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New Syringe Design Fights Spread of HIV

Sharing needles when injecting drugs can greatly increase the risk of getting HIV. While in one respect the best way to keep such individuals from contracting HIV is to get them off drugs, another alternative may be available that is more likely to be pursued – a new design of syringes that may make it possible to prevent HIV from being passed along in this manner in the first place.

A recently conducted and published study has shown that when needles have less dead space in them, they are less likely to spread a blood-borne illness like HIV. The means by which blood is spread from individual to individual while sharing needles is that a small amount of blood is left in dead space of the syringe when depressed.

The researchers were able to show that this amount of blood can be reduced by up to 1000 times (an almost insignificant amount) when a different type of syringe with less dead space is used.

What is the significance of this study? It shows that an extreme increase or decrease in the likelihood of the spread of disease occurs when sharing needles, depending on the types of needles being used. China, Russia, and Ukraine are just a few of the nations that would benefit significantly from a switch to needles with less dead space – they are among the nations with the highest incidence of HIV contracted from needle sharing.

The study showed that in these and other nations, the number of cases caused by needles could be reduced to zero within a decade. These nations are being called upon by the study to spread awareness of the potential of alternative needles in HIV prevention.

The effects could be even greater than expected, because many individuals who contract HIV through drugs may well then pass it along through sex – by stopping the spread of HIV through needle users, it may also reduce the number of cases spread through sexual relations.

While there are obstacles to implementing this new needle design, it is hoped that the low cost and high benefit will result in many more nations joining the call to spread awareness.

Vaccination With No Injection May Be Solution for HIV

For the first recorded time, researchers have been able to use a live vaccine delivery system that is dry as opposed to a liquid injection – never before has this method been deemed powerful enough to get the vaccination process going. What are the implications?

Poorer countries have problems with vaccinations due to the fact that they generally have to be kept refrigerated, thus getting viable vaccines into these areas in a dry format is a great solution. While this process is still early on in the research period it is still an exciting prospect – the process is also cheaper than having to use a needle and eliminates concerns about the proper disposal of used hypodermic needles.

Three of the world’s largest health enemies are HIV, TB, and Malaria, and these diseases are most common in poorer areas. This means that while the search for vaccinations looks promising, the prospect of getting live vaccines into locations that need them most remains a challenge – a lack of proper refrigeration could leave the vaccines no longer viable by the time of use.

The research team used tiny needles made of sugar as an entry system – these needles would dissolve upon entering the skin and introducing the dry vaccine. The dry vaccine is in the shape of a tiny disc, and stays live even at normal room temperature.

This study has shown that it is possible to maintain a live vaccine without refrigeration – thus when HIV and other much needed vaccines are finally ready, there may also be a process in hand to get such vaccines to the remotest parts of even the poorest underdeveloped nations.

In the meantime, while those vaccines are still being developed this technology will have other applications in the medical field – vaccinating infants would certainly be easier with this technique. It may also have applications in the field of autoimmune disease and chronic conditions like diabetes.

HIV Blocking Protein Found

Researchers have discovered a protein that has the ability to fight a broad range of viruses including HIV – the protein is called cholesterol 25 hydroxylase. How does it work?

It changes normal cholesterol into hydroxycholesterol, and when in this form it functions as an antiviral, blocking the virus from permeating cell walls and spreading. Interferon is the enzyme that activates this process, and this is particularly interesting as interferon is a protein already well-known for helping the body fight viruses.

While interferon is not itself an antiviral, the protein is necessary in order to activate 25HC, and its immune system work has been well documented. The discovery of hydroxycholesterol is exciting, because it holds the promise of something that can actually be synthesized and distributed for use.

What are the implications of this study? The idea is that this protein may be used to create a broad spectrum of medicines to fight an array of viruses. Oxysterol (also called 25HC) was used successfully in a lab to reduce HIV in cells, and was then tested with human cells inserted into mice. This showed that 25HC could significantly reduce the amount of HIV in just one week, while also restoring the T-cells usually depleted by the virus.

Ebola and other diseases were also part of the testing process, and these viruses were all found to have their growth inhibited by 25HC showing that it can be used to fight many types of viruses. The two main drawbacks thus far are that 25HC is difficult to deliver in the necessary high dosage, and that it has not been tested against current antivirals to measure its effectiveness. Thus studies are expected to continue, with the aim of ascertaining whether or not oxysterol is a feasible method for fighting modern viruses.

How Much It Would Cost Mexico to Reduce HIV?

Researchers have found that cash incentives from governments are able to alter community behavior, and Mexico has already seen an improvement in pediatric care due to such a program. Other examples of such programs across the world include an increase in HIV testing in Malawi after an incentive was offered, as well as a reduction in the number of sexually transmitted diseases in Tanzania after a similar program was instituted.

Because of this, researchers have looked into the possibility of reducing the high-risk activities of male sex workers in Mexico, as well as the practices of homosexual men in the country, and while the research revealed that few would be willing to make lifestyle changes, the majority have a set price for which they would be willing to improve the safety of their practices.

The idea is that slowing the spread of HIV saves the nation both lives and money, thus the cost of such incentives is more than offset by the benefits of such a program. It is better for the government to spend money on stopping the spread of disease in the first place than on treating those who are contracting it but can’t afford treatment.

About a quarter of the men in these high-risk categories (sex workers and homosexuals) have HIV, and treatment costs the government $1,000s per year for each individual – so how much would prevention incentives cost?

Of the nearly 2,000 gay men interviewed, over 75% said they would attend talks about prevention on a monthly basis, get tested frequently for sexually transmitted diseases, and vow to stay free of sexually transmitted diseases for a kickback of just $288 per year, and men who worked in the sex industry agreed to the same thing for only $156 per year – this represents an immense savings over treatment costs, not to mention the many lives the program could potentially save.

HIV Increases Skin Cancer Risk

According to a recent study, non-melanoma skin cancer is found more frequently in patients who have HIV – specifically, two particular types of skin cancer are at least twice as likely to form in the skin of patients. This comprehensive study included tens of thousands of individuals and was conducted over the course of more than a decade. It was found that HIV antiretroviral treatments did not seem to have an effect on the incidence of skin cancer.

This is a one-of-a-kind study as previous research did not include these specific types of non-melanoma skin cancers. This is of particular interest to HIV doctors because with life expectancy of HIV patients increasing, many such individuals are now facing other life threatening illnesses like cancer.

It is interesting to note that HIV positive individuals with low CD4 counts had a greater incidence of squamous forms of skin cell cancers than HIV positive individuals with high CD4 counts, who had similar occurrences as non-HIV patients.

This is not the only cancer found to be more common in HIV positive individuals – a wide range of cancer studies have shown that a compromised immune system leads to an increased likelihood of many types of cancer. In support of this theory there are also numerous studies featuring immunosuppressed transplant patients.

Statistically, it is difficult to detect forms of skin cancer other than melanoma early on, but this study conducted in Northern California took a unique approach to patient care, allowing for earlier detection of the disease which significantly improves survival rate.

So what does this test mean for HIV patients and their doctors? The results call for HIV doctors to keep a close eye out for difficult to detect forms of skin cancer because of their prevalence in HIV-positive individuals – frequent screening is of course the best way to catch the disease early enough for an optimistic prognosis.

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