National Geographic

From the city of New York.

The FDA has approved the first in a new class of drugs that may increase the cure rate for Hepatitis C.

The new drug, Victrelis from Merck, effectively cured more than 60 percent of patients in clinical trials when used along with existing drugs. That compared with 20 to 40 percent of patients cured by the existing drugs alone. “This new medication provides an effective treatment for a serious disease, and offers a greater chance of cure for some patients hepatitis C infection compared to currently available therapy,” Dr. Edward Cox, director of the F.D.A.’s office of antimicrobial products, said in a statement. An estimated 3.2 million Americans have a chronic infection of the hepatitis C virus. The virus can cause serious liver disease, including cirrhosis and liver cancer, though these problems may take decades to develop and may not develop at all.

Male fertility probably isn't a major concern for most of you, but scientists say they've found a new predictor for low sperm count. It's the length of your taint. SRSLY.

That distance, measured from the anus to the underside of the scrotum, is linked to male fertility, including semen volume and sperm count, the study found. The shorter the AGD, the more likely a man was to have a low sperm count. This offers the prospect of a relatively simple screening test for men, said study co-author Shanna Swan of the University of Rochester Medical Center. "It's non-invasive and anybody can do it, and it's not sensitive to the kinds of things that sperm count is sensitive to, like stress or whether you have a cold or whether it's hot out," Swan said in a telephone interview.

You know somebody is going to work this into a porn plot.

(Tipped by JMG reader Marlin)

According to a story posted on AIDSmap.com, San Francisco is seeing a decrease in new HIV infections because HIV+ people are going on medication sooner and therefore have a reduced period of infectiousness.

Dr Das presented more evidence from San Francisco to show a strong correlation between reductions in community viral load and the falling number of HIV diagnoses. The most recent CVL, defined as the average viral load of all HIV positive people being seen for care in the city, went down from approximately 25,000 copies/ml in 2004 to 10,000 copies/ml in 2009. Over the same time, new diagnoses of HIV decreased from 820 in 2004 to 500 in 2009. For CVL to decrease, a number of other things have to happen first, in a ‘cascade’ of events. Firstly, the frequency of testing in the at-risk population must increase; this must result in a lower proportion of undiagnosed cases; those diagnosed must be linked to care, and the majority must start treatment; and the time between diagnosis and viral suppression must reduce. Dr Das said all these indicators were strongly correlated. The average time from diagnosis to the start of treatment shrank from twelve months in 2004 to two months in 2009. The time between diagnosis and achieving an undetectable viral load went down from nearly three years in 2004 to eight months in 2009; and the percentage with an undetectable viral load within a year of diagnosis increased from 26% in 2004 to 82% in 2008.

Last April the San Francisco Department of Public Health adopted the controversial position that newly infected patients should immediately begin HAART therapy upon their diagnosis. Some AIDS activists strongly objected to that, citing the prevailing opinion that HAART treatment should be delayed as long as possible due to the long-term side effects of the medications. Many HIV specialists continue to recommend a closely-monitored delay in treatment, but the above result in San Francisco should not be discounted.

(Tipped by JMG reader Bill)

"Pharmacies like Walgreens, Rite-Aid, CVS and a lot of other major retailers are silent accomplices in this scam." Randi is offering a $1M reward to any homoepathic manufacturer that can prove that their product is the slightest bit effective.

More than half of the nation's AIDS patients who are on waiting lists to get medications are in Florida. Last week Sen. Bill Nelson wrote both the president and Florida Gov. Rick "Medicare Fraud" Scott, warning of a catastrophic public health crisis over the lack of ADAP funding. In the below clip, South Florida AIDS activist Mark S. King lays out the situation and what can be done about it.

Scientists are testing a vaccine that causes the body to treat cocaine like an attacking virus and thereby keep it away from the brain.

So far, the vaccine has only been tested on mice, but the results are extraordinary. Mice given the vaccine no longer exhibited any of the hyperactive signs of a cocaine high when they were next given the drug. The vaccine was created by taking just the part of the cold virus that alerts the body's immune system to its presence, and then researchers connected the signaling mechanism to a more stable version of the cocaine molecule.

Once the mice received an injection of the vaccine, they started producing anti-cocaine antibodies which targeted and destroyed any cocaine that then entered their system. Normally, cocaine does not produce an immune response, leaving it free to wreak havoc on the brain and body of whoever takes it. But the cold virus segments taught the immune system to treat cocaine like a hostile invader, offering a nearly impregnable wall of protection from the cocaine's effects.

All kinds of ethical implications are raised by this research, of course. For example, should it be legal for parents to immunize their children against the pleasurable effects of some drugs without ever knowing if that person was capable of responsible use?