London clinicians are reporting increasing numbers of patients with HIV catching hepatitis C (HCV) due to sexual transmission. "I've already had several patients since the beginning of the year becoming HCV positive," the Royal Free Hospital's Dr Mike Youle told Positive Nation. "We need to tackle the stereotype that only drug users get hep C. Sexual contact, especially sex that draws blood, can transmit it quite easily." Some studies show that HIV infection can raise the viral load of hepatitis C in the blood, making those with both viruses more infectious with hep C.
Africans fail to benefit from combos
A trial of Kenyans taking an anti-HIV combo identical to one tried in the West resulted in only half the success rate, a scientist told medical experts in Budapest this month. German researcher Jan van Lunden told the Bristol-Myers Squibb 7th European Symposium that a Kenyan trial of efavirenz, ddI and 3TC resulted in only 46 per cent of patients reaching viral undetectability, whereas success rates of 85-93 per cent have been reported in the West from the same regime.
Better health education and delivery systems are needed if Africa is to benefit from combination therapy, even when it is made available, he said.
Facial wasting can reverse in time
At the same symposium, another German expert, Dr Johannes Bogner, reported that two of his patients who stopped anti-HIV therapy had their facial appearance revert to normal after long periods off the drugs. A woman who was forced to suspend her HIV drugs due to interactions with TB therapy reversed the signs of facial wasting

page 6 of 8

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

home

contents of issue 76
back issues
the gazette
recipes
small ads
contacting us
weblinks

after a year. Dr Bogner emphasised that he was not recommending