Abstract/Proposal Submission Deadline EXTENDED to 27 MARCH 2009!
Through the 9th ICAAP website , you may now register for the congress, submit your abstract, apply for the 9th ICAAP Scholarship and reserve your hotel in Bali.
Please kindly observe the following important dates for your own convenience.
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 27 MARCH 2009
SKILLS BUILDING PROPOSAL DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 27 MARCH 2009
CULTURAL PERFORMANCE PROPOSAL DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 27 MARCH 2009
SYMPOSIUM PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 27 MARCH 2009
SATELLITE MEETING PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 27 MARCH 2009
Mission:Buddhism for Development encourages, advises and provides trainings to Cambodians to participate in the sustainable socio-economic development of their own communities.
Improved rural economy.
Improved local governance.
Enhanced social development and civic engagement.
Improved basic health and interventions on HIV/AIDS and infectious diseases.
Increased access to education and strengthened social morality.
Major activities :
·Strengthen and expand health network with volunteers, monks, nuns, midwives and PLHA in target areas in order to disseminate and educate target groups about health in order to reduce the rate of infectious diseases and HIV/ AIDS.
·Promote livelihoods for PLHA: Provide knowledge on small business and capital to PLHA and orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) family in order to improve daily life.
Contact Person : Heng MonychendaPosition:Coordinator
New Research Reveals Link Between HIV Antiretroviral Medications And Heart Attacks
New research findings help explain why some HIV patients treated with antiretroviral medications experience increased incidence of heart attacks.
The late-braking data was presented by researchers from the School of Medicine and Medical Sciences at University College Dublin, the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin, and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland at the Retrovirus Conference in Montreal, Canada, on 11 February 2009.
A major international study, published in 2008, identified a higher than expected incidence of heart attacks among patients being treated with antiretroviral drugs for HIV. Building on this research, scientists at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland developed a novel assay (test) tied to HIV to measure platelet activity in blood. Platelets are essential for blood clotting when the skin is broken but, if they are dysfunctional within the bloodstream, they can cause clots within arteries which lead to heart attacks.
Using this new test, the team from University College Dublin and the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin, undertook clinical trials to investigate the activity of platelets among HIV patients in Dublin, Ireland. These findings show a significant increase in platelet reactivity among patients taking certain antiretroviral medications.
'These findings will significantly affect the management of patients with HIV and have important implications for the treatment of HIV worldwide," says Dr Paddy Mallon, consultant in Infectious Diseases at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin and a lecturer in medicine at University College Dublin, who leads the group researching drug toxicities in HIV.
"The international research published last year showed the link between antiretroviral treatments and increased risk of heart attacks but not the reason why. We have now demonstrated that the use of certain drugs for HIV has a direct effect on platelets within the blood. The results provide invaluable information to help in the search for safe long term therapies for HIV infection."
Professor Dermot Kenny from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, whose group developed the novel assay, said that the results of this trial demonstrated the value of translational research. "Because of our close collaboration we have seen how the novel diagnostics developed in our lab can move rapidly into the clinic in Ireland. We plan to extend this research to other HIV centres internationally."
Experimental Microbicide Gel Offers Some Protection Against HIV Transmission, Study Finds
An experimental vaginal microbicide gel shows a small level of protection against HIV transmission, according to a study presented Monday at the ongoing 16th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Montreal, Canada, the Washington Post reports (Brown, Washington Post, 2/10). The gel, called PRO 2000 and manufactured by Indevus Pharmaceuticals, is designed to prevent HIV from attaching to certain white blood cells. According to the study -- which primarily aimed to test the gel's safety -- the PRO 2000 gel is 30% effective in preventing HIV transmission. Although the findings might be inconclusive, the study is the first to demonstrate a possible beneficial effect from using microbicides (Stobbe, AP/Google.com, 2/9). Researchers for many years have worked to develop effective microbicides to prevent HIV transmission, but no earlier studies have shown promising results, and two previous trials showed that the gels being studied actually increased the risk of contracting HIV. According to the Post, because microbicides can be applied without the knowledge of sexual partners, they are considered "especially important in cultures where the subservient status of women makes it difficult for them to insist on abstinence or condom use" (Washington Post, 2/10).
For the study, Salim Abdool Karim of the Center for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa and colleagues divided 3,100 women from Malawi, South Africa, the U.S., Zambia and Zimbabwe into four groups. They provided the first group of women with the PRO 2000 gel; the second with ReProtect's microbicide gel BufferGel; the third group with a placebo gel; and the remaining group with no microbicide gel. All the women received counseling to encourage condom use (AP/Google.com, 2/9). At the conclusion of the 20-month study period, 194 women had contracted HIV, including 36 women from the PRO 2000 group, 54 from the BufferGel group, 51 from the placebo group and 53 from the group that used no microbicides. Although the PRO 2000 gel was 30% effective, the researchers noted that the results are not statistically significant (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 2/9). According to the National Institutes of Health, which funded the study, an effectiveness rate of 33% would be statistically significant (AFP/Google.com, 2/9). The researchers also found no significant indication that BufferGel protected against HIV transmission (Fox, Reuters, 2/9).
Although the results of the Indevus trial show promise, the study did not provide data on the percentage of cases in which PRO 2000 was effective if actually applied. According to NIH, participants reported use of the gels in 81% of sex acts. Kathy Stover, NIH communications officer, said the study was based on self-reporting, and therefore the researchers "have no way to verify that the gel was actually applied prior to sexual intercourse" (CQ HealthBeat, 2/9). According to health officials, further research will be necessary to determine the gel's efficacy. London's Medical Research Council currently is conducting a study of the PRO 2000 gel involving 9,500 women, which is three times the size of the first study, Bloombergreports. Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, said the "positive" result from the first trial "increases the anticipation of those from the next" (Lauerman, Bloomberg, 2/9).
Karim, who presented the PRO 2000 study at the conference, said the gel "could be a niche product for a group of women who have no other option." In sub-Saharan Africa, about 60% of HIV-positive people are women, the Post reports. (Washington Post, 2/10). Karim added that the study, "while not conclusive, provides a glimmer of hope to millions of women at risk for HIV, especially young women in Africa." Anthony Fauci, director of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, added, "An effective microbicide would be a valuable tool that women could use to protect themselves against HIV and one that could substantially reduce the number of new HIV infections worldwide (AFP/Google.com, 2/9).
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.
HIV/AIDS Preventive Vaccine Of Mymetics: Green Light From EU To Start Phase I Human Clinical Study
Mymetics Corporation (OTCBB: MYMX) announces the confirmed success of its preventive vaccine against HIV/AIDS. To this day, these results are the most promising and advanced in the world. They confirm a decisive breakthrough in the HIV/AIDS prevention. To such an extent that European authorities have just authorized the launch of the Phase I human clinical study.
On February 10th, in Montreal, for the 16th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), Dr. Sylvain Fleury, Mymetics' Scientific Chief Officer, has presented the results of a second round of preclinical tests, which confirm the success of its preventive HIV/AIDS vaccine.
It is now known that some individuals are naturally resistant to the infection from HIV/AIDS virus, despite a high degree of exposure to this virus, in particular during non protected sexual activities (notably prostitutes in Kenya and Cambodia). Those rare individuals have been identified 20 years ago from diverse populations with different ethnic backgrounds. Despite their high exposure to the virus with different HIV positive individuals, these prostitutes for example, stay HIV negative. The explanation for this natural resistance is the presence, in vaginal secretions of women - or rectal secretions of men - of specific IgA antibodies. Replicating this natural protection, Mymetics' preventive vaccine formulation induces IgA antibodies at the mucosal level, rather than IgG antibodies circulating in the blood.
Thus, Mymetics' preventive vaccine is based on an approach targeting specifically IgA antibodies, whereas all other vaccine projects have opted to target IgG antibodies, or specific cytotoxic cells against the HIV virus. This innovative approach, with mucosal antibodies rather than blood antibodies, explains Mymetics' success compared with the deceptions met by other laboratories, since its vaccine stimulates defence mechanisms blocking the virus entry at the mucosal level, the first entrance door of the virus.
In the last step of the preclinical trials, Mymetics has done a viral challenge with macaques, the species closest to humans when it comes to the development of the pathology. One group is vaccinated and the other one is the control group. Both groups then receive numerous doses of the virus to test the vaccine's efficacy.
Mymetics viral challenge results in Beijing have proven excellent. The vaccinated group is almost completely resistant to the virus and the non vaccinated control group is completely infected. The results obtained with the Institute of Laboratory Animal Science (ILAS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences were checked (blind test) by an independent lab, the Center for Diseases Control (CDC) of Beijing with the same final outstanding results, using a measuring technique 5 times more sensitive, corresponding to the occidental standards.
On the basis of these results and the excellence of the project, the Belgian Ministry of Health, in the name of European authorities, has authorized (in 16 days) launching the Phase I human clinical study.
What is more, so as to block possible critics, in particular the small number of animals used in the two test groups, Mymetics has presented those extremely promising results to Dr. Chris Miller, of the University of California, whose preclinical research centre on macaques is considered by the scientific community one of the best. Dr. Miller is one of the very few who has already developed a vaccine approach at the mucosal level. Having qualified Mymetics' results as excellent he has confirmed his interest for a joint collaboration, notably for new studies on groups of macaques. These results are unique in the world, and puts Mymetics clearly in a leading position in targeting neutralizing antibodies at the mucosal level versus the approach of most other laboratories which focus on blood antibodies. The goal of the repetitive study that Mymetics plans to do with Dr. Miller is to transform stable results in indisputable results, to be able, at last, to accelerate clinical tests on humans. Because HIV/AIDS prevention is a real issue at world level which calls for an urgent mobilisation.
About Mymetics Corporation
Mymetics' corporate objective is to develop vaccines and therapies to prevent and treat the effects of certain retroviruses and other infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and Malaria. Mymetics starts Phase I Human Clinical trials of its HIV/AIDS preventive vaccine candidate which showed extremely promising results up till now as well as continuing Mymetics' Malaria vaccine currently in Phase Ib Human Clinical trials in Tanzania. Long range growth plans, key to Mymetics' development, include in-house R&D or acquisitions of prophylactic or therapeutic vaccines against infectious diseases.
PARIS (AFP) -- The world's largest experiment using gene therapy to combat the AIDS virus has yielded "a major advance," demonstrating that the technique is both beneficial and safe, scientists said on Sunday.
Data from an advanced phase of the test process confirms that the quest to use transplanted genes to roll back the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is valid, they said.
Doctors led by Ronald Mitsuyasu of the University of California in Los Angeles recruited 74 HIV-infected volunteers for the experiment, whose results are reported online by the journal Nature Medicine.
Half the group were given blood stemcells that had been infiltrated by a crippled virus containing a key gene, while the other were given a harmless lookalike substance.
People get information about AIDS near a giant red ribbon
The gene encodes something called an RNA enzyme, or ribozyme for short -- a small molecule that, like a spanner thrown into a machine, is intended to block HIV from replicating once it infects a cell.
Stemcells are progenitor cells, which means that when they replicate, future generations of those cells will carry the same genetic code.
The goal was to see whether these novel stemcells, by being shielded from HIV thanks to the ribozyme, would survive the body's immune defences and whether HIV, denied a haven for reproduction, would retreat.
Forty-eight weeks after the so-called OZ1 experiment began, there was no statistical difference between those who had received the gene and those who were given the placebo.
But at the 100-week mark, there was encouraging news: in the gene group, the viral count was significally lower. And the count of CD4 cells -- immune cells that are depleted by HIV -- was higher.
The stock of new blood cells, though, became rather depleted. Four weeks after they were introduced, a DNA test found the modified cells were present in 94 percent of participants in the OZ1 group, which fell to 12 percent by week 48 and to just seven percent at week 100.
None of the gene group experienced any adverse reaction to the therapy.
The treatment "is safe and has efficacy, albeit modest," the study says.
"It shows the potential of the gene therapy approach for the treatment of HIV and represents a major advance in the field... [it] can be developed as a conventional therapeutic product."
Gene therapy arose in the latter years of the Nineties as a golden dawn in medical research.
It conjured a vision whereby a gene, slotted into cells, would either correct a flawed gene that caused disease or, as in the case of the OZ1 trial, block progression of a pathogen.
But the prospects suddenly darkened when an 18-year-old American, Jesse Gelsinger, tragically died in an experiment in 1999 to reverse a rare metabolic disorder. In several other incidents, gene-based treatments caused leukaemia.
Amid a tightening of regulatory oversight, gene therapy has only recently yielded what appears to be its first cures, reviving the immune systems of children with severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID.
In the field of HIV gene therapy, scientists are exploring more than half a dozen avenues for delivering genes to thwart the AIDS virus.
If HIV gene therapy works, doctors hope patients may be able to scrap, or at least reduce, their regimen of antiretroviral drugs.
These powerful compounds can have toxic side effects, develop viral resistance and have to be taken for the rest of one's life.
In an interview with AFP, Mitsuyasu said this experiment was a Phase II trial in the long, three-phase process to test prototype treatments for safety and effectiveness.
He said he would not put the technique to the final, third phase of the process. Instead, the team would learn from its experience, modify the technique and start again with tests on a smaller group of volunteers.
Mitsuyasu was upbeat.
"I think it gives some hope to this approach being used in HIV and perhaps in other diseases as well, in cancer and congenital defects where we know that there is a gene that might be replaced or fixed," he said.
"It's a positive finding for the field, and should move the field forward."
Trial Shows First-Ever Reduction in HIV Infections with Microbicide Candidate; Other Studies Indicate Effectiveness of PrEP against SHIV Infection in Animals
A new study released at the 16th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Montreal, Canada, shows that a microbicide candidate or vaginal gel known as PRO2000, designed to lower the risk of HIV infection when applied before intercourse, appears to have a 30 percent level of effectiveness in preventing HIV infection. These findings are promising, although not statistically significant, and additional evidence is needed to conclusively determine whether PRO2000 is an effective microbicide.
Data from the multi-site clinical trial, known as HPTN 035 and conducted by the Microbicide Trials Network, showed that women who received the PRO2000 candidate, plus condoms, had 30 percent fewer HIV infections than those who received condoms or condoms plus a placebo gel. According to Lori Heise, director of the Global Campaign for Microbicides, this is the first time human data has shown a reduction in HIV infections through the use of microbicides. Researchers conducting a separate efficacy trial of PRO2000 in South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, which is in its final stages, will soon obtain more definitive data regarding the candidate’s effectiveness. Data on another microbicide candidate tested in the HPTN 035 trial, BufferGel, did not show a reduction in HIV infection risk among women.
In other HIV prevention news, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) presented study findings at CROI showing that two different strategies of pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, were effective in monkey studies. One study showed for the first time that the oral administration of Truvada, a combination of two antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), before and after exposure to SHIV, a hybrid of HIV and its monkey equivalent SIV, effectively prevented rectal infection in most rhesus macaques. A second study found that a single-drug vaginal gel was just as effective as a two-drug vaginal gel in preventing SHIV infection in female macaques. SHIV infection is generally considered an easier target than SIV infection, at least for vaccines.
IAVI strongly supports the continued research and development of both microbicides and PrEP as potential prevention tools to combat HIV and AIDS. An effective microbicide could increase the ability of women to protect themselves from HIV. Evidence to date provides a strong rationale for exploring PrEP as a new tool for reducing the risk of HIV infection. With 7,500 new HIV infections a day, the development of new HIV prevention strategies, including an AIDS vaccine, remains urgent.
Resource :
Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections 2009 (CORI)
During a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Bangkok, Thailand, last week, officials discussed how the global economic crisis could affect migrant workers and the spread of HIV in the region, Thailand's The Nationreports. The meeting included a discussion among officials from member countries' Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Health and Labor; United Nations agencies; the ASEAN secretariat; and other organizations. Officials said that the economic downturn could affect the lives of migrant workers as the number of such workers returning to the region might increase as the number of people who have lost their jobs overseas increases. In addition, people who have recently lost jobs in Southeast Asia could move overseas in search of work.
According to officials, these new migration patterns could prompt countries to take precautionary stances, which likely will result in fewer formal migration options, a decrease in job opportunities, harsher conditions and discrimination. This in turn could result in unsafe migration and might increase workers' vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, The Nation reports. Officials made recommendations to safeguard migrant workers' right to health services, especially HIV services, throughout the migration process, including ensuring that HIV testing among migrants follows international standards of informed consent, confidentiality and counseling. Officials also noted the need for effective methods of reintegration of workers, including proper referral for HIV services. The 14th ASEAN Summit in Hua Hin, Thailand, from Feb. 27 to March 1 will include a report of recommendations made at the meeting (The Nation, 2/19).
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
