Signs of STD

Dolutegravir, one of the medications used to control HIV. | Reuters Two decades after he started taking HIV medicines, in 2020, Nitin Solanki was put on a regime of a new drug called Dolutegravir. He immediately felt it was "a good drug". "My viral load reduced after I started taking it," he said. Around India, thousands of patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which causes the acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, made a similar switch to Dolutegravir, described by some doctors as a "miracle drug". But the patients now find themselves left in the lurch. In the past two months, Solanki, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, has been visiting the local antiretroviral centre in Thane, the city adjoining Mumbai where he lives, only to return empty handed. There is no stock of Dolutegravir. "Supply issues kee...

Jonah Sacha, Ph.D., at OHSU's Oregon National Primate Research Center and Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute. (OHSU/Kristyna Wentz-Graff) A new pre-clinical study in nonhuman primates will evaluate an experimental drug's potential use as a gene therapy that could prevent people who have HIV from having to take daily antiviral drugs for the rest of their lives. The research will be led by Oregon Health & Science University researcher Jonah Sacha, Ph.D., who also serves as a scientific adviser to CytoDyn, the biotechnology company developing the drug, called leronlimab. The study is funded by a five-year grant of up to $5 million that was recently awarded to OHSU by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. "This grant will fund the development and early study of leronlimab as a potential single-injection gene therapy," said Sacha, professor at OHSU's Vaccine ...

Trichomoniasis is a far more common sexually transmitted infection (STI) than gonorrhoea but sufferers can go years before getting a proper diagnosis or treatment. The "relatively unknown" STI – caused by a parasite called trichomonas vaginalis (TV) – disproportionately affects people in more deprived areas and minority communities, according to new research by remote sexual health testing provider Preventx. Doctors are calling for better testing and increased awareness of the infection, which is often misdiagnosed and dismissed by GPs. "TV deserves a seat at the table", says STI specialist Dr John White, who often meets patients "at the end of a very long and difficult journey" to reach an accurate diagnosis. Dr Anatole Menon-Johansson, clinical director at sexual health charity Brook, said he saw one patient who had TV for two years before getting a proper diagnosis and treatment plan. If left untreated, TV can increase the chance of acquiring HIV among ...

Written by Dr Youry Kim and PhD Candidate, Rachel Pacoe. First published by HIV Cure. A cure to HIV remains elusive. HIV-infected cells survive in the body by avoiding the usual ways the immune system would clear them. By silencing all virus activity, including virus replication and the creation of new proteins, infected cells avoid virus-induced lysis and immune detection. Here is where the approach called 'shock and kill' comes into HIV cure research. To induce HIV protein expression and virus-induced lysis of the infected cell, something needs to reactivate or 'shock' latent HIV from its' latent state. A group of drugs called 'latency reversal agents' (LRAs) can stimulate transcription and virus production. Alone, these drugs are not able to induce a durable decline in the HIV reservoir. The LRAs deliver the 'shock' part to this two-pronged approach but are missing th...

[unable to retrieve full-text content] GP issues warning over common symptomless STI that most people haven't heard of    Wales Online London GP warns of common STI that can have no symptoms that most people haven't heard of    My London Trichomoniasis STI symptoms to look for as stern warning issued over rising cases    Daily Star View Full Coverage on Google News

Introduction There is a global commitment to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, and the global HIV response has improved HIV-positive people's access to care and survival. 1,2 By the end of 2018, global efforts to increase ART coverage for all persons living with HIV (PLHIV) have resulted in an estimated 23.3 million PLHIV on ART. 2 Even though virological suppression for PLHIV on ART had reached 85% at the end of 2018, still falls short of the UNAIDS target of 95%. The cost and complexity of viral load (VL) testing, as well as a lack of awareness about the benefits of frequent VL monitoring among health-care providers and patients, have hampered the scale-up of routine HIV VL testing in resource-limited settings. 3 Figure 1 Proportional allocation of sample size among selected public hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Figure 2 Kaplan–Meier survival function of the virological failure of HIV/AIDS patients on second-line ART at public hospitals of Addis Ababa Ethiopia, Se...

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