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Questions for Brandon Marshall: Predicting outcomes of HIV efforts in NYC

By Guest PostMarch 22, 2014Healthaffordable care act, brandon marshall, brown university, columbia university, david orenstein, drug user, high impact, hiv care, hiv efforts, hiv epidemic, hiv incidence, hiv treatment, hiv-positive, new york city, nyc, outcome, predictive computer model

New York City continues to battle an HIV epidemic, including among drug users. There are many possible interventions. Researchers have developed a sophisticated predictive computer model to help policymakers figure out which interventions, or combinations of interventions, would have the most meaningful impact.

Brandon Marshall, assistant professor of epidemiology at Brown University, has led the simulation effort ever since he was a postdoctoral scholar at Columbia University. In a new paper in the March edition of the journal Health Affairs a team from Brown and Columbia published the results of the simulation, which projects that New York can significantly reduce new infections among drug users by 2040 by implementing certain combinations of interventions. Marshall spoke with David Orenstein about what the predictive computer model shows. (more…)

Study finds link between discrimination and suicide attempts among transgender people

By Guest PostJanuary 30, 2014Culture, Generalann haas, anti transgender discrimination, attempting suicide, between, discrimination, hiv-positive, jody herman, link, peter j cooper, philip rodgers, risk, suicide attempts, ted eytan, transgender equality, transgender people, transgender research, victimization, violence

An analysis conducted by UCLA’s Jody Herman and collaborators at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has found that transgender people who experienced rejection by family and friends, discrimination, victimization, or violence have a higher risk for attempting suicide.

Examining data from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, the researchers found that 78 percent of respondents who suffered physical or sexual violence at school reported suicide attempts, as did 65 percent of respondents who experienced violence at work. (more…)

Stemming Russia’s HIV Epidemic

By Guest PostMarch 21, 2013Healthblood borne pathogens, bmc public health, clean syringes, disease, district level, drug users, factor, hiv epidemic, hiv prevalence, hiv-positive, pharmacies, public health, public health sector, robert heimer, russia, sex partners, social costs, social structures, st. petersburg, state university, transmission, unsafe injection practices, virus, yale school

Clean Syringes Often Unavailable in St. Petersburg, YSPH Research Finds

Russia’s HIV epidemic is among the fastest growing in the world and injection drug users who often share needles and other supplies are hardest hit. This occurs even though pharmacies are a legal source for clean syringes and can sell them without restriction.

A recent study led by the Yale School of Public Health and St. Petersburg State University mapped the city’s 965 pharmacies and compared their locations and density to HIV prevalence at the district level. (more…)

Effort to Enforce HIV ‘Health Threat’ Law Raises Questions

By Guest PostFebruary 1, 2013General, Healthadvocates, blood draw, community, database, diagnose, epidemiological data, health threat law, hiv positive woman, hiv surveillance technologies, hiv-positive, local jurisdictions, medical information, michigan health officials, people, policymakers, public health policy, sex, sexual partners, sexually transmitted diseases, stakeholders, trevor hoppe, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR — Michigan health officials are using HIV surveillance technologies to assist in enforcing a “health threat” law that makes it illegal for HIV-positive people to have sex without disclosing their status.

A new University of Michigan study reveals that health officials employ the state’s names reporting database, alongside partner services referrals, for law enforcement purposes. However, this is bad social policy for a variety of reasons, says Trevor Hoppe, the study’s author and a doctoral candidate in sociology and women’s studies. (more…)

Groundbreaking Research Paves Way for HIV Prevention Drug Approval

By Guest PostJuly 15, 2012Healthafrica, antiretroviral drugs, connie celum, fda, hiv, hiv infection, hiv prevention, hiv treatment, hiv vaccine, hiv-positive, jared baeten, Kenya, kenya puppets, nelly mugo, partners prep, placebo, prevention drug, tenofovir, thika, truvada, uganda

For the first time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering approving a drug that helps prevent someone from acquiring HIV. It’s called Truvada, and has been approved for use since 2004 to treat infected people.

Now it has been shown to protect healthy people who are exposed to HIV. The UW’s International Clinical Research Center, within the Department of Global Health, played a key role in examining the drug’s effectiveness for HIV prevention.

Researchers Connie Celum and Jared Baeten led a study, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, of pre-exposure prophylaxis among heterosexual couples in Kenya and Uganda. One partner had HIV (and was not yet eligible for HIV treatment) and the other partner did not have HIV. Uninfected partners were given either Truvada or Tenofovir (both antiretroviral drugs) or a placebo. (more…)

Lecture or Listen: When Patients Waver on Meds

By Guest PostFebruary 5, 2012Healthadherence, aids and behavior, antiretroviral therapy, arv drugs, arv medication, Baltimore, brown university, detroit, hiv-positive, m barton laws, mary catherine beach, new york city, patient, portland, william rogers, yoojin lee

*According to a new analysis of hundreds of recorded office visits, doctors and nurse practitioners typically issued orders and asked closed or leading questions when talking to their HIV-positive patients about adherence to antiretroviral therapy. Attempts at problem-solving with patients who had lapsed occurred in less than a quarter of visits.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Take your medicine, Doctor’s orders. It’s a simple idea that may seem especially obvious when the pills are the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that add decades to the lives of HIV-positive patients. But despite the reality that keeping up with drug regimens is not easy for many patients, a new analysis of hundreds of recorded doctor’s office visits finds that physicians and nurse practitioners often still rely on lecturing, ordering, and scolding rather than listening and problem solving with their patients. (more…)

Couples-oriented Programs Found to Boost Healthy Behaviors Among African Americans

By Guest PostMay 17, 2011Healthafrican american couples, antiretroviral therapy, cancer screenings, cardiovascular disease, chronic diseases, diabetes, gail wyatt, haart, healthier eating, hiv and its treatment with haart, hiv medications, hiv-positive, increased physical activity, john b jemmott, nabila el bassel, std risk reduction program, virus, willo pequegnat

*Intervention focuses on couples in which one partner is HIV-positive*

Intervention programs that promote healthier eating, increased physical activity and cancer screenings may be beneficial for African American couples that are at high risk for chronic diseases and that include one partner who is HIV-positive, according to new research.

With such inverventions, each partner appears to draw encouragement from the other to monitor his or her own lifestyle and health, according to study co-author Gail Wyatt, a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and an associate director of the UCLA AIDS Institute. (more…)

Some Vitamin Supplements Increase Presence of the HIV Virus in Breast Milk

By Guest PostAugust 27, 2010Healthbeta-carotene, breast milk, breastfeed, eduardo villamor, epidemiologist, hiv, hiv-infected, hiv-positive, mother-to-child transmission, pregnant, sub-saharan africa, vitamin A, women

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Vitamin A and beta-carotene supplements are unsafe for HIV-positive women who breastfeed because they may boost the excretion of HIV in breast milk—thereby increasing the chances of transmitting the infection to the child, a pair of new studies suggest.

(more…)

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