|
|
 |
June 2004 ECI/HIVAN HIV/AIDS Public Health Journal Club
Jo-Ann Du Plessis. HIVAN Sectoral Networking Team. June 2004.
|
The June Journal Club took place on Friday 11 June 2004. Christina Thobakgale reviewed a study by Azzoni et al. on HIV Treatment Interruptions. At this stage the optimal length of time for HIV treatment interruption is not known, but the hypothesis is that it allows for immune boosting, decreased drug-related toxicity, and a reversion of multi-drug resistant HIV. Two challenges of treatment interruption are determining the optimal period of interruption and the logistics involved in monitoring patients. There are risks associated with treatment interruption, and future research is warranted. Prof Coovadia?’s discussion centered around a paper presented at the 11th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in San Francisco in February 2004. This described a new study investigating the combination of AZT plus a single dose of Nevirapine given to mothers and their babies in three different arms (Nevirapine to mom and baby, Nevirapine to mom only and a placebo arm). Vertical transmission rates were surprisingly low for the first arm (AZT plus Nevirapine to mother and child), at 1.1%. Transmission rates for the other two arms were 2.1% and 6.3% respectively.
References for June Journal Club:
Lallemant, M., Jourdain, G., Le Coeur, S. et al. ?“A randomised, double-blind trial assessing the efficacy of single-dose perinatal Nevirapine added to a standard Zidovudine regimen for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 in Thailand?”, paper presented at the 11th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, February 8-11, 2004, Moscone West, San Francisco, USA.
Azzoni, L., Papasavvas, E. and Montaner, L.J. ?“HIV Treatment Interruptions?”, Current HIV Research, 2003(1): 329-342.
Prof. Jerry Coovadia
Professor Jerry Coovadia is the first incumbent of the Victor Daitz Foundation Chair in HIV/AIDS Research, and is Director, HIVAN (Biomedical Sciences). He was formerly Professor and Head of the then University of Natal?’s Department of Paediatrics and Child Health. Professor Coovadia has wide experience of and international perspectives on childhood diseases and the HIV/AIDS epidemic (especially mother-to-child-transmission), and ethics of research in developing countries. He is renowned for his chairmanship of many types of international academic meetings and conferences, and is a leading figure in health education and research and corporate sector initiatives in Africa. He also served as Chairperson at the 1st SA AIDS Conference, held in Durban during August 2003.
Ms Christina Thobakgale
Christina Thobakgale is a Research Associate at HIV Pathogenesis Programme (HPP) at the Nelson R Mandela Medical School. She has a Masters degree in Biochemistry from the University of Natal and will be registering for a PHD in the latter half of 2004. Christina is currently working on a project investigating Augmenting T-cell responses in acutely infected newborns using HAART and Structured Treatment Interruptions.
All presentations from this Journal Club Meeting can be downloaded on the righthand side of this page |
| Was this article helpful to you? |
 ?100%???? ?0%
|
|
Back
|
|
|
Prof Jerry Coovadia and Christina Thobakgale
|
|
|
