How GPs can help cut HIV transmission

18/10/2023 0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 18.10.2023 (Healthed): In the inner-city area of Sydney where HIV was once most prevalent, new HIV acquisition has dropped by 88% since 2010, through community outreach and prevention efforts, including widespread availability and use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

It’s an example that highlights both progress and potential — while HIV remains a global health challenge, it is more treatable and more preventable than ever before, and GPs play a pivotal role in further reducing transmission and improving quality of life.

Associate Professor and sexual health physician, Jason Ong, from Monash University and the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, says diagnosing people living with HIV earlier and immediately linking them to ongoing care and treatment is crucial to this.

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Climate change worsening HIV control in Asia Pacific

28/07/2023 0 Comments read Climate Change, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Brisbane, 28.07.2023 (SciDev.Net): Climate change-driven extreme weather events, sea level rise, changes in temperature, and air and water pollution are impacting control of HIV in the Asia Pacific region, a science gathering heard.

The warning comes amid unprecedented heatwaves, as the UN warns the world has already warmed by 1.1 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times.

“Those most affected by climate change are also those most prone to communicable diseases,” said Kiyohiko Izumi, team leader for HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Western Pacific Regional Office. “Climate change and related disasters as upstream factors can affect all aspects of HIV, primarily leading to the increased vulnerability to HIV and decreasing coping ability,”

Izumi was speaking at a session on how climate change is impacting the control of HIV in the Asia Pacific region, organised by WHO during the 12th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science, held in Brisbane, Australia, this week (23-26 July).

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HIV seeks refuge in immune cells to avoid full elimination

25/10/2017 0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 25.10.2017 (SciDev.Net): Genetically-intact HIV hides in the same cells of the human immune system that are supposed to attack and destroy pathogens, scientists at Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Sydney University, discover in a new study.

Previously, it was thought that HIV hides primarily in central memory T-cells during effective anti-HIV therapy. But, in the study published this month (19 October) in Cell Reports, the scientists show that replication-competent HIV persists in specific subsets of CD4+ immune memory T-cells.

HIV infects white blood cells known as T lymphocytes, particularly the CD4+ T cells that recognise infection and gets the immune system to respond. Following HIV infection, if anti-HIV therapy is not initiated, the number of CD4+ T cells in the blood begin to fall, though the process may be slow.

Continue Reading on SciDev.Net Asia & Pacific Edition.