Global Fund raises record US$13b to fight AIDS, TB and malaria

Source: South China Morning Post

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that a record US$12.9 billion has been raised for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria over the next three years.

 

Trudeau made the announcement on the second and final day of an international donors’ meeting as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and others gathered in Montreal to determine how to replenish the major global health fund that combats AIDS and two of the world’s other leading killers in low-income countries.More

 

 

 

 

18/9/2016

Bill Gates: Disease fight is tough but progress is 'incredible'

Source: Medical Xpress

Through his foundation, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates is the top nongovernmental donor to the Global Fund against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, with plans to give $600 million between 2017-2019.

In an interview with AFP, Gates said the Global Fund's successes have given him hope, even in the face of huge challenges.

Q: Canada's International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau has said that our generation is the one that has to fight these epidemics—(and) global warming. Are we a damned generation?

A: Every generation has challenges. But the world is in better shape today in terms of health, how long people live. If you go back to 1990, over 12 million children died before the age of five. Now it's less than six million.More

 

 

 

 

 

12/9/2016

Dehong, China Makes Remarkable Turnaround in Its AIDS Epidemic

Source: The Body

The village of Jiele is where China's first HIV cases were reported in 1989. Located in Dehong prefecture in Yunnan province, the village experienced an AIDS epidemic that resulted in almost 200 deaths. However, a quarter of a century later, the village is now brimming with hope and renewed energy.

"In the past, everyone was so scared of HIV, but now we are getting great health services and we are living normal healthy lives. We are not afraid of HIV anymore," said a resident of Jiele.More

 

 

 

 

9/9/2016

HIV-Positive Students Ponder Life After High School

Source: Sixth Tone

It’s the first day of the semester after the summer break, and a group of students gather in a schoolyard in northern China to watch the raising of the national flag. Dressed in their new uniforms, these 32 children make up the entire student body of Linfen Red Ribbon School, which claims to be the first and only school in the country that specifically caters to students who have HIV.

This coming school year will be a pivotal one for many of these children. That’s because next June, the first batch of seniors — or about half of those currently enrolled — will graduate and head out into the world. More

 

 

 

 

 

6/9/2016

First lady highlights China's fight against AIDS

Source: China Daily

Peng leads foreign visitors to activity promoting awareness of HIV, campus prevention efforts

China's first lady, Peng Liyuan, called for a redoubling of international efforts against HIV/AIDS on Monday in Hangzhou, the host city of the G20 Leaders Summit.

As the World Health Organization's goodwill ambassador for tuberculosis and HIV, Peng led a group of officials' spouses to Zhejiang University for an anti-AIDS activity.More

 

 

 

 

6/9/2016

Single HIV mutation induces distinct T cell immune responses

Source: Science Daily

In an effort to increase the understanding of HIV and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) co-evolution, and improve the development of T cell-mediated AIDS vaccines, which induce the creation of HIV-specific T cells within the body, a research collaboration between researchers in Japan, China, France, Kazakhstan, and the UK analyzed T cell responses to a single HIV escape mutation. The researchers looked at how the HIV single mutant was selected by different (RW8- and RF10-specific) CTLs, and investigated the new corresponding CTLs.

The research focused on a mutation that is very frequently found in individuals having the human leukocyte antigen HLA-A*24:02, which is estimated to be in approximately 70% of the Japanese population, and revealed that one mutation produced two outcomes. During HIV/CTL co-evolution, the mutation induced a new T-cell repertoire in one RF10 mutant epitope but not in the RW8 mutant epitope. The research clarified the coadaptation between a single HIV-1 mutation and T cells.More

 

 

 

 

 

6/9/2016

HIV patients aging before their time’

Source: Medical Xpress

While combination antiretroviral therapy has meant that people with HIV can live longer lives, research shows that the virus makes fundamental changes to the immune system by increasing the risk of developing age-related conditions.

"What we are now realising is that HIV as a disease is really a disease of inflammation. We are able to control the virus, but what remains are the immune dysfunction and dysregulation in patients that are leading to the diseases of ageing such as cardiovascular diseases, bone disease, cancer and diabetes," Alan Landay, chair of the immunology and microbiology department at Rush University Medical Center of Chicago, in the United States, tells SciDev.Net.More

 

 

 

30/8/2016

China Drug Sales to the U.S. Grow Despite Safety Concerns at Home

Source: Bloomberg

Chinese drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients are found in medicine cabinets as far away as New York and Chicago, and the country’s exports of pharmaceutical products and health supplements worldwide jumped 3 percent to $56 billion last year.

Yet even as China’s drug industry has grown in global stature, so have questions about the safety of its products.

Consider: Last year, about 700 Chinese firms were told by regulators in China to review their pending applications to sell new drugs and voluntarily withdraw any that were false or incomplete. Within months, about 75 percent had been retracted by the manufacturers or rejected by Chinese officials.