Health Care Article

MEXICO CITY: Leaders in the quest for a vaccine against HIV acknowledged on Monday that their mission was dogged by many problems and cautioned that any breakthrough lay years in the future.
In a workshop at the International AIDS Conference, they said the AIDS pandemic would only be
defeated by a preventative vaccine, rather than treating people who are already infected.

But they admitted there have been many setbacks in crafting such a shield, and some advocated a return to fundamentals, and said it is time to draw lessons from failure. “Vaccine science is still more of an art than a science,” said Tachi Yamada, executive director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Programme, a major donor to the vaccine effort. (more…)

WASHINGTON: US health authorities acknowledged on Saturday that they have substantially underestimated the number of new HIV infections in the country, in a study showing that the epidemic is worse than previously thought.

About 56,300 people were infected with the virus that causes AIDS in 2006, a figure 40% higher than the previous estimate of 40,000 new infections a year, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) said. “This new picture reveals that the HIV epidemic is – and has been – worse than previously known and underscores the challenges in confronting this disease,” Kevin Fenton, director of the CDC’s National Centre for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. (more…)

An oral anti-diabetic drug, pioglitazone, has been shown to reduce clogging of arteries, lowered blood pressure, raised good cholesterol and improved on other cardio-vascular risk factors. In the study presented at the recent 57th annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Chicago, it was discovered that pioglitazone caused a regression of coronary atherosclerosis.

It also improved blood pressure, raised high-density lipoprotein (HDL) by 16%, and lowered triglycerides by 15% and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein by some 45%. This double-blind study was conducted by world renowned heart specialist Dr Steven Nissen, of Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, in the US.

It was carried out from August 2003 till March 2006, across 97 hospitals in North and South America. The study covered 543 diabetic patients who also have heart disease.

Datuk Dr Khoo Kah Lin, the director of the National Heart Foundation (Yayasan Jantung Malaysia), said that Type 2 diabetics constantly faced life-threatening conditions such as stroke, coronary heart disease and kidney failure due to complications arising from diabetes.

He said the outcome of the study has given diabetics new hope in managing their cardio-vascular risk factors. The study, titled Pioglitazone Effect on Regression of Intravascular Sonographic Coronary Obstruction Prospective Evaluation (Periscope), compared insulin-sensitiser pioglitazone with insulin secretagogue, glimepiride, over an 18-month period.

The result of the Periscope study indicated that, while glimepiride therapy showed a 0.73% rise in plaque (a deposit of fatty material on the inner lining of an arterial wall, which can lead to clogged arteries), pioglitazone, instead, had a 0.16% drop in plaque volume.

Khoo said: “This is the first time an oral medication has shown such an ability to reduce the clogging of
coronary arteries. “It clearly shows that with daily intake of pioglitazone, Type 2 diabetics have a lower chance of developing heart disease.

This obviously a very significant result that offers diabetics a new lease in life. “We must always be aware that Type 2 diabetes does not have a known cure but with the inclusion of pioglitazone in a diabetic heart patient, it can help prolong life.”

He added that the Periscope results showed pioglitazone did not have any ill cardio-vascular side effect that other drugs of its class had. More importantly, it had benefited Type 2 diabetics beyond controlling their blood sugar levels by reducing mortality and diseases arising from diabetic complications and preserving quality of life.