detectable viral loads developed resistance: this
compares to 33 per cent of patients in the nelfinavir group getting
resistance to that drug. Half the number of patients taking lopinavir
developed 3TC resistance compared with those taking nelfinavir.
Clinics biased against positive dads
Only 44 per cent of British fertility clinics would offer treatments to
couples such as donor insemination and sperm washing where the man was
the partner with HIV. A survey in the British Medical Journal found that
clinics did not have the same hesitancy about offering fertility treatment
where it was the mum who was positive. The BMJ comments: "A blanket
refusal to provide fertility investigations and treatment to couples with
HIV may lead to an increase in [HIV] in the uninfected partner of couples
trying to conceive naturally."
Malaria drug fights HIV
Recent research confirms that the cheap anti-malaria drug chloroquine
has anti-HIV activity. Research conducted by the University of Turin,
Italy, shows that chloroquine slows HIV reproduction in the test tube.
It appears to work in a different way to other drugs, by disrupting the
formation of the 'spikes' which HIV uses to hook on to targe cells. Furthermore
it accumulates in tissues and would not need to be taken continually.
Studies in humans still need to be done, but chloroquine could in theory
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