ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on National Health Services on Thursday directed the Ministry of National Health Services to hold seminars at district level to create awareness among people about HIV/ AIDS and the ways to control it.

The panel which met under the chairmanship of Khalid Hussain expressed concern over the lack of coordination among the provinces regarding a survey conducted about the prevalence of the deadly disease.

The committee members were of the view that most of the surveys were conducted only on papers which was in total disregard of ground realities.

The body summoned all provincial director generals of health and programme managers in the next meeting for a detailed briefing on the matter.

Pakistan has been placed on a list of 11 countries with the highest prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS. While in other countries, HIV/AIDS cases are on the decline, there has been a worrying upsurge of the disease in Pakistan.

165,000 people affected with AIDS in Pakistan

The number of HIV/AIDS patients in the country rose to over 160,000 in 2018. Of these, around 110,000 were men; 48,000 women; and 5,500 children under the age of 15. Approximately 6,400 died from the disease.

The health ministry officials informed the committee that screening tests had been conducted in different areas of the country, besides conducting training under the Global Funds programmes to control the disease.

The committee deferred Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues (Amendment) Bill 2019, Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and Islamabad Transfusion of Safe Blood (Amendment) Bill 2019 due to the absences of their movers.

Committee members Haider Ali Khan, Nasir Khan Musa Zai, Raja Khurram Shahzad Nawaz, Dr Nousheen Hamid, Professor Shahnaz Naseer Baloch, Dr Nisar Ahmed Cheema, Dr Samina Matloob, Mahesh Kumar Malani, Dr Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro, Ramesh Lal and Shamsun Nisa and health ministry officials attended the meeting.

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(Reuters Health) – A growing number of sexual minority men understand that HIV can’t be transmitted by people with undetectable viral levels, but a new study suggests men living with HIV have a better grasp of the facts than men who don’t have the virus.

Researchers surveyed 111,747 men who don’t identify as heterosexual about their sexual behaviors, condom use, drug use, HIV status and understanding of the HIV transmission risk. Overall, about 53% knew HIV could not be transmitted by individuals with undetectable viral levels – so little virus in their blood that it can’t be found with lab tests.

Almost 84% of HIV-positive men understood that undetectable effectively means untransmittable, compared with 54% of HIV-negative men, according to the report in JAIDS: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

The findings suggest there’s more work to be done to educate people about HIV prevention, said lead study author H. Jonathon Rendina, an assistant professor of psychology at Hunter College in New York City.

Misunderstanding the facts may lead some people to choose riskier partners or behaviors, Rendina said by email.

“First, people who incorrectly assume sex with undetectable partners is risky are more likely to seek out HIV-negative partners, but a person in the early stages of infection who has not yet been diagnosed has extremely high viremia and is the greatest risk of transmission, so there is a false sense of risk reduction in serosorting,” Rendina said.

“Second, higher levels of HIV stigma are associated with reduced engagement in both HIV prevention and care, both of which exacerbate transmission rates (they make people less likely to get tested and make people living with HIV less engaged in care, thus less likely to remain undetectable),” Rendina added.

The simple message “U=U,” or undetectable equals untransmittable, is a powerful tool to encourage people living with HIV to take their medication and reach and maintain undetectable viral levels, Rendina said.

Although there’s no cure for HIV, the virus can become undetectable when there are too few copies of it in the blood to show up on standard blood tests. But copies can increase again if people stop taking antiviral medications.

“The U=U message can be transformative,” said Julia Marcus, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute in Boston, who wasn’t involved in the study.

“It allows people with HIV and their partners to have sex… without fear of transmitting HIV, it breaks down stigma by changing the way people with HIV are seen by others, as well as how they see themselves, and it also encourages people with HIV to stay on treatment to keep themselves healthy and their partners HIV-free,” Marcus said by email.

One limitation of the study is that researchers only captured participants’ knowledge of HIV transmission at a single point in time, making it impossible to determine whether individual participants became more or less familiar with HIV transmission as time passed, the study team notes. Researchers did, however, see an increase in the proportion of participants who correctly answered questions about viral levels and transmission from the start of the study to the end.

Knowledge may increase over time as more people find less stigma associated with HIV status or sexual identity, Marcus said.

“Healthcare providers need to be crystal clear about the U=U message, regardless of any personal judgments they might have about their patients choosing to have condomless sex,” Marcus added. “An undetectable viral load doesn’t prevent unwanted pregnancy or other sexually transmitted infections, so providers should counsel patients about other sexual and reproductive health options available to them, including contraception, condoms and sexually transmitted infection screening.”

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(Reuters Health) – A growing number of sexual minority men understand that HIV can’t be transmitted by people with undetectable viral levels, but a new study suggests men living with HIV have a better grasp of the facts than men who don’t have the virus.

Researchers surveyed 111,747 men who don’t identify as heterosexual about their sexual behaviors, condom use, drug use, HIV status and understanding of the HIV transmission risk. Overall, about 53per cent knew HIV could not be transmitted by individuals with undetectable viral levels – so little virus in their blood that it can’t be found with lab tests.

Almost 84per cent of HIV-positive men understood that undetectable effectively means untransmittable, compared with 54per cent of HIV-negative men, according to the report in JAIDS: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

The findings suggest there’s more work to be done to educate people about HIV prevention, said lead study author H. Jonathon Rendina, an assistant professor of psychology at Hunter College in New York City.

Misunderstanding the facts may lead some people to choose riskier partners or behaviors, Rendina said by email.

“First, people who incorrectly assume sex with undetectable partners is risky are more likely to seek out HIV-negative partners, but a person in the early stages of infection who has not yet been diagnosed has extremely high viremia and is the greatest risk of transmission, so there is a false sense of risk reduction in serosorting,” Rendina said.

“Second, higher levels of HIV stigma are associated with reduced engagement in both HIV prevention and care, both of which exacerbate transmission rates (they make people less likely to get tested and make people living with HIV less engaged in care, thus less likely to remain undetectable),” Rendina added.

The simple message “U=U,” or undetectable equals untransmittable, is a powerful tool to encourage people living with HIV to take their medication and reach and maintain undetectable viral levels, Rendina said.

Although there’s no cure for HIV, the virus can become undetectable when there are too few copies of it in the blood to show up on standard blood tests. But copies can increase again if people stop taking antiviral medications.

“The U=U message can be transformative,” said Julia Marcus, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute in Boston, who wasn’t involved in the study.

“It allows people with HIV and their partners to have sex… without fear of transmitting HIV, it breaks down stigma by changing the way people with HIV are seen by others, as well as how they see themselves, and it also encourages people with HIV to stay on treatment to keep themselves healthy and their partners HIV-free,” Marcus said by email.

One limitation of the study is that researchers only captured participants’ knowledge of HIV transmission at a single point in time, making it impossible to determine whether individual participants became more or less familiar with HIV transmission as time passed, the study team notes. Researchers did, however, see an increase in the proportion of participants who correctly answered questions about viral levels and transmission from the start of the study to the end.

Knowledge may increase over time as more people find less stigma associated with HIV status or sexual identity, Marcus said.

“Healthcare providers need to be crystal clear about the U=U message, regardless of any personal judgments they might have about their patients choosing to have condomless sex,” Marcus added. “An undetectable viral load doesn’t prevent unwanted pregnancy or other sexually transmitted infections, so providers should counsel patients about other sexual and reproductive health options available to them, including contraception, condoms and sexually transmitted infection screening.”

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MANILA, Philippines — Despite the government’s repeated calls for the public to have themselves tested early for HIV—the human immunodeficiency virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome or AIDS — almost 20 percent of the more than 1,100 new cases recorded in July were still found to have already advanced to AIDS.

At 18 percent, or 199 of the total 1,111 new cases in July, the proportion of people with advanced HIV infection at the time they had themselves tested, had remained largely unchanged based on Department of Health (DOH) monitoring.

Since the start of the year, those who had clinical manifestations of AIDS represented between 15 percent to 20 percent of all new cases. The DOH data showed that the average number of those with AIDS at the time of testing has stayed the same over the last two years.

Health officials earlier appealed to the public, especially those from vulnerable sectors such as the youth and men who have sex with men (MSM), to have themselves tested early for HIV so they could receive treatment immediately.

Based on the World Health Organization’s HIV guidelines, unexplained chronic diarrhea for a month, pulmonary tuberculosis, recurrent severe bacterial pneumonia and chronic herpes simplex infection are among the clinical signs that a person’s condition has already advanced to AIDS.

While antiretroviral therapy doesn’t cure HIV, it helps reduce a person’s viral load and the risk of transmitting the virus.

The DOH said in June that a total of 38,903 people living with HIV are currently receiving treatment.

In the latest report, the most affected are those between 25 and 34 years old, who compose 51 percent of the new cases (567).

Most HIV cases—34 percent or 380—are recorded in the National Capital Region.

Other regions that reported high HIV incidence are Calabarzon (180), Central Luzon (134) and Central Visayas (93).

Earlier, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said that while new cases worldwide from 2010 to 2018 had declined by at least 18 percent, the Philippines saw the “fastest” HIV growth rate as infections in the country surged by 203 percent in the same period.

UNAIDS country director Louie Ocampo said that among the factors behind the continued rise of HIV cases was the lack of access of key vulnerable populations to contraceptives like condoms. HIV testing and treatment also remain wanting.

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HIV – the Aids causing virus – has been wiped out for the first time in living animals, with researchers saying a cure for humans is on the horizon. A clinical trial could start within a year, scientists predict. Current HIV treatment focuses on the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) that suppresses HIV replication but does not eliminate the virus from the body. It requires life-long use and if the therapy is stopped, HIV could rebound and cause the development of Aids. But scientists at Temple University in Philadelphia carried out gene testing that saw mice infected with HIV have it completely eliminated from their DNA. Senior investigator Professor Kamel Khalili said: ‘Our study shows treatment to suppress HIV replication and gene editing therapy, when given sequentially, can eliminate HIV from cells and organs of infected animals.’ Dr Kamel Khalili led the team who discovered the gene editing tool (Picture: SWNS) His team used a technique called CRISPR-Cas9 that can snip faulty DNA infected with the harmless virus. It has been likened to a pair of ‘molecular scissors’. It combines this with a recently developed therapeutic strategy known as long-acting slow-effective release (LASER) ART. Currently, the HIV virus is able to rebound because it integrates its DNA sequence into the genomes of cells in an infected person’s immune system and lies beyond the reach of antiretroviral drugs. But in the new study, published in Nature Communications, the modified drug was packaged into nanocrystals which can reach tissues where HIV is likely to be lying dormant. From there, the nanocrystals – stored within cells for weeks – slowly release the drug to wipe out HIV. Dr Khalili said: ‘We wanted to see whether LASER ART could suppress HIV replication long enough for CRISPR-Cas9 to completely rid cells of viral DNA.’ Researchers infected mice engineered to produce human cells susceptible to HIV and then treated the animals with LASER ART and CRISPR-Cas9. Analysis of the mice at the end of their treatment revealed the HIV DNA had been completely eliminated in one-third of the infected mice. Dr Khalili said: ‘The big message of this work is that it takes both CRISPR-Cas9 and virus suppression through a method such as LASER ART, administered together, to produce a cure for HIV infection. ‘We now have a clear path to move ahead to trials in non-human primates and possibly clinical trials in human patients within the year.’ Current medication suppresses the HIV virus but does not eliminate it and relies on long-term use (Picture: Getty) Earlier this year, health secretary Matt Hancock promised there would be no new cases of HIV in England by 2030. Donald Trump has made a similar pledge for the US. Co senior investigator Dr Howard Gendelman, of Nebraska University, who developed LASER ART, said: ‘This achievement could not have been possible without an extraordinary team effort that included virologists, immunologists, molecular biologists, pharmacologists, and pharmaceutical experts. ‘Only by pooling our resources together were we able to make this groundbreaking discovery.’

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