Obesity Among People Living with HIV

In the U.S., as we move into the holiday season there is often increased reporting on obesity. AIDS.gov asked Dr. Nancy F. Crum-Cianflone, a Research Physician with the Naval Medical Center San Diego, to provide us information on her new study of obesity in HIV-infected persons. Research has shown, HIV-infected persons are now are increasingly overweight or obese. Below is what she told us.

Renewed Hope for an HIV Vaccine

By Dr. Carl W. Dieffenbach

Carl W. Dieffenbach, Ph.D

In late September, the U.S. federal government announced news on HIV vaccine research that sparked interest around the world. A trial called RV144, or the Thai HIV vaccine clinical trial , showed that the experimental vaccine regimen was safe and about 31 percent effective in preventing HIV infection. Although the vaccine regimen had a very modest effect (typical vaccines for other disease and conditions provide about 80-90 percent protection), it is the first HIV vaccine to demonstrate any ability to reduce the risk of HIV infection in people. Since the discovery of HIV, making a vaccine has been a major scientific goal of AIDS researchers. Until now, the field has been paved with setbacks and disappointments including two trials that were stopped in 2007 due to safety concerns. This new result reminds us that science is about finding answers and to do this, we must continue to conduct research.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci's Statement for National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Last Sunday, September 27, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health, released a statement to acknowledge National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and research issues impacting gay men. To read the entire statement, visit the NIAID website.

Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Director of NIAID

“

Gay and bisexual men have been active participants in HIV/AIDS research, including that funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. A good example is the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS), the longest U.S. study of people with HIV/AIDS and one of the most rigorous and productive epidemiologic HIV/AIDS studies in history. Gay and bisexual men also have participated in NIAID clinical trials of antiretroviral drugs that were essential to developing life-saving treatments now available to millions of people with HIV.

“Currently, gay and bisexual men are participating in NIAID’s first late-phase trial of a promising new HIV prevention method called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. The idea behind PrEP is that HIV-negative people at high risk of becoming infected with the virus could take antiretroviral medications that may protect them from infection.

HIV Vaccine Regimen Demonstrates Modest Preventive Effect in Thailand Clinical Study

By Kathy Stover, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, NIH

In an encouraging development, an investigational vaccine regimen has been shown to be well-tolerated and to have a modest effect in preventing HIV infection in a clinical trial involving more than 16,000 adult participants in Thailand. Following a final analysis of the trial data, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army, the trial sponsor, announced today that the prime-boost investigational vaccine regimen was safe and 31 percent effective in preventing HIV infection.

“These new findings represent an important step forward in HIV vaccine research,” says Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH, which provided major funding and other support for the study. “For the first time, an investigational HIV vaccine has demonstrated some ability to prevent HIV infection among vaccinated individuals. Additional research is needed to better understand how this vaccine regimen reduced the risk of HIV infection, but certainly this is an encouraging advance for the HIV vaccine field.”

To learn more, read the full press release and www.hivresearch.org for more information about the Thai Phase III HIV vaccine trial.

HIV/AIDS Research Gets a Boost through ARRA

By Dr. Carl W. Dieffenbach

Carl W. Dieffenbach, Ph.D

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 into law to help stimulate the struggling U.S. economy. At the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), part of the NIH, we have used ARRA funds to award high-quality, peer-reviewed grants focusing on research designed to help bring an end to the HIV/AIDS epidemic both by finding new ways to prevent infection and to, hopefully, find a cure.

A critical HIV prevention question is: can we identify the populations at highest risk for infection? Using ARRA funds, NIAID is working to answer this question through two clinical trials designed to determine the feasibility and acceptability of a community level approach to HIV prevention and to estimate HIV incidence among African-American gay and bisexual men and African-American women living in geographical areas with high rates of poverty and HIV infection. The results of these two studies could have a profound impact on the future direction of HIV prevention research in the U.S.