Latest HIV/AIDS News Round-Up

In the field of Health there are always interesting pieces of news, studies, or otherwise fascinating articles to read. We at Williams and Associates wanted to share some of the latest news we found informative:

The Washington Post released an article yesterday discussing how the CDC has reported more progress is being made in reducing the incidence of HIV, but that Latino men who has sex with men have had an increase in infection rates. While the Latino MSM incidence rate is a concern, there is overall more good news in that there was an overall 19% drop in HIV diagnoses between 2005-2014. It is discussed how PrEP also may have played a role in lowering infection rate in addition to increased efforts to inform people about safer-sexuality practices.

Medpage Today has a new piece discussing that switching HIV-positive patients who take medication as a part of antiretroviral therapy from a multi-drug regimen to a specific two-drug schedule can continue to keep them healthy and undetectable. It is always important to be sure that reducing the number of medications taken does not reduce efficacy, however, the two drug combination of Tivicay and Edurant taken together was just as successful as three or four drug regimens–and of course less medications means reduced difficulty for patients in regards to side-effects of remembering to take their medication.

Also on the subject of HIV medications, CNBC has an article about the new challenges being faced by doctors and patients as people who are HIV-positive are now living long, regular lives, and may need assistance in handling the long-term side-effects of various HIV medications.

Lastly, much of the information contained within it is a review as opposed to new data, but fact sheet, “Black Americans and HIV/AIDS: The Basics,” released this month by the Kaiser Family Foundation is full of useful information about the transmission and impact of HIV/AIDS among African-Americans.