New report describes 7 essential steps toward an AIDS-free generation

Internationally respected frontline public health experts ask: Will society pay the price to turn a dream into reality?

2012-07-20

(Press-News.org) The end of AIDS is within our reach. But as the authors of a new special supplement in the August, 2012 Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiencies (JAIDS) point out, new financial investments – and renewed commitments – from countries around the world will be critical to fully implement proven treatment and prevention tools already at hand and to continue essential scientific research.

"Only then will an AIDS-free generation be possible," write the supplement's editors -- Richard Marlink, Wafaa El-Sadr, Mariangela Simao and Elly Katabira – in their introduction. **

"Are we willing to pay the price to turn the dream into a reality?" they ask.

Dr., Marlink, Executive Director of the Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative, is available for media interviews on the recommendations in the special supplement, which are the outgrowth of an international conference on AIDS convened at Harvard School of Public Health in December, 2011. The conference brought together more than 200 global experts in the field from academia, government, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector in anticipation of the upcoming International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C. being held July 22-27, 2012.

The supplement may be reviewed online at http://journals.lww.com/jaids/toc/2012/08012 .

Entitled "Engaging to End the Epidemic: Seven Essential Steps Toward an AIDS-Free Generation," the supplement identifies the seven key areas where money and political will must be focused to end AIDS. These include:

The promise and challenges of using antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to prevent HIV transmission

New AIDS treatments, improving the ARV pipeline to treat those infected, and working toward a cure

Enhancing the role of government leaders, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations (NGOS) in driving local and national responses to the epidemic

Narrowing health disparities in preventing and treating AIDS caused by economic disempowerment, discrimination, and stigma

Preventing AIDS transmission from mothers to babies in low- and middle-income countries where access to prevention services are most limited, but where new drug interventions show AIDS could be virtually eliminated in infants and children

Funding the pursuit for AIDS vaccines, which are necessary to actually eliminate the disease

Maximizing and growing current investments in the global AIDS response, rather than decreasing funding. In addition to its humanitarian impact, money spent going forward is a good global and local investment because improving and sustaining people's health enables them to be productive members of society contributing to the growth of their nations' economies.

### Each article provides a unique assessment of progress and a specific plan for moving forward. Dr. Marlink is available for interviews to discuss these assessments and plans. Interviews with other contributors to the supplement can also be arranged.

**Richard Marlink: Harvard School of Public Health, and Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation; Wafaa El-Sadr, Mailman School of Public Health and College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment (ICAP) and Harlem Hospital Center; Mariangela Simao, Rights, Gender and Community Mobilization Department, UNAIDS Secretariat; Elly Katabira, International AIDS Society, and Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala Uganda

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Disorderly conduct

2012-07-20

A new experiment conducted at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI)* examines the relationship between quantum coherence, an important aspect of certain materials kept at low temperature, and the imperfections in those materials. These findings should be useful in forging a better understanding of disorder, and in turn in developing better quantum-based devices, such as superconducting magnets. Most things in nature are imperfect at some level. Fortunately, imperfections---a departure, say, from an orderly array of atoms in a crystalline solid---are often ...

Novel anti-malarial drug target identified

2012-07-20

An international team of scientists, led by researchers from the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have identified the first reported inhibitors of a key enzyme involved in survival of the parasite responsible for malaria. Their findings, which may provide the basis for anti-malarial drug development, are currently published in the online version of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Tropical malaria is responsible for more than 1.2 million deaths annually. Severe forms of the disease are mainly caused by the parasite ...

Blood vessel forming potential of stem cells from human placenta and umbilical cord blood

2012-07-20

Tampa, Fla. (July 19, 2012) – A study comparing whether endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs) derived from human placenta or those derived from human umbilical cord blood are more proliferative and better for forming new blood vessels has found that ECFCs derived from human placenta are more vasculogenic. The study, carried out by researchers at the Indiana School of Medicine, is published in a recent issue of Cell Medicine [2(3)] and is freely available on-line at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/cm. "Circulating ECFCs isolated from umbilical cord blood ...

Being in awe can expand time and enhance well-being

2012-07-20

It doesn't matter what we've experienced – whether it's the breathtaking scope of the Grand Canyon, the ethereal beauty of the Aurora Borealis, or the exhilarating view from the top of the Eiffel Tower – at some point in our lives we've all had the feeling of being in a complete and overwhelming sense of awe. Awe seems to be a universal emotion, but it has been largely neglected by scientists—until now. Psychological scientists Melanie Rudd and Jennifer Aaker of Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Kathleen Vohs of the University of Minnesota Carlson ...

Colorful science sheds light on solar heating

2012-07-20

A crucial, and often underappreciated, facet of science lies in deciding how to turn the raw numbers of data into useful, understandable information – often through graphs and images. Such visualization techniques are needed for everything from making a map of planetary orbits based on nightly measurements of where they are in the sky to colorizing normally invisible light such as X-rays to produce "images" of the sun. More information, of course, requires more complex visualizations and occasionally such images are not just informative, but beautiful too. Such is the ...

IRVE-3 flight hardware test sounding rocket

2012-07-20

NASA will launch an inflatable aeroshell/heat shield technology demonstrator on a Black Brant XI sounding rocket July 22 from the agency's launch range at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) is the third in a series of suborbital flight tests of this new technology. Technicians will vacuum pack the uninflated 10-foot (3.05 meters) diameter cone of high-tech inner tubes into a 22-inch (56 centimeters) diameter sounding rocket. During the flight test an on board system will inflate the tubes -- stretching a thermal ...

Tropical Depression Khanun blankets South Korea

2012-07-20

Tropical Depression Khanun came ashore with some heavy rainfall in the morning hours (local time) on Thursday, July 19. NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of Khanun's clouds on July 19, covering all of South Korea like a blanket. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument onboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a true-color image of Tropical Depression Khanun over South Korea on July 19, 2012 at 0225 UTC, or 11:25 a.m. local time, Seoul (10:25 p.m. EDT/U.S. on July 18). The last advisory on Khanun from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center ...

Vitamin D may protect against lung function impairment and decline in smokers

2012-07-20

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with worse lung function and more rapid decline in lung function over time in smokers, suggesting that vitamin D may have a protective effect against the effects of smoking on lung function, according to a new study from researchers in Boston. "We examined the relationship between vitamin D deficiency, smoking, lung function, and the rate of lung function decline over a 20 year period in a cohort of 626 adult white men from the Normative Aging Study," said lead author Nancy E. Lange, MD, MPH, of the Channing Laboratory, Brigham and ...

CPAP treatment effective in patients with milder OSA and daytime sleepiness

2012-07-20

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), well established as an effective treatment for severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), is also effective in patients with mild and moderately severe OSA and daytime sleepiness, according to a new study. "The evidence for the efficacy of CPAP in patients with milder OSA is limited and conflicting," said lead author Terri E. Weaver, PhD, RN, professor and dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing. "Our multi-site, double-blind, randomized trial, the first placebo-controlled study to use sham CPAP in sleepy ...

Rutgers study: Anxiety disorders in poor moms likely to result from poverty, not mental illness

2012-07-20

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Poor mothers are more likely to be classified as having the mental illness known as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) because they live in poverty – not because they are suffering from a psychiatric disorder, according to Rutgers researchers. Judith C. Baer, an associate professor in the School of Social Work, and her team, in the study, "Is it Generalized Anxiety Disorder or Poverty? An Examination of Poor Mothers and Their Children," published online in Child and Adolescent Social Work, argue that although high levels of stress over long periods ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

ASH 2025: Antibody therapy eradicates traces of multiple myeloma in preliminary trial

ASH 2025: AI uncovers how DNA architecture failures trigger blood cancer

ASH 2025: New study shows that patients can safely receive stem cell transplants from mismatched, unrelated donors

Protective regimen allows successful stem cell transplant even without close genetic match between donor and recipient

Continuous and fixed-duration treatments result in similar outcomes for CLL

Measurable residual disease shows strong potential as an early indicator of survival in patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Chemotherapy and radiation are comparable as pre-transplant conditioning for patients with b-acute lymphoblastic leukemia who have no measurable residual disease