Latest news with #HIV-free
New York Post
3 days ago
- Health
- New York Post
Doctors near HIV cure with ‘previously impossible' discovery: ‘We have never seen anything close to as good'
An estimated 39 million people around the world are living with HIV — and, while treatment options can ensure they have long, healthy lives, there is no known cure. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) — the most effective current treatment — can reduce HIV levels in the body so low the virus is almost undetectable. An estimated 39 million people around the world are living with HIV. dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images However, the fact that the virus can hide in certain white blood cells has been a major hurdle in fully eradicating it. Now, researchers in Australia have developed a novel lipid nanoparticle, dubbed LNP X, capable of delivering mRNA into these elusive cells. Once inside, the mRNA instructs the cells to reveal the concealed virus, potentially allowing the immune system or additional therapies to target and destroy it. Paula Cevaal, research fellow at the Doherty Institute and co-first author of the study, told the Guardian that this remarkable scientific feat was 'previously thought impossible.' 'In the field of biomedicine, many things eventually don't make it into the clinic — that is the unfortunate truth; I don't want to paint a prettier picture than what is the reality,' Cevaal said. Researchers in Australia have developed a novel lipid nanoparticle, dubbed LNP X, capable of delivering mRNA into white blood cells harboring HIV (pictured here). Corona Borealis – 'But in terms of specifically the field of HIV cure, we have never seen anything close to as good as what we are seeing, in terms of how well we are able to reveal this virus,' Cevaal added. 'So from that point of view, we're very hopeful that we are also able to see this type of response in an animal, and that we could eventually do this in humans.' The results were published last week in the journal Nature Communications. While it could take years to get to human clinical trials — the implications are enormous. The findings add to the latest scientific advancements that suggest a cure for HIV could be on the horizon. Last year, researchers in Amsterdam used gene-editing technology to eliminate all traces of the virus from cells in the laboratory. And last July, a 60-year-old German man was declared HIV-free, making him the seventh person to be cured.
Time Magazine
08-05-2025
- Business
- Time Magazine
Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli and Charlize Theron: Young Africans Are Ready to Lead. We Must Protect Their Health
If you want to glimpse the future, look to Africa—the youngest, fastest-growing continent brimming with potential. As two women raised in Africa, we've witnessed firsthand the incredible promise this continent holds. By 2050, a quarter of people on Earth will be African. This youth boom is an unprecedented opportunity. With proper investments, these young people can drive innovation and economic growth globally. The next big tech disruptor? They could be coding in Lagos. The medical student ready to discover the next health innovation? They might be studying in Nairobi right now. They will found startups, staff entire industries, and supply the ingenuity every economic revolution needs. There are already powerful stories emerging across Africa, showing what's possible when young Africans are given the opportunity and resources to thrive. In Nigeria, Temie Giwa-Tubosun founded LifeBank—the "Amazon for blood" —using technology to deliver blood and oxygen to hospitals, saving over 20,000 lives since 2016. From mobile money in Kenya to electric vehicles in Ghana, Africa's innovators are leading in fintech, green tech, and creative industries. But right now, millions of young Africans risk never reaching their potential because of a disease we know how to prevent and treat. Two decades ago, the world united against the AIDS crisis—and it worked. Twenty-six million lives have been saved, and 8 million babies were born HIV-free. Young people accessed life-saving medicine while maternal mortality declined. Africa's progress fighting HIV/AIDS has been revolutionary. At the macro level, several African countries have achieved significant breakthroughs by setting the standard for inclusive growth. Take Botswana: once among the world's poorest nations with the highest HIV rates, Botswana's GDP per capita surged from just over $500 in 1966 to over $6,800 by 2018 – one of the fastest economic growth rates globally. In the same period, life expectancy rose from 54 to 66 despite the devastating effects of HIV. Botswana even exceeded targets for ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic four years early. But this fight stands at a crossroads. Research published in the Lancet HIV last month warned that planned international aid cuts by the five largest donor countries could undo 25 years of progress at the stroke of a pen. In the worst case scenario, we could see 10.8 million additional HIV infections and 2.9 million more AIDS-related deaths by 2030—levels not seen since the early 2000s. We're seeing the human cost of these funding cuts firsthand through our own work. In KwaZulu-Natal, for instance, where approximately 1.9 million South Africans live with HIV, 20-year-old performing arts student Dalisu relied on a PEPFAR-supported community-based program for youth-friendly healthcare. (Name has been changed to protect privacy.) As funding cuts forced that program to suddenly shut down, his only option for treatment is now his university clinic. Fear of stigma and discrimination has caused him to miss appointments, putting him at risk of viral rebound. Without urgent intervention, Dalisu's health and future hang in the balance. Millions of young Africans now face similar challenges as vital support programs evaporate. Of course, being HIV-positive doesn't kill ambition. Many gifted people with access to treatment have built thriving careers. But imagine how many more success stories could emerge if fewer young people had to face this challenge in the first place. By continuing to tackle HIV at its root, we can unlock even greater potential, freeing individuals and communities from the burden it places on their health, education, and economies. African leaders themselves are committed to a clear pathway to sustainability and fully financing their healthcare, with a focus on life-saving medicines and delivery mechanisms. Countries like Angola have transitioned from support for medical commodities, while others, like Nigeria and Ghana, are filling gaps left by aid cuts. There are also significant opportunities to join forces across the continent to invest in local manufacturing and joint procurement of medicines, thereby unlocking the economic opportunities in the health economy. Enhancing the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of treatment delivery, investing in health care workers and infrastructure, leveraging advances in technology, and engaging the diaspora to invest in the ecosystem will expedite this transition to full self-sufficiency. Young Africans are ready to lead. They've shown what's possible when we invest in their health, education, and ideas. Now it's time for all of us—governments, philanthropists, and global citizens—to match that ambition. Our future depends on it.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
A new HIV prevention drug could get FDA approval this year
Preventing HIV infections could soon be as simple as two shots a year. Gilead (GILD) announced on Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted its new drug application for a twice-yearly injectable drug designed to prevent HIV. If approved, lenacapavir would be the first long-acting HIV-1 capsid inhibitor for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a preventive treatment that lowers the risk of contracting HIV. The FDA has granted the application a priority review, setting a target decision date of June 19, 2025. The submission follows the agency's decision in October 2024 to grant lenacapavir Breakthrough Therapy Designation — a process aimed at speeding up the review of promising treatments for serious or life-threatening conditions. 'Today, we are one step closer to introducing the first-ever twice-yearly HIV prevention choice that could, if approved, help transform the landscape for individuals who need or want additional prevention options that better fit into their lives,' said Dietmar Berger, chief medical officer at Gilead, in a press release. 'We're excited about the potential of lenacapavir to make a real difference in HIV prevention in the U.S. and around the world, supporting the broader goal of ending the HIV epidemic for everyone, everywhere.' The application is based on results from two phase 3 trials. In one, lenacapavir showed a 100% reduction in HIV infections among cisgender women, with zero participants contracting the virus. In the other, there were only two infections in the lenacapavir group, but 99.9% of participants remained HIV-free — representing a 96% risk reduction among cisgender men and gender-diverse individuals across diverse geographic regions. The trials also found that lenacapavir was more effective at preventing HIV than Gilead's older drug, Truvada, a once-daily pill. Lenacapavir is already FDA-approved when used in combination with other antivirals for people with multi-drug resistant HIV. Gilead stock rose 2% during intraday trading on Tuesday following the news. The company's sales rose 6% to $28.8billion in 2024, Gilead reported last week. The were an estimated 31,800 new HIV infections in the U.S. in 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Fox News
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
I am a USAID whistleblower. I've got to admit, Musk is mostly right about agency's waste
I'm a physician who was suddenly laid off from USAID last month after Elon Musk fed "USAID into the wood chipper." I should be livid about what Musk is doing to my former employer. But I'm not; I'm a whistleblower who worked at USAID for eight years, and Musk is (mostly) right about USAID's dysfunction. As USAID's fate to be shrunk and subsumed into the State Department seems all but sealed, once the Republican-led Congress passes a law to legitimize it, two predictable debate positions have emerged. Musk and the Republicans say "USAID is a criminal organization" full of "radical left lunatics" that wastes taxpayer dollars, while the Democrats and USAID staff say USAID nobly performs vital life-saving work. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between, but nobody disputes the criticisms regarding waste. Musk colorfully said of USAID, "It's not an apple with a worm in it; we have actually just a ball of worms." I suggest instead that USAID is better described as an apple that has become infested by worms. During my eight years at USAID, I worked with some wonderful colleagues and together we made real impacts, but we were too frequently undermined by a sclerotic and at times malevolent bureaucracy. USAID has many good apples, but also many bad ones who spoil the barrel, as I will detail below. In my opinion, the ratio of good to bad apples is approximately 1:1, so the decision to fire 97% of the workforce is overzealous. USAID saves babies, but it also wastes taxpayer dollars at an unacceptable rate. To borrow another common analogy, it would be fair to say that USAID is a baby suffering in filthy bathwater that hasn't been cleaned for decades. Musk's overhaul of USAID therefore is a potentially valuable act of creative destruction. However, Musk's exaggerations and minimizing of USAID's real impacts suggest that he might go too far, so all stakeholders must now ensure that this moment is a net positive, rather than let the baby be thrown out with the bathwater. Contrary to Musk's assertions, USAID undeniably produces valuable results, as its defenders are now trumpeting. For example, its HIV programs have helped saved more than 25 million lives since 2000, enabled 7.8 million babies to be born HIV-free to mothers living with HIV, and thus helped stanch the global HIV pandemic. Recent peer-reviewed studies, co-authored by me, show that USAID investments have helped partner countries reduce child and adult mortality faster than otherwise comparable countries. Saving babies' lives helps America make lasting friendships, and development creates markets for American goods, while both are also nice things to do. Humanitarian assistance in places such as Ukraine, Gaza, Indonesia, and Venezuela epitomize America's soft power. Lesser known examples of USAID's value abound, illustrated well by USAID's partnership with a private foundation to restore Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, decimated by civil war in the 1980s, which is now thriving and was used as a base for USAID's 2019 humanitarian response to Cyclone Idai. Building on the Gorongosa model, in response to the 2018 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, my colleagues and I built a $165 million program across twelve countries to leverage USAID funding with matching private investment to reduce pressure on biodiverse ecosystems to protect wildlife and also reduce the risk of emerging diseases, while benefiting the local people. All those programs are now paused and possibly moribund, and that is of grave concern. That said, everyone who works at USAID knows about the appalling waste and occasional malevolence that happens within the aid-industrial complex. Musk and the White House have been highlighting DEI examples, such as the promotion of nonbinary gender language by journalists in Sri Lanka, but there are myriad others. The billion-dollar global health supply chain contract, which delivers HIV medicines, was ordered to pay $3.1 million to resolve corruption allegations, yet somehow its next generation contracts have been as problematic as before. Many beltway bandit recipients charge an average absurd 30% overhead yet too often report meaningless results like the number of people trained. My story, through which I became a reluctant whistleblower (Merit System Protection Board Case DC-1221-23-0102-W-1), epitomizes what Musk must rightly eliminate from the Agency. When I became the Global Health Bureau's Acting Deputy Chief of Staff in 2020, I immediately observed the incompetence of career bureaucrats as they moved too slowly to advance a $34.5 million tranche of funding to fight COVID-19. After I fixed this and other instances of their gross mismanagement, instead of thanking me for cleaning up their mess, the bureaucrats retaliated against me by slow-walking and then blocking a promotion for me and attempting (but failing) to fire me. In 2021, emboldened by their successful retaliation against me, they again incompetently slow-walked hundreds of millions of dollars of COVID funding, and were caught flat-footed in April when the Delta wave exploded in India. For weeks, they scrambled to inefficiently send supplies there only after the wave of cases had peaked. Everyone involved at USAID was embarrassed and upset at their inefficiency, which was mainly the fault of the few same bureaucrats who retaliated against me. Distracted by South Asia, USAID failed to send any aid to Latin America until well after the deadly 2021 COVID waves had passed there, with tens of thousands of confirmed deaths, outside of a small one-off delivery to Colombia. For example, USAID funding was sent so late to Peru to combat their Lambda COVID-19 wave that funding was eventually returned Washington, as the wave of around 30,000 confirmed deaths had been completely missed. Although I sent these data to the Government Accountability Office auditors, their 2023 audit only generally called out USAID negative leadership behaviors. One of the main villains in my story was demoted by USAID Administrator Samantha Power following the gross mismanagement of COVID-19 in 2021, but was later given the plum job of USAID Mission Director in Cambodia. Another villain left USAID for a leadership position at CDC, only after I sued USAID under the Whistleblower Protection Act. Throughout my ensuing three year legal battle, USAID's lawyers employed despicable tactics, enabled by our ineffective whistleblower protection system, but they finally settled with me in 2024. This kind of malfeasance must be purged not only from USAID, but from all of the US government. When I was an active-duty Army soldier, the waste I observed in the Defense Department was no better or worse. Despite these appalling realities, to paraphrase Gen. Jim Mattis, if USAID did not exist, we would need to create it. USAID helped win the Cold War, and has helped make the world healthier, safer, and more prosperous. But USAID can and should be so much more than it has been, and it epitomizes how unaccountable bureaucrats can abuse their power while failing to do their duty and deliver for American and global interests. If Musk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio eliminate the hundreds or thousands of bad employees from USAID, so many deserving groups will be better off, including American taxpayers, aid beneficiaries, and the good employees within USAID. Economic history shows that creative destruction is usually a net positive, however painful it is for those who cannot compete. But as USAID goes through this metamorphosis, we must not throw the baby out with the wretched bathwater.
