'guesstimates' that only about two in a hundred
cases of HIV in Africa were due to contaminated sharps.
The authors draw attention to the work of the Safe Injection Global Network,
a project of the WHO, which, since 1999 has been campaigning for injection
safety.
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Lipo-free protease on the way
Zrivada sounds like the name of a Balkan princess, so it was perhaps
appropriate that drug company Bristol-Myers Squibb used a symposium in
Budapest to unveil it as the brand name chosen for their new protease
inhibitor atazanavir (ATV).
Atazanavir is the first protease inhibitor that can be taken once a day
(two small capsules with food).
Unlike all other protease inhibitors it does not seem to raise levels
of lipids (fats like cholesterol and triglycerides) in the blood. It may
therefore turn out to be less likely to cause long-term complications
like lipodystrophy and heart problems.
In trials so far, patients taking atazanavir found their cholesterol levels
barely increased or even declined. Other protease inhibitors raise cholesterol
by anything from 20-60 per cent, and triglycerides by considerably more.
"Atazanavir is not associated with clinically relevant lipid elevations,"
Zürich's Dr Markus Flepp (above) told the conference.
Bristol-Myers Squibb's Dr Andrew Clarke told PN: "Atazanavir is unlikely
to be licensed till late 2003 or early 2004."
