HIV AIDS

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The FDA has warned consumers against using three brands of red yeast rice, a product marketed as a natural remedy for high cholesterol, because they may contain lovastatin, the active ingredient in Mevacor.

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Raw oyster harvested from a bed off the coast of Washington State have been linked to six reports of Vibrio parahaemolyticus illness, prompting an FDA warning.

OXFORD, England -- Abstinence-only programs to prevent HIV and pregnancy in high-income countries are ineffective, according to a systematic review of 13 U.S. trials.

BALTIMORE -- Internal medicine residents scored poorly on a 20-question quiz testing their ability to diagnose tuberculosis and choose appropriate treatment, researchers found.

A 39-year-old woman complained of excruciating pain that radiated from a chronic lesion on the left upper lip to the entire left side of the face. She had AIDS but was not receiving antiretroviral therapy.

SYDNEY -- Treatment with the new protease inhibitor darunavir (Prezista) was able to drive HIV to undetectable levels in 71% of patients compared with 60% for patients taking lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra).

SYDNEY -- A new class of HIV drugs, the CCR5 inhibitors, is designed to prevent HIV from entering cells and should be helpful in disease management if they gain regulatory approval, said researchers at an industry-sponsored symposium here.

SYDNEY -- Investigators remain puzzled about why a supposedly safe anti-HIV microbicidal gel turned out to increase the risk of HIV in women who used it.

SYDNEY -- Making circumcision widely available to adult men in regions of the world where HIV infection is highly prevalent will save millions of lives and should be undertaken immediately, researchers urged here.

SYDNEY -- Starting antiretroviral therapy in the first 12 weeks of life markedly reduces mortality for infants born with HIV infection.

SYDNEY -- An investigational HIV drug that blocks the virus from entering its target cells "isn't ready for prime time" in the treatment of newly diagnosed patients, a researcher said here.

SYDNEY -- A screening test can identify patients at risk of suffering a dangerous hypersensitivity reaction to abacavir (Ziagen), a mainstay in the treatment of HIV.

SYDNEY -- A combination of two new HIV drugs can reduce the virus to undetectable levels even in patients with a highly resistant strain, according to two studies presented here.

SYDNEY -- Malignancies still plague a major study of the investigational HIV drug vicriviroc, which blocks one of the pathways the virus uses to enter target cells, a researcher said here.

SYDNEY -- As the long-term prognosis for patients with HIV improves, it becomes more important to assess the patient's risk for cardiovascular disease and other health issues, researchers suggested here.

SYDNEY -- In patients who have both HIV and tuberculosis, doctors can use a relatively low dose of nevirapine (Viramune) in combination with rifampin (Rifadin), researchers said here.

SYDNEY -- The novel integrase inhibitor raltegravir was as effective initial therapy as the standard treatment, a researcher said here.

SYDNEY -- New compounds that seek ways to disrupt mechanisms of the HIV life cycle were outlined here, reflecting an expanding investigative antiviral pipeline

SYDNEY -- A novel HIV drug aimed at barring entry of the virus into the cell was safe and had a long half-life in an early trial, lowering viral load for up to two weeks after treatment stopped, a researcher said here.

SYDNEY -- HIV vaccine research is poised to take a step into the unknown -- the use of live but attenuated viruses to create immunity.

SYDNEY -- Doctors and patients should not be content with keeping human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) at low levels, but should seek to optimize treatment to suppress virus to undetectable levels.

SYDNEY -- Tuberculosis and HIV therapy can take place at the same time without the risk of long-term HIV treatment failure, researchers said here.

SYDNEY -- The pendulum of HIV treatment is starting to swing -- once again -- toward the "hit early, hit hard" theory.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Older patients prone to falling can have significantly better lives if they undergo a structured exercise programs, investigators here reported.

abstract: Tuberculous pericarditis, while relatively rare in the United States, is an important cause of pericardial disease in countries where tuberculosis is prevalent. Patients are most likely to present with chronic disease--effusive and/or constrictive. Those with effusive pericarditis often present with tamponade. Patients with constrictive pericarditis exhibit features of systemic and pulmonary venous congestion. An elevated level of adenosine deaminase in pericardial fluid is a good marker for tuberculosis. The presence of granulomas or case-ation necrosis in pericardial tissue confirms the diagnosis. If treatment of effusive tuberculous pericarditis is delayed, constrictive or effusive-constrictive disease usually develops, resulting in a high mortality risk. In addition to a standard antituberculosis regimen, treatment of tuberculous pericarditis may include adjuvant therapy with corticosteroids, pericardiocentesis, and/or pericardiectomy. (J Respir Dis. 2007;28(7):278-282)