monotherapy can allow patients to avoid the potential toxicity of [antiretroviral therapy] while preserving future drug options," Maddon added.There were 15 participants included in the final results, with 86.7% male, 20% non-white, a median age of 55 years and median CD4 count of 586 cells/mm3. Out of those 15, 10 participants are still on PRO 140 monotherapy and have maintained viral suppression for almost 18 months, according to a study press release.

Three participants experienced virologic failure at a median time of 169 days. They were subsequently restarted on standard antiretroviral therapy and achieved an undetectable viral load after a median of 29 days. Additionally, one participant with an undetectable viral load discontinued the PRO 140 treatment at week 47 because of relocation.

"PRO 140 may offer a simple, long-acting, single-agent maintenance therapy after initial [antiretroviral therapy] in selected patients with HIV infection," Maddon concluded.

The researchers plan to move on to a larger phase-2b or phase-3 study.

PRO 140 is the experimental drug that the actor Charlie Sheen, who publicly disclosed his HIV status in November 2015, recently revealed he was receiving as part of a clinical trial.

Here's a video from the antibody developers showing how PRO 140 combats HIV:

Editor's note: This is a developing story and more details will be added as we receive additional information.

Warren Tong is the senior science editor for TheBody.com and TheBodyPRO.com.

Follow Warren on Twitter: @WarrenAtTheBody.

Copyright © 2016 Remedy Health Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

#HIVTruth #FightStigma #SpeakOutHIV #HIV #HIVStigma #AIDS

Odefsey - One a day pill using Truvada in combination with other ART's

What is the most important information I should know about ODEFSEY?

ODEFSEY may cause serious side effects:

• Buildup of an acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency. Symptoms of lactic acidosis include feeling very weak or tired, unusual muscle pain, trouble breathing, stomach pain with nausea or vomiting, feeling cold (especially in your arms and legs), feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or a fast or irregular heartbeat.
• Serious liver problems. The liver may become large and fatty. Symptoms of liver problems include your skin or the white part of your eyes turning yellow (jaundice); dark "tea-colored" urine; loss of appetite; light-colored bowel movements (stools); nausea; and/or pain, aching, or tenderness on the right side of your stomach area.
• You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver problems if you are female, very overweight, or have been taking ODEFSEY or a similar medicine for a long time. In some cases, lactic acidosis and serious liver problems have led to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any symptoms of these conditions.
• Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. ODEFSEY is not approved to treat HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV and stop taking ODEFSEY, your HBV may suddenly get worse. Do not stop taking ODEFSEY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to monitor your health.

Who should not take ODEFSEY?

Do not take ODEFSEY if you take:

• Certain prescription medicines for other conditions. It is important to ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about medicines that should not be taken with ODEFSEY. Do not start a new medicine without telling your healthcare provider.
• The herbal supplement St. John's wort.
• Any other medicines to treat HIV-1 infection.

What are the other possible side effects of ODEFSEY?

Serious side effects of ODEFSEY may also include:

• Severe skin rash and allergic reactions. Skin rash is a common side effect of ODEFSEY. Call your healthcare provider right away if you get a rash, as some rashes and allergic reactions may need to be treated in a hospital. Stop taking ODEFSEY and get medical help right away if you get a rash with any of the following symptoms: fever, skin blisters, mouth sores, redness or swelling of the eyes (conjunctivitis), swelling of the face, lips, mouth, or throat, trouble breathing or swallowing, pain on the right side of the stomach (abdominal) area, and/or dark "tea-colored" urine.
• Depression or mood changes. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you: feel sad or hopeless, feel anxious or restless, have thoughts of hurting yourself (suicide) or have tried to hurt yourself.
• Changes in liver enzymes. People who have had hepatitis B or C or who have certain liver enzyme changes may have a higher risk for new or worse liver problems while taking ODEFSEY. Liver problems can also happen in people who have not had liver disease. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your liver enzymes before and during treatment with ODEFSEY.
• Changes in body fat, which can happen in people taking HIV-1 medicines.
• Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking ODEFSEY.
• Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. Your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking ODEFSEY if you develop new or worse kidney problems.
• Bone problems, such as bone pain, softening, or thinning, which may lead to fractures. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your bones.

The most common side effects of rilpivirine, one of the medicines in ODEFSEY, are depression, trouble sleeping (insomnia), and headache.

The most common side effect of emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide, two of the medicines in ODEFSEY, is nausea.

Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or do not go away.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking ODEFSEY?

• All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you have or have had any kidney, bone, mental health (depression or suicidal thoughts), or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection.
• All the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Other medicines may affect how ODEFSEY works. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist. Ask your healthcare provider if it is safe to take ODEFSEY with all of your other medicines.
• If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if ODEFSEY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking ODEFSEY.
• If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

WHAT IS ODEFSEY?

ODEFSEY is a 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in people 12 years and older. It can either be used in people who are starting HIV-1 treatment, have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, and have an amount of HIV-1 in their blood ("viral load") that is no more than 100,000 copies/mL; or in people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements. These include having an undetectable viral load (less than 50 copies/mL) for 6 months or more on their current HIV-1 treatment. ODEFSEY combines 3 medicines into 1 pill taken once a day with a meal. ODEFSEY is a complete HIV-1 treatment and should not be used with other HIV-1 medicines.

ODEFSEY does not cure HIV-1 infection or AIDS. To control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses, you must keep taking ODEFSEY. Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to reduce the risk of passing HIV-1 to others. Always practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance of sexual contact with body fluids. Never reuse or share needles or other items that have body fluids on them.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see full Prescribing Information, including Patient Information with important warnings.

#HIVTruth #FightStigma #SpeakOutHIV #HIV #HIVStigma #AIDS