THE Department of Health (DOH) revealed an increase of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) being treated at Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC).

Dr. Maria Lorena Santos, BGHMC chair of HIV and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Core Team, said that there are now 72 HIV cases recorded from 2006 until May of this year. These cases were recorded at BGHMC.

She said the hospital had three cases each in 2006 and 2007 while six cases each in 2008 and 2009. Five patients were found HIV positive in 2010 at BGHMC.

However, the number increased in 2011 wherein the hospital had 16 HIV positive patients. The number continues to increase in 2012 with 17 patients while this year has already 16 confirmed patients to be positive of HIV from January to May only.

Despite the increase, Santos said DOH authorities are even happy with the numbers because it only implies that patients are now revealing themselves to doctors which will facilitate easy monitoring. Santos further said it is now easy for them to conduct counseling to the HIV patients. Treatment is also easy with the patients coming out availing of the health benefits the government offers.

Santos said the client–initiated counseling now will help the patients a lot to slow down the progress of the illness to AIDS.

The HIV and AIDS core team chairman said among the 72, the youngest victim is 19 years old while the oldest is 56 years old. BGHMC record shows that 51 are males while 21 are females. Among the 51 males, 40 are homosexual, eight are heterosexual, and three are bisexual. On the other hand, among the 21 females, 14 are heterosexual and one is bisexual.

Among the origins of HIV positive patients are: five from Manila; 28 from Baguio City; one each from Abra, Pampanga, and Isabela; and five from Benguet. Santos revealed most of the patients are professionals.

“HIV has no cure. All HIV positive patients will ultimately progress to AIDS,” she said.

The hospital executive also advised public to take extra precautions when having sexual intercourse with somebody. She revealed that four main source of HIV are: unprotected multiple sexual intercourse; blood transfusion; mother to child transmission; and sharing of injectable needles.

She also urges a person with HIV illness to inform his partner on his disease before sexual intercourse because it is mandated under the Philippine law. She explains, if the partner was informed about the illness and yet, he still want to have sex with the patient, that is his choice. However, Santos said the two can still have sex but they have to use protective measures in order to avoid transmitting the illness to one another’s future partner.

DOH encourages citizens with HIV symptoms to visit any hospital in order to avail of the free medicines, free laboratory tests, and other free health services which are now being offered to HIV victims.

Source: Rubyloida Bitog
http://www.sunstar.com.ph

Doctors are warning that a drug-resistant strain of gonorrhea could be more deadly than AIDS, and are urging members of US Congress to spend $54 million for the development of a drug that would fight it.

"This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly," Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine, told CNBC.

The new strain of gonorrhea, H041, was first discovered in 2009 after a sex worker fell victim to the superbug in Japan. Medical officials reported that the medication-resilient ‘sex superbug’ was discovered in Hawaii in May 2011, and has since spread to California and Norway, the International Business Times reports.

Nearly 30 million people die from AIDS-related causes each year, and the H041 superbug could have similar consequences, according to Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine.

"Getting gonorrhea from this strain might put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days,"Christianson said. "This is very dangerous."

The gonorrhea strain has not yet claimed any lives, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have asked Congress for $54 million to find an antibiotic to treat the strain.

In a Capitol Hill briefing last week, health officials said an education and public awareness campaign is crucial in minimizing the effective of HO41. William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition for STD Directors, said that if the ‘sex superbug’ spreads, it could quickly kill many people before a treatment is discovered. And that risk becomes increasingly more likely if Congress does not provide the funds to find a cure, he said.

"It's an emergency situation. As time moves on, it's getting more hazardous," he told members of Congress.

"We have to keep beating the drum on this," he added. "The potential for disaster is great."

In the United States, there are 20 million new STD infections each year, which results in about $16 billion in medical costs, the CDC reports. More than 800,000 of these cases gonorrhea infections, most of which occur in young people ages 15 to 24. Gonorrhea is sometimes difficult to detect, since it shows no symptoms in about half of all women. Those who fall ill to the deadly strain may not notice it until it’s too late.

“That’s what’s kind of scary about this,” Smith said.

Although health officials have widely reported that cases of H041 were discovered in California, Hawaii and Norway, the CDC has disputed those claims and told CNBC on Monday that the infection has not been confirmed anywhere outside of Japan. The CDC did, however, make an announcement in 2011 that it was noticing greater gonorrhea bacterial resistance to certain types of antibiotics in Hawaii and California. 

CDC officials said that the US and Norwegian cases were treated effectively with antibiotics not routinely recommended and that these cases were mistakenly identified as H041. But the agency continues to urge Congress for research funding, indicating that the risk of infection is high regardless of where the cases occurred.

Christianson is urging people to practice safe sex and get STD tests if they are in a new relationship, since a superbug infection could be around the corner.

"This is a disaster just waiting to happen," he told CNBC. "It's time to do something about it before it explodes. These superbugs, including the gonorrhea strain, are a health threat. We need to move now before it gets out of hand."

Source:

http://rt.com/news/superbug-gonorrhea-aids-sex-900/

MANILA, Philippines - President Benigno Aquino III wasn't the only person of Filipino descent in this year's TIME 100 Most Influential People list.

Filipino-American Katherine Luzuriaga, one of the 3 scientists who reported the first ever recorded "functional cure" in an infant with HIV, was also honored by the magazine in its annual list.

Luzuriaga, a professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, was cited by the magazine under its "Pioneers" list, along with fellow doctors Deborah Persaud and Hannah Gay, for their breakthrough in HIV/AIDS research.

She has been one of the world's leading scientists dealing with pediatric HIV/AIDS research, having been involved in the said field for more than two decades.

"These three women are responsible for orchestrating an incredible breakthrough: functionally curing a newborn of AIDS," Mark Dybul, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, wrote in the group's citation.

Breakthrough

Their study involved a baby born in a rural Mississippi hospital back in 2010, whose mother was HIV-positive. The infant was given a regimen of AIDS drugs from shortly after birth until 18 months. Five months after end of treatment, the baby was already HIV-negative.

The child, who is now 2 1/2 years old, is still HIV-free. The development surprised the world, and gave hope for thousands of HIV-positive babies worldwide.

When the TIME 100 list was released, Filipinos were abuzz only about Aquino's inclusion in it, primarily because her being Fil-Am was not explicitly stated in the magazine (TIME even lists Caracas, Venezuela as her birthplace).

The FilAm magazine was the first to report about her Filipino roots in an interview published Thursday, April 25.

Her father traces his roots to Bacolod City, the magazine said. Luzuriaga, on the other hand, grew up in Manila, and is an alumna of the International School. She then went on to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Tufts University.

"We consider this a great achievement," she told the magazine during the TIME 100 gala in New York City, adding that it is an honor "to have our work considered to be of great influence. To a scientist, that means a lot." The 3 scientists, along with dozens other honorees, were feted at the event.

Luzuriaga said their work on HIV/AIDS research will continue. "One of the things about the finding is that it points the way to new studies that we can do and we’d like to go on and continue to make progress again for pediatric HIV infection," she told The FilAm.

"Together, we are committed to eradicating pediatric HIV infection and improving child health globally,"she said in a statement shortly after the list was announced.

The list, published annually by the magazine since 2003, is a rundown of some of the world's most influential individuals, from the arts to politics to science. - with reports from KD Suarez/Rappler.com

The overwhelming evidence of the curative powers of marijuana and cannabinoids leaves little doubt that the pharmaceutical industry is behind marijuana prohibition laws. The amount of research now validating the truly remarkable nature of this healing plant is simply enormous. According to new findings published in the journal PLoS ONE, researchers have now discovered that marijuana-like chemicals trigger receptors in on human immune cells that can directly inhibit a type of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) found in late-stage AIDS.

The U.S. Patent 6630507 was specifically initiated when researchers found that cannabinoids had specific antioxidant properties making them useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation-associated diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and HIV dementia.

The Netherlands became the world's first country to make cannabis available as a prescription drug in pharmacies to treat cancer, HIV, and multiple sclerosis patients.

Medical marijuana is prescribed to treat pain, debilitating weight loss, and appetite suppression, side effects that are common in advanced AIDS. This is the first study to reveal how the marijuana receptors found on immune cells --- called cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 --- can influence the spread of the virus. Understanding the effect of these receptors on the virus could help scientists develop new drugs to slow the progression of AIDS.

Unfortunately, the researchers will use the research on the effects of these receptors to develop new drugs to benefit the pharmaceutical industry.

Marijuana researcher and activist Jason Mihaldas says the studies finally justify what the pro-marijuana community has always know. "Decades of anecdotal and empirical evidence are now being validated by the scientific community, but it's unfortunate they are using this research for their own selfish motives --- to take marijuana from its raw medically effective form to one where it will be medically ineffective with processing agents, altering what it is designed to do... heal," proclaimed Mihaldas.

"We knew that cannabinoid drugs like marijuana can have a therapeutic effect in AIDS patients, but did not understand how they influence the spread of the virus itself," said study author Cristina Constantino, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "We wanted to explore cannabinoid receptors as a target for pharmaceutical interventions that treat the symptoms of late-stage AIDS and prevent further progression of the disease without the undesirable side effects of medical marijuana."

HIV infects active immune cells that carry the viral receptor CD4 which makes these cells unable to fight off the infection. In order to spread, the virus requires that "resting" immune cells be activated. In advanced AIDS, HIV mutates so it can infect these resting cells, gaining entry into the cell by using a signaling receptor called CXCR4. By treating the cells with a cannabinoid agonist that triggers CB2, Dr. Constantino and the Mount Sinai team found that CB2 blocked the signaling process, and suppressed infection in resting immune cells. 

The Mount Sinai team infected healthy immune cell with HIV, then treated them with a chemical that triggers CB2 called an agonist. They found that the drug reduced the infection of the remaining cells. 

Developing a drug that triggers only CB2 as an adjunctive treatment to standard antiviral medication may hellp alleviate the symptoms of late-stage AIDS and prevent the virus from spreading, said Dr. Constantino. Because HIV does not use CXCR4 to enhance immune cell infection in the early stages of infection, CB2 agonists appear to be an effective antiviral drug only in late-stage disease.

As a result of this discovery, the research team led by Benjamin Chen, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases, and Lakshmi Devi, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, plans to develop a mouse model of late-stage AIDS in order to test the efficacy of a drug that triggers CB2 in vivo.

Now that the scientific evidence is being made public, a concerted effort must be made from all nations to end marijuana-prohibition laws . Holding or possessing a plant should never be a criminal offense and the origins and source for these laws are now coming to light.

Sources:
www.thehealthyarchive.info/2013/05/another-reason-marijuana-is-illegal-it.html 
May 4, 2013

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120320195252.htm
March 20, 2012