The AJMC® HIV compendium is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and expert insights for the condition, including disparities in care, prevention of infection among at-risk groups, and the importance of viral suppression.
May 16th 2024
Patients with HIV who switched to a treatment regimen that included tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) showed improvement in serum markers for hepatic steatosis (HS) among other benefits.
Next-Generation Sequencing Used to Characterize HIV Epidemic in Washington, DC
March 2nd 2020In 2018, Washington, DC, saw 340 newly diagnosed cases of HIV, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. The city’s rate is 5 times higher than the national rate, and it falls under the World Health Organization’s definition of an epidemic. Researchers used next-generation sequencing to gain a broader view of the disease’s dynamics in the DC area.
Read More
COPD Is a More Likely Comorbid Condition in HIV-Positive Individuals
February 29th 2020Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) occurs at a higher rate in individuals who have HIV compared with those who do not, and it has a global incidence of more than 380 million people. The progressive lung disease is also diagnosed at a younger age in HIV-positive persons compared with their HIV-negative counterparts, and higher rates of smoking may be to blame.
Read More
Youth Newly Diagnosed With HIV Have Advanced Infection, Higher Viral Loads
February 18th 2020Close to 80% of HIV-positive individuals are shown to be virally suppressed through their most recent test results, according to data from 2016 through 2018, as well as 32% to 63% of adults older than 24 years. Youth with a new HIV diagnosis, however, come in at only 12%.
Read More
What Can Be Done to Improve the HIV Testing Rate of At-Risk Teenage Boys?
February 11th 2020Among the general population of the United States, 14.5% of HIV-positive individuals do not know their disease status. This rate increases to 51.5% of 13- to 24-year-olds, among whom men who have sex with men account for 80% of new HIV infections.
Read More
Enrollment in AIDS Drug Assistance Programs Linked With Viral Suppression, Study Finds
February 10th 2020Enrollment in AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs)–funded Qualified Health Plans (QHPs) is associated with viral suppression (VS) across states and demographic groups. People living with HIV who engage in care and have QHPs have a higher VS rate than those who received medications from direct ADAPs.
Read More
The Patent Trial and Appeals Board delivered a setback to Gilead Sciences, rejecting its attempt to invalidate a pair of Truvada patents owned by the CDC; Merck is spinning off some businesses in order to focus on its oncology drug pembrolizumab, including its biosimilars operations; Republican and Democratic governors are worried that a proposed CMS fiscal accountability rule for Medicaid will reduce access to healthcare.
Read More
The FDA launched a mobile-friendly, interactive database providing information on eligible HIV antiretroviral treatments available; an HIV vaccine trial by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center ended after failing to provide protection from the virus; New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy established a coronavirus task force to manage the state’s preparedness and response to the virus.
Read More
What Is the True Cost of the High Price of ART?
February 3rd 2020Antiretroviral treatment (ART) is the regimen mainstay for everyone who has HIV, irrespective of infection duration. More than twice as many options for ART were available in 2018 as were offered in 2012—but this did not equal cheaper prices. Between 2012 and 2018, the average wholesale price for initial ART jumped 34% for most people with HIV.
Read More
Innovative Research Program Provides Deeper Understanding of HIV's Dynamic Process
January 28th 2020Participants in Last Gift, an end-of-life HIV research program from UC San Diego, donate their blood and their bodies so researchers can uncover all the places that HIV hides, to both fight the disease and stop it. Before each autopsy, the following is read: “From our first breath to our last, each of us tells a unique story. Here, we honor our Last Gift participants for their altruism to further research into HIV and the human condition. We take this moment of silence to honor their gifts and express our gratitude for all the discoveries their selfless donations will yield.”
Read More
NY Attorney General, Federal Trade Commission Sue Martin Shkreli
January 28th 2020New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a lawsuit filed against 2 former chief executive officers of Turing Pharmaceuticals, now known as Vyera Pharmaceuticals: “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, currently serving a 7-year sentence in federal prison for securities fraud, a crime that took place before the launch of Vyera, and his business partner Kevin Mulleady.
Read More
Chinese health authorities are testing an HIV drug, lopinavir and ritonavir, as a potential treatment for the new coronavirus; a debate is growing over the efficacy of the sole drug approved to prevent preterm birth; the Trump administration threatens to withhold Califonia’s federal funding due to its abortion coverage requirements.
Read More
Subset of T Cells Has Specialized Role in Early Stages of HIV, Researchers Determine
January 22nd 2020Mucosa-associated invariant T cells (MAIT cells) are a subset of the T-cell population. Their function and activity during the acute stage of HIV infection adds to the knowledge of immune system activation at this stage and could lead to possible new treatment interventions.
Read More
Cancer Immunotherapy Likely Safe, Effective for Those With HIV, Other Infections, Study Suggests
January 12th 2020Although the researchers state that more studies are needed to validate their findings, they found that patients who also had HIV, HBV, or HCV who were being treated with ICI therapy had similar rates of efficacy and toxicity to patients without chronic viral infections.
Read More
Death Anxiety, Social Support Among Persons Living With HIV, AIDS in Nigeria
January 11th 2020Nigeria has a population of almost 204 million. Of those, 3.1% of adults, or 3.5 million, are living with HIV. The accompanying death anxiety of people living with HIV and AIDS has not been studied in depth.
Read More
Understanding Why HIV-Positive Individuals Would, or Would Not, Risk Their Lives for a Cure
December 29th 2019There are 12 clinical trials underway investigating various combination treatments for HIV and AIDS, but a cure remains elusive. Few studies have attempted to qualify and quantify the risk HIV-positive individuals claim they would take if it meant a cure could result.
Read More
Researchers Report New Insights Into HIV-Related Neurocognitive Disorders
December 25th 2019The use of antiretroviral therapy has allowed patients with HIV to have a life expectancy that approaches the lifespan of those without HIV. Despite this progress, however, HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders remain prevalent, and range from mild problems with memory, language, and reasoning to more severe HIV-associated dementia.
Read More
Treating HIV Comorbidities in the Fight to End the Epidemic
December 16th 2019HIV-positive individuals face greater risks of kidney and liver diseases, cardiovascular events, osteoporosis, hepatitis C, and cancer. Clinical trials and research advances into the cause and development of the comorbid conditions are needed.
Read More
A second study, slated for next year, will continue these infants on antiretroviral treatment with 2 experimental monoclonal antibodies, hoping the medications produce viral suppression—and testing the effects of temporarily stopping them—so that they don’t have to eventually initiate the standard triplet therapy that most older patients typically take. For adults, most treatments for HIV come from the cancer field, and are inflammatory, and are not safe enough to apply in children. An ongoing debate is when is it appropriate to begin these therapies in children.
Read More
Clinical Characteristics and Treatment Patterns Among US Patients With HIV
It is important to take into account individual complexities such as comorbidities and pill burden when selecting antiretroviral therapy regimens for individuals living with HIV.
Read More
Medical Monitoring Project Provides National Population Based Data on Patients With HIV
November 30th 2019The Medical Monitoring Project (MMP)—a national population-based behavioral and clinical surveillance system of adults diagnosed with HIV in the United States—provides information for monitoring progress of national treatment and prevention goals and is the only source of annual population-based data of those with HIV, according to a recent report.
Read More