Kristi's blog

Scaling down HIV requires scaling up human rights, testing and treatment
To the participants at the WHO consultation on ART as HIV prevention:
We, the undersigned organizations, are encouraged by emerging evidence that ART may be an effective means of reducing HIV incidence and applaud the attention of WHO and UNAIDS to identifying scientifically sound and innovative ways to accelerate progress toward universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services. We appreciate that exploration of ART as prevention is being undertaken with that crucial goal in mind, including significant gains in increasing the number of people who know their status and, if positive, have timely access to treatment.

With AIDS growing among seniors, decline in brain function a serious concern, researchers say. Premature aging is striking the brains of people infected with the virus that causes AIDS, new research suggests. It's not clear if the virus or the drugs that treat it -- or both -- are contributing to the aging. But one thing is clear: The blood flow in HIV patients is about the same as in those of uninfected people who are 15 to 20 years older. "The graying of the AIDS patient community makes this infection's effects on the brain a significant source of concern," study author Dr. Beau Ances, an assistant professor of neurology at Washington University in St. Louis, said in a university news release.

Politically motivated drug policies in Uganda and Kenya have cost lives to malaria.

WASHINGTON — Malaria is a preventable and curable disease that kills nearly 1 million people, mostly children, every year. This disease continues to kill in large part because so many poor people living in Africa lack access to safe, effective and affordable medicines. Yet in an attempt to increase access, some governments and funding agencies have promoted policies that might undermine treatment outcomes. Political interference in medicine production and procurement must end and governments must instead focus their efforts on fixing medicine distribution systems that limit access.