#drugs africa

[reasonsforhope]

"A large clinical trial in South Africa and Uganda has shown that a twice-yearly injection of a new pre-exposure prophylaxis drug gives young women total protection from HIV infection.

The trial tested whether the six-month injection of lenacapavir would provide better protection against HIV infection than two other drugs, both daily pills. All three medications are pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP) drugs.

Physician-scientist Linda-Gail Bekker, principal investigator for the South African part of the study, tells Nadine Dreyer what makes this breakthough so significant and what to expect next.

Tell us about the trial and what it set out to achieve

The Purpose 1 trial with 5,000 participants took place at three sites in Uganda and 25 sites in South Africa to test the efficacy of lenacapavir and two other drugs.

Lenacapavir (Len LA) is a fusion capside inhibitor. It interferes with the HIV capsid, a protein shell that protects HIV’s genetic material and enzymes needed for replication. It is administered just under the skin, once every six months.

The randomised controlled trial, sponsored by the drug developers Gilead Sciences, tested several things.

The first was whether a six-monthly injection of lenacapavir was safe and would provide better protection against HIV infection as PrEP for women between the ages of 16 and 25 years than Truvada F/TDF, a daily PrEP pill in wide use that has been available for more than a decade.

Secondly, the trial also tested whether Descovy F/TAF, a newer daily pill, was as effective as F/TDF...

The trial had three arms. Young women were randomly assigned to one of the arms in a 2:2:1 ratio (Len LA: F/TAF oral: F/TDF oral) in a double blinded fashion. This means neither the participants nor the researchers knew which treatment participants were receiving until the clinical trial was over.

In eastern and southern Africa, young women are the population who bear the brunt of new HIV infections. They also find a daily PrEP regimen challenging to maintain, for a number of social and structural reasons.

During the randomised phase of the trial none of the 2,134 women who received lenacapavir contracted HIV. There was 100 percent efficiency.

By comparison, 16 of the 1,068 women (or 1.5%) who took Truvada (F/TDF) and 39 of 2,136 (1.8%) who received Descovy (F/TAF) contracted the HIV virus...

What is the significance of these trials?

This breakthrough gives great hope that we have a proven, highly effective prevention tool to protect people from HIV.

There were 1.3 million new HIV infections globally in the past year. Although that’s fewer than the 2 million infections seen in 2010, it is clear that at this rate we are not going to meet the HIV new infection target that UNAIDS set for 2025 (fewer than 500,000 globally) or potentially even the goal to end Aids by 2030...

For young people, the daily decision to take a pill or use a condom or take a pill at the time of sexual intercourse can be very challenging.

HIV scientists and activists hope that young people may find that having to make this “prevention decision” only twice a year may reduce unpredictability and barriers.

For a young woman who struggles to get to an appointment at a clinic in a town or who can’t keep pills without facing stigma or violence, an injection just twice a year is the option that could keep her free of HIV.

What happens now?

The plan is that the Purpose 1 trial will go on but now in an “open label” phase. This means that study participants will be “unblinded”: they will be told whether they have been in the “injectable” or oral TDF or oral TAF groups.

They will be offered the choice of PrEP they would prefer as the trial continues.

A sister trial is also under way: Purpose 2 is being conducted in a number of regions including some sites in Africa among cisgender men, and transgender and nonbinary people who have sex with men.

It’s important to conduct trials among different groups because we have seen differences in effectiveness. Whether the sex is anal or vaginal is important and may have an impact on effectiveness.

How long until the drug is rolled out?

We have read in a Gilead Sciences press statement that within the next couple of months [from July 2024] the company will submit the dossier with all the results to a number of country regulators, particularly the Ugandan and South African regulators.

The World Health Organization will also review the data and may issue recommendations.

We hope then that this new drug will be adopted into WHO and country guidelines.

We also hope we may begin to see the drug being tested in more studies to understand better how to incorporate it into real world settings.

Price is a critical factor to ensure access and distribution in the public sector where it is badly needed.

Gilead Sciences has said it will offer licences to companies that make generic drugs, which is another critical way to get prices down.

In an ideal world, governments will be able to purchase this affordably and it will be offered to all who want it and need protection against HIV."

-via The Conversation, July 3, 2024

[nando161mando]

Monday in Dublin. Be there!

With Workers.

Against Racism.

#DublinRiots #Dublin #Ireland #PeopleBeforeProfit #PBP #AntiRacism #Antifascism

@antifainternational @anarchistmemecollective @kropotkindersurprise @radicalgraff

[jasontoddenthusiastt]

Why are people who look at comic books from a “critical real-world lens” so obsessed with identifying the one person who is “100% right”. That doesn’t even exist in the real world.

Lost Days wasn’t made to protest global issues. It is a comic book exploring fictional character Jason’s mental journey after being resurrected and regaining consciousness against his will and/or power. Now how dare this character, in his own story where he has his own personal objective, not go out of his way to make sure each individual child from the collective hundreds he saved from traffickers and the likes gets adopted into nice homes. Obviously we have to disregard any good he did or that he cares at all because all he did was kill the fucker at the top who was responsible. Winick also never fleshed out all 42 of the trafficked children into nuanced characters with their own thoughts and feelings which was apparently neglectful lol.

In regards to utrh, Idk what this person read but there were more drug dealers Jason didn’t kill than those he did. Not once did he ever say he wanted to eliminate the flow of drugs in the community. He took over the trade. Not to mention he explicitly stated control vs elimination is where his goals differed from Bruce’s pipe dream hence why he’s successful and Bruce is still failing. Obviously if you completely misunderstand the character’s motivations you’ll find issues that don’t exist.

People just don’t want stories to be about what they are about, huh.

[reportsofawartime]

[asimpleram]

I was reading about Randy Shultz, and it say he denied the results of his HIV test so it wouldn't seem like he was a biased source when "And the Band Played On" came out. Which is absolutely insane that he had to do that. Like him having the disease killing people might make his journalism less valid. It was revealed he knew earlier then 1987 anyway and had a collapsed lung a month or so before the book came out. Which makes sense, presumably health issues would have arose sooner than the book came out, and would die about a decade later.

But like. Homophobia & ableism & racism was rotting the brains of people so much, one of the biggest reports on the book might be considered null if the guy who wrote it had said he had the disease. Fucked up

[scientificinquirer-blog]

DAILY DOSE: Hurricane Beryl Nears Grenada as Category 4 Threat; Moderna Seeks FDA Nod for Dual COVID-Flu Shot.

HURRICANE BERYL INTENSIFIES, MENACES ISLANDS WITH CATASTROPHIC IMPACT Hurricane Beryl escalated to a Category 4 storm as it moved through the Windward Islands, threatening communities with severe storm surge, destructive winds, and flash flooding. Particularly at risk were St. Vincent, the Grenadines, and Grenada, with Beryl positioned 70 miles east of Grenada, featuring 130 mph winds. While a…

[african-international-magazine]

PORNOGRAPHY AND MENTAL HEALTH

Why do we watch pornography? How much hours do we spend watching it? Does it make us feel happy? Do we think it is a tension relief therapy or maybe, or we take as learning media for future marital conjugation?

Golden Advice: "YOU BETTER LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP!"

Although these questions are so plain, tough and embarrassing, their focal point (pornography) and the silence surrounding it should be broken. Social institutions should talk about sexual issues to save young people from the looming danger.

No doubt that the realm of sex has been alluring human beings from ancient times upto now, and definitely, that will continue in future times. In terms of dealing with it, sex is still surrounded by some secrecy and precautions in diverse traditional communities. Though the internet era is changing our traditions, to some extent, it has worsened the situation. Internet has promotes sexual indecency so that pornography or explicit video materials are considered as normal to have. This availability of such materials has resulted in a large majority of youths relying on it for sexual pleasures as well as living their fantasies through the digital realm.

Porn and Mental Health

Countless things affect our mental health- genetics, stress, exercise, diet and even not getting enough sunshine may resulted in depression and bad mood. Many of these causes and risk factors are well known and may be incorporated into our treatment in some way. However, how much do we know about the cause of porn addiction?

Watching porn has the most devastating effects on mental health, relationships, brain functioning and depression. This is thoroughly true. It's even worse when it goes side by side with masturbation. Those caught in the porn-masturbation web should without hesitation seek professional help.

Porn and Masturbation as a form of addiction

Do we know that pornography's effect on the human brain is similar to that of drugs?

While it may seem a bit far-fetched, studies of porn-addicted brain scans conducted by the American National Institute of Mental Health have shown that people watching porn experience the same effects or pleasure that drugs give them. A neural circuit in the brain releases pleasure hormone called dopamine, especially when they sexually pleasure themselves using porn. Their usual exposure to porn does not only affect their mental abilities but also cause hindrances in their daily lives and lead them to some form of mental disorder as well.

The reward circuit of the brain of affected individuals show repeated actions and while creating please pathways where the affected brain acquire more and more of dopamine to run off. As long as this habit keep repeating itself overtime, the tendency of excessive porn watching increase too. This is a crucial sign of addiction. Your brain get used to such things.

When masturbating to pornography gives you pleasure, you are thoroughly poisoned

Masturbation is a serious poison. This self-indulgence act is defined as a physical act through which the dopamine would be released. Most teenage pornography consumers think that the idea of masturbating is natural and normal process that every human might indulges in without any problems. This where pornography subconsciously lead them, drag them blindly to the addiction cycle. As earlier discussed, repeating doing the same actions excessively leads to some form of addiction and the brain will create a lot paths of dopamine for pleasure satisfaction. At this time, the pornography addicted person will need to have the daily fix for at least some hours, which would ensure to take out of the persons daily routine besides the mental harm that illustrates in bad mood, nervous attitude, attention deficit and so on.

How to quit?

This time wasted in watching pornography could have been invested in other productive activities. Pornography and masturbation are such a prison and time consuming addictions. Quiting shouldn't be an option.A trusted way to rid yourself of a bad habit is to replace it with a good one whenever you begin to feel the urge to indulge in that bad habit. Here is what you can do:

- Accept that you have a problem and decide to leave it behind.

It is your free choice, no one will decide for you. Be brave and acknowledge that you have a problem that affects you and your loved ones. Make the decision to put an end to this vice.

- Destroy all the pornographic materials.

Get started with secure internet connections and accountability software on all your devices. As you do this, identify thoughts and behaviors that have lead you to seek out pornography. Root out these thoughts and habits and eliminate them from your repertoire. Avoid these near occasions of sin and remove them from your easy access.

- Seek help.

A Minister, a priest, and even a psychologist are the ideal people to give you support and assistance. They will understand and accompany you as you undertake this difficult path. Remember you are not alone, and you owe it to yourself to set up a support network for the best chance of success.

- Go out your comfort zone and socialize with people, be a helper and useful, do not stay still. As Pope Francis told the young pilgrims from Loreto: “… that life is to walk, it is a path. If a person does not walk and stay still, it’s no good, he does nothing.” Keep your day, held in activities such as school, sports, or spending time with other people. These activities will help you to new routines so you do not stay stuck in your addiction.

https://theafricaninternational.com/pornography-and-mental-health/

[transvampireboyfriend]

im so incredibly grateful i get to lay on the ground under a fruit tree and be safe enough to just stay here and get to see the herons and swallows and a stork fly by and spot a plane lit up by the fiery sunset and now I can see Mars in an INSANE color and Jupiter and Rigel and Aldebaran clear as ever and im just. glad.

[ptvsport]

Kenya faces threat of athletics ban amid doping crisis

Kenya faces threat of athletics ban amid doping crisis

Government commits to a ‘zero tolerance’ approach as it urges the world athletics governing body not to ban its athletes. Kenya’s government is urging World Athletics not to ban the country from the sport, promising to step up its fight against the use of banned substances after a series of its athletes were suspended for doping. The East African country is world-renowned for its middle and…

[jcmarchi]

Designing better delivery for medical therapies

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/designing-better-delivery-for-medical-therapies/

Designing better delivery for medical therapies

Early in his undergraduate studies in bioengineering, Sayo Eweje was thinking of a career in medicine. He was inspired by the idea of harnessing medical knowledge to improve patients’ lives, having grown up seeing his father do so as a gastroenterologist. However, his research experiences in college made him appreciate how scientific advancement can lead to paradigm-shifting innovations. What if he could contribute to breakthroughs that improved lives on a much larger scale?

“That idea really captured me, and I realized that we’re only enabled to do that by really delving into the frontiers of science,” he says. In his junior year of college, he decided to aim for a career as a physician-scientist, splitting his time between caring for patients and conducting research. After graduating, he entered the Harvard-MIT MD/PhD program, which is affiliated with both Harvard Medical School and MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Sciences.

Now, Eweje is entering his sixth year in the program, and the fourth year of his PhD studies in medical engineering through the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology. Throughout his PhD, he has worked in the lab of Elliot Chaikof at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where his research has focused on the development of protein-based nanoparticle systems for delivering nucleic acid and protein therapies directly to cells inside the body.

Eweje intends to continue encouraging young people to explore STEM. “Everyone should have the right to explore their fullest potential,” he says.

Photo: Jake Belcher

Previous item Next item

Eweje’s interest in this area was sparked shortly after he entered the program: Initial reports describing a promising new gene editing-based treatment for inherited blood disorders were released, highlighting the curative potential of this approach. However, administering this therapy involves removing blood-forming stem cells from patients, editing them, then putting them back in. In order to accommodate the edited cells, recipients undergo heavy chemotherapy, which led to questions surrounding toxicity and scalability.

“The thought that I had, and that many others in the field had, is that if we could deliver these gene-editing therapies inside of the body without having to remove cells, without having to do this chemotherapy, his could be a much more effective and accessible therapy,” Eweje says.

“After thinking about problems like that and understanding that a lot of this ultimately comes down to drug delivery and engineering nanoparticles and delivery vehicles, I realized that’s where I want to spend my time,” he says. “There are so many challenges in treating disease where the bottleneck ultimately comes down to effective delivery.”

Striking disease at the source

A number of diseases are caused by mutations in hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells, and Eweje chose Chaikof’s lab in part because the team was looking for ways to deliver RNA and protein therapies directly to those cells in patients. The work has spun off in many interesting directions since then.

“It started there, but it has become a much broader platform-focused project,” Eweje explains. “We’re looking at things ranging from gene editing in the lungs to immunotherapy and thinking about new cancer treatments.”

This January, he published an article in Biomaterials that gave a progress update on the state of research using protein-based nanoparticles to deliver nucleic acid therapies to cells. Historically, scientists have found success with viral vectors for delivering gene-based therapies, but because of those viral origins, there remains the possibility of triggering a patient’s immune system.

“Protein materials, particularly human-derived protein materials, are far less likely to trigger that immune response, which is one major advantage,” he says. “The other thing that we’re actively working towards in the lab is this idea of leveraging programmability and precise structure in recombinant proteins.”

While much work remains to determine whether nonviral, protein-based nanoparticles can used as effectively as those that are virus-derived, or lipid nanoparticles, he’s grateful to have learned valuable lessons during this process.

“I really appreciate the fact that I’ve had an opportunity to learn about what’s out there, better understand the challenges, and carry that knowledge forward,” he says.

Building opportunity for others

Outside the lab and the hospital, Eweje is engaged in education and outreach projects as close as Cambridge and as far as Nigeria, where his family traces their roots. He is a co-founder of the Program of Ragon and IMES in Science and Medicine (PRISM), which hosts weekly programs for high school students in the greater Boston area to learn directly from scientists and clinicians about various topics in STEM.

“I see kids as stem cells,” he says. “They have so much potential to differentiate into so many different things, but you have to put them in a proper environment and give them the exposure required to understand where they can go.”

He’s also a co-managing director of the Critical Healthcare Information Integration Network (CHIIN), a nonprofit that provides medical information to community health workers in rural and underdeveloped areas of Africa. It operates via a chatbot that can respond to queries over SMS text messaging and is therefore able to reach communities without internet access, indirectly assisting thousands of patients.

“Part of it was developing confidence in the users by giving them something to have in their back pocket as a reference tool,” he says.

As his time in the HST program draws to a close, Eweje aims to defend his PhD next year and return to full-time clinical work at Harvard Medical School. Ultimately, he envisions a career at the intersection of clinical medicine and biotech innovation.

He also intends to continue encouraging young people to explore STEM. “Everyone should have the right to explore their fullest potential,” he says.

“I find a lot of gratification in the impact that we can have on someone’s life just by giving them the opportunity to learn about something, which could change the trajectory of what they do,” he adds. “We have not only the pleasure of doing that, but also a little bit of an obligation.”

[markllockwood]

Holistic addiction treatment programs

Holistic addiction treatment programs like the Paradigm Process of Addiction recovery are super modern and ultra powerful ways to help more people more often.

Holistic addiction treatment programs like the Paradigm Process of Addiction recovery are super modern and ultra powerful ways to help more people more often. Remember that everyone’s needs are different. For example, not everybody requires medically supervised detox or an extended stint in rehab. Whether you have a problem with illegal or prescription drugs, addiction treatment should be…

[sspacegodd]

"Where have you been? I've been calling and calling for you! Wait......are you HIGH?"

[scientificinquirer-blog]

DAILY DOSE: Sorry, sustainable energy didn't make a dent in fossil fuel dominance last year; Saudis lift Covid restrictions, Hajj in full swing.

The 2022 Statistical Review of World Energy report reveals that despite a record growth in renewables, fossil fuels continue to dominate global energy supply at 82%. The rise in gas and coal prices owing to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reinforced this trend. Despite an unprecedented increase in renewables capacity, led by solar, global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions have risen again.…

[dougielombax]

Who the HELL is making drugs from human BONES?!

Why?!

That’s like some resident evil shit!

That’s fucked up!

Cannibalism is bad but this is easily the WORST form of it?!

Fucking hell!

[dailyworldecho]