Access to Hepatitis C Treatment: A Global Movement Gains Momentum
TAGline • 2010By Tracy Swan Being a person living with HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, and an injection drug user, I look at my body. People want to treat my virus — my immune system — people want to treat my chest — my TB — but no one wants to treat my liver, so we have to find…
NIAID Workshop: Elimination of HIV Reservoirs
TAGline • 2010By Richard Jefferys On Friday, January 15, the National Institutes of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID) sponsored a scientific workshop entitled “The Next Challenge: Elimination of HIV Reservoirs.” The event took place during the Keystone conference on HIV pathogenesis in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The focus of the agenda was on curing HIV infection, a…
AIDS World Health Organization HIV Treatment Guidelines Evolve
TAGline • 2010By Mark Harrington Safer and more effective drug combinations included in new guidelines… Unusually, there was something to celebrate on World AIDS Day in 2009, even if it was only on paper. The World Health Organization (WHO) updated its antiretroviral treatment (ART) guidelines for adults, adolescents, pregnant women, mother-to-child transmission, and breast- feeding. These guidelines…
Starting HAART: When to Take the First Step?
Webinars • 2010Starting HAART: When to Take the First Step? 20 July, 2010 Click to view session Presenters included: Steven Deeks (United States) Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Peter Mugyenyi (Uganda) Director and Founder, Joint Clinical Research Center Kampala, Uganda Mark Harrington (United States) Executive Director of the Treatement Action Group (TAG) Ambassador…
AIDS Is Not in Recession: Treatment Shortages Increasing
TAGline • 2009HIV is not in recession: This was the recurring theme of the IAS conference repeated in speeches and displayed on PowerPoint presentations. By Scott W. Morgan At the Fifth International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Cape Town, South Africa, this year, the AIDS Rights Alliance for South Africa (ARASA) won…
Treating Earlier Saves Lives—But Treating Everyone Could End the Epidemic
TAGline • 2009By Bob Huff At the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, in 2000, when the movement to provide universal access to antiretroviral treatment for people with HIV around the world began in earnest, guidelines for the standard-of-care treatment of people with HIV were similar everywhere: begin therapy when CD4 counts fall near or below…
TAG at the Union: Addressing Critical Challenges in TB/HIV Research & Program Implementation
Publication • 2009Addressing Critical Challenges in TB/HIV Research & Program Implementation 1 December 2009, Cancun, Mexico Introduction About 70 activists, researchers, clinicians and public health experts participated in a TAG/Stop TB Partnership satellite meeting held prior to the 40th Union World Conference on Lung Health. The objectives were to (1) highlight current challenges for TB and TB/HIV…
Policy Corner
TAGline • 2009AIDS Drug Assistance Programs Face a Dire Situation as Waiting Lists Expand for HIV Treatment In the midst of increasing state health budget cuts and service eliminations, people living with HIV/AIDS and advocates are worried about increasing AIDS drug assistance program (ADAP) waiting lists, formulary reductions, and eligibility constrictions throughout the country. ADAPs provide lifesaving…
Fifty Years of AIDS Treatment: 1981–2031
TAGline • 2008By Bob Huff A speculative history of HIV treatment presented at the PATH aids2031 meeting “Discovery and Innovation for HIV/AIDS ” held in Seattle, November 18, 2008. 1981 First reports of disease later known as AIDS; 100 percent fatality feared. 1983 HIV identified as cause of AIDS; first treatment attempts fail. 1985 AIDS vaccine said…
What’s in the HIV Drug Pipeline?
TAGline • 2008Not Nearly Enough By Bob Huff In the midst of a “golden age” of abundant antiretroviral treatments some worry that our “embarrasment of riches” will leave us wanting unless we continue the search for better drugs. TAG’s Antiretroviral (ARV) Pipeline Report is usually a story about what’s new and what’s coming in the world of…