HIV News & Views

In New York, a new resource may help put an end to the confusion among emergency and general health care providers regarding HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) administration. The resource is a recently developed "widget" -- an easy-to-use, computer-based tool -- that advises health professionals on best practices for giving PEP. In this interview, Antonio Urbina, M.D., of St. Vincent's Medical Center describes the widget's functions while detailing the fine points of PEP.

Looking for an expert summary of the latest revisions to the official U.S. HIV treatment guidelines? Check out this exclusive interview with David Wohl, M.D., a prominent HIV physician/researcher and a member of the expert panel responsible for revising the guidelines. In this concise summary with TheBody.com's editorial director, Dr. Wohl walks us through the updated guidelines and explains the importance of the new revisions.

Until the mid-1990s in the U.S., packing on a few extra pounds seemed like a good thing: It helped protect a person against the dangers of wasting and HIV's destructive effects on the immune system. But today, for people on potent HIV treatment, those extra pounds may no longer help -- in fact, they may reduce the immune benefits of HIV meds, a new study suggests.

Abbott Laboratories: F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd.: D. Boehringer Ingelheim: D+. If the nine major HIV drug companies were in school, most would probably be in detention, according to a new "report card" issued by the AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition (ATAC). ATAC graded the drug companies in five different categories, including fair pricing and their relationship with the HIV community. Some did alright -- Merck & Co. and Tibotec Therapeutics both got B's -- but most didn't fare as well. In this one-on-one interview, we get the nitty-gritty on this telling report from longtime HIV/AIDS journalist and activist Bob Huff, a member of ATAC's board of directors.

We had a short break from the panic over swine flu (H1N1). But as this year's flu season approaches in the U.S. and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, fear appears to be ramping up again. Even many experts are wondering just how bad this winter will be. Have we learned anything new about swine flu since the global outbreak began in April, about what lies in store over the months to come, and about what people with HIV can do to protect themselves? We caught up with top HIV physician Joel Gallant, M.D., M.P.H., for the latest news and predictions.

As a swine flu virus appears to make its way across the world, so has misinformation and confusion about what the virus is and what sort of threat it poses, particularly for people with weakened immune systems or some people living with HIV. To help us fill in that knowledge gap, we've asked Dr. Joel Gallant for some insights. Dr. Gallant is a professor of medicine and epidemiology in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and he happens to be one of the leading HIV specialists in the United States.

On Nov. 3, 2008, the U.S. government updated its Guidelines for the Use of Antiretroviral Agents in HIV-1-Infected Adults and Adolescents. These guidelines were last updated on Jan. 29, 2008. We asked Joel Gallant, M.D., M.P.H., to provide a summary of the changes. Dr. Gallant is not only one of the top clinicians and researchers in the United States, he's also a guidelines panel member.

Joel Gallant, M.D., M.P.H., is not only a widely respected HIV clinician and researcher: He's also an online HIV expert, spending some of his free time answering questions about the virus. He's been doing this since the early days of the Internet. He's so good at it that he's just had a book published that pools together some of the most important questions he commonly answers. Called "100 Questions and Answers About HIV and AIDS," it's geared mainly for people with HIV who want to learn more, and Dr. Gallant is here to talk to us about it.

TheBody.com interviewed Dr. Cal Cohen, one of the lead researchers who investigated TMC114 (darunavir, Prezista) in clinical trials, to get his take on some of the key questions surrounding this new HIV medication: Why should we be so excited about TMC114? What side effects can it cause? How is it likely to change the way HIVers with multidrug resistance are treated?

The past year has brought so many new drug approvals that even some HIV experts are scratching their heads as they try to figure out how all of these meds work and how they can best be used to treat people with HIV. Today, we're going to look at one of the new classes, or types, of HIV medications. Called CCR5 inhibitors, this drug class attacks HIV in a totally new way. Helping us to understand this new drug class will be Dr. David Hardy, a researcher and clinician who is the director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He is also one of the leading researchers looking at Selzentry (maraviroc, Celsentri), the first CCR5 inhibitor to be approved in the United States. He'll give us the lowdown on how this new drug class works and put it into context.

On Jan. 29, 2008, the U.S. government released the second part of its new HIV treatment guidelines. This second section contains antiretroviral recommendations. We asked Joel Gallant, M.D., M.P.H., to provide a summary of the changes. Dr. Gallant is not only one of the top clinicians and researchers in the United States, he's also a guidelines panel member.

On Jan. 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first new non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor in nearly a decade. It was known throughout much of its development as TMC125, and is now known by its generic name, etravirine, and the brand name of Intelence. Etravirine's approval follows on the heels of the approvals of four other new antiretrovirals, making this an unprecedented time in the history of HIV/AIDS medicine. To learn more about etravirine, and its potential impact on the treatment of HIV-infected patients, we spoke with Dr. Cal Cohen, research director of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates and Community Research Initiative of New England in Boston, Mass. He is also a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Cohen has participated in research on etravirine, and has also received funding from Tibotec, which developed etravirine.

On Dec. 1, 2007, the U.S. government released the first, and the biggest, part of its new HIV treatment guidelines. We asked Joel Gallant, M.D., M.P.H., to provide a summary of the changes. Dr. Gallant is not only one of the top clinicians and researchers in the United States, he's also a guidelines panel member.

Dr. David Wohl briefly describes how Isentress differs from other meds. This is Part II of an update on Isentress.

On Oct. 12, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Isentress, the first member of a new class of meds called integrase inhibitors. Isentress is also known generically as raltegravir, and during its early development was called MK-0518. To find out more about Isentress and how it might impact treatment for HIV-positive people, we spoke with Dr. David Wohl, an associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and the co-director of HIV services for the North Carolina Department of Corrections. Dr. Wohl has participated in research on Isentress, and has also received research funding from Merck and Company, which developed Isentress. This is Part I of an update on Isentress.

It's been a year since the United States approved a new HIV medication, and four long years since we witnessed the birth of a whole new class of meds. But on Aug. 6, 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the green light to maraviroc, which will be known by the brand name Selzentry. Maraviroc is the first in a new class of HIV meds known as CCR5 inhibitors. Which HIV-positive people stand to benefit the most from maraviroc? How can you know if maraviroc's a good fit for you? To get the answers to these questions, we spoke with Dr. Joel Gallant, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and one of the leading HIV specialists in the United States.

Dr. Constantinides is the director of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at New York University School of Medicine. He's been doing reconstructive surgery on people with facial lipoatrophy since 1998. He talks to us today about lipoatrophy's causes and treatments.

As an HIV health care provider and a person living with the virus, Dr. Frascino has a unique perspective. As someone who has struggled with lipoatrophy himself, he knows all too well what his patients are experiencing. Today, he talks to us about lipoatrophy's causes and treatments.

Dr. Mulligan helped organize the first International Workshop on Adverse Drug Reactions and Lipodystrophy in HIV, the only medical conference focused entirely on body-shape changes in people with HIV. She is one of the key researchers working on trying to understand and treat the disorder. She talks to us today about lipoatrophy's causes and treatments.

Dr. Young has been caring for people with HIV since 1994. Since that time, he's earned a reputation as an outspoken patient advocate, a personable clinician and a dedicated researcher. He talks to us today about lipoatrophy's causes and treatments.