India Makes Progress With AIDS Vaccine

A second Phase I AIDS vaccine clinical trial in India was successfully completed, the Indian Council of Medical Research, the National AIDS Control Organization and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative announced. The results of the trial of an MVA-based AIDS vaccine candidate (TBC-M4), which was conducted in Chennai, indicated that the vaccine candidate had acceptable levels of safety and was well tolerated.

The proportion of volunteers whose immune systems responded to the vaccine candidate suggests the candidate holds promise. The trial was done using two doses of the candidate vaccine. After three injections, 82 percent of the volunteers who received a low dose and 100 percent of those who received a high dose registered immune responses to the vaccine. The 100 percent response rate is greater than that seen with the majority of AIDS vaccine candidates tested in humans to date. However the strength and diversity of these immune responses were modest. It may be possible to boost the immune response, if this vaccine is used in combination with other candidate AIDS vaccines.

Get the full report from iavi.org.

Court Rules Doctors Can’t Deny Gays Treatment

The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that doctors can’t use their religious beliefs as a reason to refuse treatment to patients because doing so violates the state’s anti-discrimination law.

The unanimous decision came in the case of an Oceanside lesbian couple who are suing two doctors at a North County clinic. They claim the doctors would not perform a certain artificial insemination procedure because their strong Christian beliefs prevented them from impregnating a lesbian couple.

Read more at signonsandiego.com.

Gay Men Hardest Hit By Global HIV Epidemic

Gay and bisexual men have always been at the center of the HIV/AIDS crisis in America, but the global epidemic is typically framed as most affecting heterosexuals in developing nations. Data unveiled last week at the 17th International AIDS Conference show that around the world, men who have sex with men, like their U.S. counterparts, are the group hardest hit by the deadly disease.

“One thing that was clear is that men who have sex with men in every country that it has been studied in are 10 to 30 times more likely to have HIV than the general male population,” said Walt Senterfitt, an AIDS activist with the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project.

Read the whole story at washintonblade.com, or you can read more about HIV here at gayagenda.com.

Gay Blood Poses Low Risk to Blood Supply

It was reported earlier on GayAgenda.com that Michael Cain, 25, of Launceston in Tasmania, was refused the opportunity to donate blood in 2004 because he indicated in a donor questionnaire that he was in a sexual relationship with another man, and considered the refusal to be discrimination.

Now, it has stated in a recent hearing the risk of Tasmania’s blood supply being infected by HIV would be extremely low if gay men who practice safe sex were allowed to donate blood.

The risk calculations, have been determined by the lawyer representing Michael Cain, the gay man who has accused the Red Cross of discrimination because they refused his blood.

Mr. Cain’s viewpoint is the Red Cross should screen donors based on safe sexual practices, not sexual orientation.

William Leiss, a Canadian risk analysis expert told the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal such a change would increase the risk of infection, but Pete Tree, Mr. Cain’s lawyer, countered by saying statistics showed if gay men who have safe sex were allowed to donate blood, the risk of Tasmania’s blood supply being infected by HIV would be once every 5,769 years.

Dr. Leiss admitted Cain’s lawyer could be correct, however such a screening system had not been researched.

HIV & Homophobia Work Against Each Other

Less than 1% of HIV/AIDS prevention spending targets gay and bisexual men worldwide.

Research by UNAIDS from 2006, the most recent data available, shows that only a tiny fraction of the $669 million (£352 million) spent globally on prevention services is aimed at men who have sex with men.

Craig McClure, executive director of International AIDS Society, said: “It’s very difficult to provide services to men who have sex with men in countries that don’t acknowledge they exist or criminalize them if they do exist,” according to Advocate.com.

The figures have alarmed experts, particularly due to the fact that, globally, rates of HIV infection amongst gay and bisexual men are rising at a greater rate than amongst the general population.

Read more at pinknews.co.uk.