http://www.i-base.info/htb/index.html Not-for-profit technical review of Antiretroviral Treatment For Injecting Drug Users A Quarterly Bulletin tue, 1 apr 2008 9:00:00 GMT tue, 1 apr 2008 9:00:00 GMT   en-gb HIV i-Base and contibutors rss@i-base.org.uk rss@i-base.org.uk       http://www.i-base.info/idu/2008/en/mar08/HCV.html While there were few studies relating to ARV4IDUs several studies on coinfection were interesting   http://www.i-base.info/idu/2008/en/mar08/MELD.html Aruna Subramanian form Johns Hopkins University looked at determining incidence, cause, and time to pre-transplant mortality in transplant candidates compared to HIV-negative patients in a prospective cohort study at 20 US sites, with particular reference to the MELD score. http://www.i-base.info/idu/2008/en/mar08/abacavir.html Three studies from Spain reported on the relationship between nucleoside/tide analogues and response to HCV treatment. [1, 2, 3] Last year at CROI, a poster from French researchers reported that abacavir use was significantly associated with poorer outcome to HCV treatment, through a possible intracellular competition between abacavir and ribavirin.     http://www.i-base.info/idu/2008/en/mar08/No.html One aspect of HCV management that is informed by little data, is whether continued treatment of virologic non-responders with maintenance peg-IFN therapy can reduce the rate of clinical HCV progression.   http://www.i-base.info/idu/2008/en/mar08/HIV.html HIV and hepatitis C are prevalent among current and former injection drug users (IDUs). For years, activists have been protesting the exclusion of people who use drugs from clinical trials of novel agents for HIV and hepatitis C. Excluding high prevalence populations from all research of new treatments is unacceptable, unless there is a compelling safety reason to do so.   http://www.i-base.info/idu/2008/en/mar08/Russia.html In the last few years, Russia has made some progress toward ensuring access to antiretroviral drugs for those in need. Even in a place like Kuznetsk, a remote and dilapidated town several hundred miles south-west of Moscow, an increasing number of people living with HIV is starting treatment. These people include injection drug users who, until recently, were routinely told that they were not deserving of ART or even specifically excluded from ARV programs. Yet, Russian injection drug users by no means have equitable access to ARV. As Larisa Badrieva and Konstantin Lyazhentsev point out in an article in the last edition of ARV4IDU, many barriers to access persist, with the lack of maintenance treatment chief among them.   http://www.i-base.info/idu/2008/en/mar08/US.html US adult and adolecent HIV treatment guidelines updated twice - on 1 December 2007 and 29 January 2008 http://www.i-base.info/idu/2008/en/mar08/Challenges.html Injection drug use represents the second most common route of transmission of HIV in the United States. Although treatment of HIV disease in this population can be successful, injection drug users (IDUs) with HIV disease present special treatment challenges. These include the existence of an array of complicating comorbid conditions, limited access to HIV care, inadequate adherence to therapy, medication side effects and toxicities, need for substance abuse treatment, and the presence of treatment-complicating drug interactions http://www.i-base.info/idu/2008/en/mar08/Injection.html Four to six years after starting anti-HIV treatment, higher rates of AIDS and mortality were seen in injection drug users and in those who had had AIDS-defining events or CD4 cell counts less than 25 cells/mm3 before starting therapy. The study, conducted by the Antiretroviral Therapy Cohort Collaboration, was published in the December 15th issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. http://www.i-base.info/idu/2008/en/mar08/Community.html Within days of his appointment earlier this month, Thailand’s Interior Minister, Chalerm Yubamrung, reinstated a war on drugs. Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group (TTAG) is concerned that those responsible for past human rights violations committed in the name of drug control have not been held accountable, nor have steps been taken to ensure oversight, professionalism, and accountability in drug suppression efforts. Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently provided unpublished data from the previous government’s investigation into the 2003 war on drugs, which found that 2,819 people were killed in 2,559 murder cases between February and April in 2003. Of those killed, more than half had no relation to drug dealing or had no apparent reason for their deaths. No concrete action has been taken to redress these wrongs, or to prevent their occurrence in the future.