The disease, known as LGV or Lymphogranuloma venereum, is caused by specific strains of chlamydia and is often marked by painful, bloody rectal infection and genital ulcers.
"LGV is a serious condition and its emergence in New York City reflects continuing high levels of unsafe sexual activity among men who have sex with men," Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden told a news conference on Wednesday.
"Unprotected anal intercourse, in particular, is extremely risky in terms of the spread of LGV as well as HIV," he added.
The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has confirmed six recent cases in the United States, including three cases in San Francisco and one in Atlanta.
Among the cases identified thus far, most have also had HIV/AIDS infection, Frieden said.
The Netherlands has reported 92 cases of LGV dating back to 2003 and Belgium, France, Sweden and Britain have also reported infections.
Most people infected report having multiple sex partners and engaging in unprotected anal intercourse and other high-risk practices, officials said.
LGV can be cured by a three-week course of antibiotics if identified early.
Untreated, it can cause swelling and scarring of the genitals and permanent
damage to the bowels.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
Thu Feb 3, 2005 09:05 PM ET
By Paul Simao
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Poverty, unemployment and other socioeconomic factors are helping to fuel a growing HIV problem among black women, a U.S. study released on Thursday suggests.
Black men and women account for a majority of the estimated 40,000 new HIV infections that are diagnosed in the United States each year. The new HIV infection rate among black women is about 18 times that of white women.
The study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that black women infected with the AIDS virus are more likely to be unemployed and willing to trade sex for drugs or money than uninfected black women.
The study was based on a small group of black women in North Carolina who were diagnosed with HIV in 2003 and the first half of 2004 and a larger group of uninfected women who were recruited at HIV testing sites in 2004.
It found that 71 percent of those who were infected did not have a job, compared with 38 percent of those uninfected.
More than a third of the HIV-positive women admitted trading sex for money, drugs or other gifts, said researchers with the Atlanta-based CDC, North Carolina Department of Health and University of North Carolina.
Only 15 percent of uninfected women had done so.
There was also a higher tendency for the infected women to be on welfare or some other form of public assistance.
"It suggests that it's a lot more difficult for women who are poor to even think of HIV as a health priority when there are so many other issues that they are dealing with," said Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick, director of the CDC's minority HIV/AIDS research initiative and one of the study's authors.
Fitzpatrick noted that black women in North Carolina had an HIV infection rate 14 times higher than white women. "I think this mirrors a lot of the epidemic in the rest of the country. This is not unique to North Carolina."
Only heterosexually active black women between the ages of 18 and 40 living in parts of the state with the highest AIDS death rates were included in the study. Those who admitted injecting drugs were excluded.
Researchers also found worrying similarities in sexual behavior among the two groups of women, including high rates of sexually transmitted diseases. The majority of both groups, however, felt that they were unlikely or very unlikely to contract HIV.
|
03 Feb 2005 20:24:11 GMT
Source: Reuters |
NEW YORK, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences <GILD.O> on Thursday said preliminary data from a 48-week trial show that two of its drugs, Viread and Emtriva, were better able to control levels of HIV than Combivir, a popular treatment sold by GlaxoSmithKline Plc<GSK.L>.
Gilead said it hopes U.S. regulators will allow it to use the successful data as a means of better competing against Combivir and other medicines that treat the virus that causes AIDS.
The Phase III trial involved almost 500 patients who had not previously been treated for HIV.
After 48 weeks of treatment, Gilead said those taking Viread and Emtriva once daily along with a once-daily HIV treatment called Sustiva (efavirenz) sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. <BMY.N> significantly better controlled the virus than those who took Combivir twice daily along with Sustiva.
Viread and Emtriva are Gilead drugs that are combined in the company's recently approved new pill, Truvada, which is taken once daily, along with other HIV drugs. It works by blocking reverse transcriptase, an enzyme that HIV requires for replication.
Gilead, which reported similar results last summer after six months of trial data had been analyzed, said it hopes to eventually include the 48-week data on the drug labels of Truvada, Viread and Emtriva.
"That would allow our sales force to use the data for promotional purposes," said Gilead spokeswoman Amy Flood.
Combivir itself includes two HIV drugs, Epivir -- also known as lamivudine and 3TC -- and Retrovir, also known as AZT and zidovudine. They are members of the HIV class of medicines called nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors.
Drugmakers increasingly are combining HIV drugs into single pills to free HIV patients from the complications of having to take a wide range of medicines at different times of the day.
Gilead and Bristol-Myers in December formed a U.S. joint venture to develop and sell a once-daily tablet containing Viread, Emtriva and Sustiva. Viread and Emtriva are also nucleosides, while Sustiva belongs to another class of drugs called non-nucleosides.
The Gilead trial will continue another year for patients who opt to continue in the study, to allow Gilead to collect more information about the comparable safety and efficacy of its drugs.
Gilead said Viread had 2004 global sales of $783 million. Emtriva had sales of $58 million, while Truvada garnered $68 million.
Sustiva had 2004 sales of $621 million. Full-year sales of Combivir are not yet available, but the Glaxo drug had third-quarter revenue of $261 million.