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January 15, 2012)
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Jan 10, 2012
(Reuters) - Health
regulators said they have received applications from generic drugmakers to make
copycat versions of Merck & Co's HIV drug Isentress, GlaxoSmithKline's HIV
drug Epivir and Bayer AG's birth control pill Beyaz.
However, the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration did not disclose the names of the generic drug applicants.
Isentress was first
approved in 2007 for use in adult patients. Last month, the FDA expanded the
label on the drug for use in children and adolescents.
Merck shares were trading
almost flat at $38.58 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Anand Basu
in
Risk dependent on
concentration of virus in blood
Supports use of
anti-retroviral medication
By Sadie Whitelocks
A study has found a person
infected with HIV will transmit the virus to their partner once in every 900
times the couple has unprotected sex
A person infected with HIV
will transmit the virus to their partner once in every 900 times they have
unprotected sex, say scientists.
And the risk significantly
increases if the person infected has a higher concentration of the virus in
their bloodstream.
Results, from the largest
study of its kind, showed for every tenfold increase in concentration, there was
around a threefold increase in the likelihood of HIV transmission.
The findings support the
use of anti-retroviral medications that work by lowering the concentration of
HIV in the bloodstream.
Lead researcher James
Hughes, from the
A study published last
year found drugs could reduce HIV transmission of by 96 percent.
The virus weakens the
ability to fight infections and disease, such as cancer. AIDS marks the final
stage when the body can no longer battle life-threatening illnesses.
The latest study,
published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, sought to calculate the risk of
HIV-1 transmission per act of sexual intercourse.
During research, which
included heterosexual 3,297 couples from sub-Saharan
Hughes said that
this makes it difficult to determine an average risk of transmission, as
concentration can vary from person to person.
For instance someone newly
infected may only need to have sex ten times to transmit the virus.
He added: 'The average can
be a little deceptive.'
The new study also
confirmed condoms are highly effective in preventing HIV infection, reducing the
risk of transmission by 78 per cent.
Meanwhile male
circumcision reduced the risk of HIV transmission by 47 per cent.
A study last year found
drugs could reduce HIV transmission by 96 percent
Earlier studies attempted
to estimate the rate of HIV transmission, but were typically small scale, and
did not consistently measure the concentration of the virus in the blood.
The new study involved
couples that were 'HIV-discordant' - meaning one partner had HIV while the other
did not.
The HIV-infected partners
in the study were tested periodically over two years, and the amount of HIV in
their blood was measured.
They were also interviewed
every month and asked how many times they had sex, and whether they used
protection.
The uninfected partners
were tested periodically to see whether they had acquired HIV and researchers
used genetic testing of the virus to confirm that if new infections had been
acquired.
Eighty-six HIV
transmissions occurred during the study period.
Despite the results Hughes
warned that self-reporting can lead to errors.
He also stated that while
most of the findings can be generalised to other countries, the number of sexual
acts needed to transmit the virus is likely specific to the African population
studied.
The best way to prevent
HIV is to practise safe sex and use a condom.
The virus can affect
anybody and The World Health Organization estimates that more than 33 million
people around the world are living with HIV.
1/13/2012
Thomas Warren, wtop.com
Currently, it takes three
months after the virus has been contracted before it can be detected by an HIV
test. But nearly half of all HIV transmissions occur in the first few weeks
after it is contracted.
A new test underway in
Researchers do stress that
more study and follow-up will be conducted to determine the long-term
significance of the trial results. In fact, subjects will be followed for at
least two years as progression of the virus is monitored.
Sawe says understanding
what happens medically in the first stages as HIV mutates and spreads throughout
the body is the determining factor in conducting the trial.
"We need to know how
what exactly happens, how does your body respond in the first few hours after
acquiring the infection," Dr. Sawe says.
Early results published in
March of 2011 showed "acute" HIV infection was found in 26 of 32
cases, although researchers say the numbers, now, are much higher.
The term "acute
infection" describes the the first few weeks after a person contracts the
virus, and how it imbeds itself in the immune system.
The trial is being
conducted in
Once a good measure of
what happens in the body during the early stages of infection is determined, the
results will be used by other research groups in trials to develop an HIV
vaccine.
"We think one of the
reasons why we've never developed a vaccine against HIV is that we were modeling
our vaccines against the status of someone who has had HIV for a long
time," Dr. Sawe says.
Currently, more than 34
million people worldwide live with HIV.
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(Copyright 2012 by WTOP.
All Rights Reserved.)