Contractor fired after HIV patients placed at risk quoting : Daily News

Consistent medical care and access to medication are critical for keeping HIV and AIDS patients healthy and reducing the spread of the disease. California's public health department Wednesday fired the contractor responsible for enrolling patients in a state-run AIDS program, saying its poor performance threatened enrollees' access to life-saving medications. The AIDS Drug Assistance Program, overseen by the public health department, helps nearly 30,000 low-income HIV and AIDS patients in California pay for medications, insurance premiums and medical care. Public health department officials said Wednesday they planned to determine eligibility and enroll patients directly rather than contract with a new company to do so. She said she believes it will be more efficient for the state to determine eligibility and enroll patients in-house.




Researchers have been successful in increasing HIV treatment success rates by almost 18 percent. Professor Marijn de Bruin from the University of Aberdeen said:This is the first adherence intervention in HIV care that demonstrates clinical and cost effectiveness. The study, published today in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, reports that whilst HIV medication does not deliver a cure, it works so well that the life-expectancy of people living with HIV is quite similar to that of healthy people. However, a significant proportion of people with HIV take their medication too irregularly for it to work well, or discontinue their medication entirely. Patients successfully treated for HIV are also extremely unlikely to transmit the virus to others.

HIV vaccine therapy leaves five patients virus free

Five HIV patients are currently free from detectable virus after undergoing a vaccine therapy for seven months, according to a study published in New Scientist. The research required the patients to stop taking regular antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in order to be introduced to a new vaccine that will allow their body immune system control the virus. Since the epidermic erupted, over 35 million people have died while 36.7 million people are currently living with the virus globally. The study took in 24 patients diagnosed with HIV in 2014. The virus rapidly bounced back in 10 of the participants while 5 no longer needed the drugs because their immune systems could suppress the virus unaided.



collected by :Lucy William
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