Waiting for FDA approval: Anti-HIV pill ‘Truvada’ to cause AIDS epidemic?

It has been proven to drastically decrease the chances of contracting HIV before one is even exposed to the virus: Truvada is considered a medical breakthrough by some, yet others fear the once-a-day prevention pill could spur a deadly AIDS epidemic.

Truvada is made from: two ingredients tenofovir and emtricitabine.

Tenofovir is a drug also used with another drug called Emtricitabine marketed as Emtriva, made by Gilead Drug Company. Tenofovir was approved by the FDA in 2001, as a treatment for HIV. and in 2008 for hepatitis.  The most common side effects is nausea, diarrhea, and can cause acute kidney failure, or tubular necrosis.

Studies and sample studies are small and tests by Family Health International warn about formulating any conclusive evidence that Tenofovir works to reduce the rate of HIV infection.

Emtricitabine causes abnormal skin color changes and sensation, depression, diarrhea, changes in color of the palms of the hands or skin on the soles of the feet,and many more including lack of energy.  More severe allergic reactions including swelling of the mouth, tongue, face, lips, fever, stomach aches, yellowing of eyes/skin, and rashes.  Nervous disorders are a side effect of this drug, including nerve damage (neuropathy) depression, paresthesia a numbing, tingling  or loss of sensation.

Costs of the Drug:  $ 8,000.00 a year per person.

The drug — a small, blue pill ingested orally — is currently awaiting FDA approval. Its manufacturer, Gilead, argues that Truvada would reduce the risk of risk of contracting HIV in as many as three-quarters of cases and has been proven so in tests already. AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein is weary of how people will use the pill, however, and warns, “I believe that this could be catastrophic in terms of HIV prevention.”

The argument against approving the pill, says Weinstein, is that it will encourage partners to engage in unprotected sex. While the pill is proven to work in many cases, it is not 100-percent guaranteed. The result, he says, could only make things worse for AIDS and HIV.

It’s a “fabulous drug – it’s one pill once a day, and it has a low side-effect burden,” says Weinstein. Unless the user is aware that the success rate of Truvada is limited and takes extra precautions such as traditional prophylactics though, that ignorance might trigger an AIDS epidemic that could destroy America.more 

US funds Israels circumcision plan to fight AIDS in Zimbabwe

US funds Israels circumcision plan to fight AIDS in Zimbabwe

Muslims are not isolated from the rest of the non-Muslim societies. Notably, however, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in predominantly Muslim countries is significantly less than among the countries where Christians or Jews are in majority. For example, in Morocco with a 98% Muslim population three out of 10,000 people have HIV/AIDS. On the other hand, in Botswana with 2% Muslim population, 3,580 out of 10,000 have HIV/AIDS, while in Zionist-state with 80% Jewish population 858 out of 10,000 people have HIV/AIDS. Last year, over 2.4 million Africans died from AIDS related illnesses. more
The U.S. ranks high on President Robert Mugabe’s enemies list, but at ground level it is leading a war on AIDS that may help save the life of 32-year-old Tineyi Marokwe and hundreds of thousands of other Zimbabweans.
The weapon is cheap and simple: male circumcision, considered a significant reducer of AIDS transmission.
In a 10-minute surgical operation, Marokwe recently became one of more than a million Zimbabwean men in the most sexually active age group who are being targeted for circumcision during the next seven years.
Dr. Bill Jansen, a senior American adviser with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Zimbabwe, says trials and circumcision pilot programs in South Africa and East Africa have shown a reduction in HIV infection by 60 percent.
The Zimbabwe program, begun in May 2009, has carried out 12,000 circumcisions. The U.S. spent $6.6 million on it in the first year and more money is promised as the program scales up.
So vilified are Western nations by Mugabe that few Zimbabweans realize their continuing aid programs are the mainstay of humanitarian assistance to the troubled nation.
The U.S. is Zimbabwe’s biggest aid donor — more than $1 billion since 2002 — and the biggest contributor to nationwide modern AIDS clinics that have tested and counseled 2 million people. This month it pledged another $50 million to its wider AIDS programs that include supplies of AIDS drugs.
While Mugabe has done nothing to hinder the program, some volunteers assigned to explain sexual health issues to the poor have been accused by Mugabe’s supporters of abetting a U.S. political agenda and working for the opposition in next year’s election.more

Israeli doctors have been training their counterparts in male circumcision, hoping expertise in the ancient technique will help in the battle against the modern scourge of AIDS. The United Nations announced last year that the procedure could reduce the rate of HIV transmission by up to 60 percent. It was in Israel, with its experience performing adult male circumcision on a wide scale, that the international medical community found an unlikely partner in the global fight against AIDS.
“Israeli medicine and public health are positioned as a real asset in African countries,” said Dr. Inon Schenker, a director of Operation Abraham, the consortium that sent the doctors to Swaziland and plans to send more training teams to Africa.

It’s a model organizations such as the World Health Organization and the United Nations would like to see replicated in Africa as a tool for combating the spread of HIV.more

thank you Battleskin for helping me put this together~