HIV you heard?
Posted on 27. Jul, 2010 by Shandy in Health, News
Reading through some of the coverage last week on the International AIDS Conference got me thinking about a poster presentation, which I did on the disease at university. I would be intrigued to read the content again as I suspect the research included would now be very much out of date.
The number of articles, on new advances in the area, just on Google news were huge and a very rough media analysis from the Google news archive, between 1980 and 2010, shows an exponential increase in media coverage… not surprising that with advocates including Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Desmond Tutu and Bill Gates, AIDS remains important on the global media agenda.
Despite the fact that the congress was held in Europe (Vienna) HIV only made position 17 in the Aurora top 20 (to be released tomorrow on this blog), highlighting a lack of interest from the UK media. This is a real shame because there was lots of exciting news including:
• The WHO announcing that an estimated 5.2 million people in low and middle-income countries were receiving life-saving HIV treatment at the end of 2009, which is an increase of 1.2 million from 2008
• A vaginal gel, containing an antiretroviral drug, was shown to cut infection rates among women by 50% after one year of use
• Circumcision was shown to lower heterosexual men’s risk of AIDS by almost two-thirds and could potentially lead to savings of $20.2 billion over the next 10 years
• In England and Wales, the number of people over 50 suffering from AIDS has more than doubled in the last decade and many were diagnosed late, meaning an increased chance passing on the virus
• Four pharmaceutical companies agreed to offer generic drug manufacturers royalty-free rights to all their existing and experimental HIV medicines to sell at low cost in developing countries
• Questions were raised at the end of the conference about the amount of funding, which will be made available from developed countries in this time of economic stability
The next International AIDS conference will take place in Washington in 2012 and if research continues at the pace it is now, who knows what the hot topics will be…
I must remember to pull out that presentation not only for the content but also for the 3D representation of the virus which we made with polystyrene balls and pipe cleaners – luckily we weren’t being marked on artistic merit.
neilcrump
28. Jul, 2010
Having worked in HIV diagnosis and medicine for 15 years I was quite shocked how little was reported from the congress in the mass media. Thank goodness for NAM – they do a great job of keeping people up to date on the latest developments. You can find them here: http://www.aidsmap.com/
Handbaglady
28. Jul, 2010
NAM (a fantastic group that works to change lives by sharing information about HIV and AIDS) that some Aurora team members have worked with in the past, produced a really comprehensive daily round up of all the news and research that came out of the International AIDS conference in Vienna. It made really interesting reading. Their website is a great resource: http://www.aidsmap.com
Shandy
28. Jul, 2010
I have just taken a look at this website – what a great resource. I wish more websites were this comprehensive.
Shandy
05. Aug, 2010
I have just watched a very impactful video by the Topsy Foundation, which shows the effect of ARV treatment on a woman with AIDS. It is definitely worth taking a minute out of your day to watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/user/thetopsyfoundation