Depression: a ‘serious public health hazard’ for people with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Depression: a ‘serious public health hazard’ for people with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa.Untreated depression could seriously compromise treatment outcomes for people living with HIV.Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders among people living with HIV. They are, according to statistics from western countries, two to three times more likely to develop symptoms compared to the general population. However, critics suggest that ‘insufficient attention’ is being placed on mental health issues in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where the majority of people living with HIV live and are in care. Published in the journal, PLoS ONE, a recent meta-analysis and review of studies investigating the link between HIV and depression has now revealed that prevalence ranges from a low of 3% among people on antiretroviral treatment (ART) to a high of 34% among treatment-naïve individuals across SSA countries.

Yeast Can Now Produce THC, Marijuana’s Infamous Compound,cannabidiol .

Yeast, the sugar-gobbling microorganism that’s filled our bellies with beer and bread for millennia, has a new, increasingly important, role to play in society: serving as a therapeutic drug factory. In August, scientists announced they had genetically engineered yeast to produce the painkiller hydrocodone, and even before that breakthrough, modified yeast churned out the anti-malarial drug artemisinin. Now, scientists have customized yeast to create THC (the marijuana chemical that produces a “high”) and cannabidiol Biochemists from the Technical University in Dortmund, Germany, created a genetically-engineered yeast strain to produce very small amounts of THC or cannabidiol. Unlike normal yeast, however, these custom yeast have to be fed cannabigerolic acid, which is a precursor molecule to THC and cannabidiol. Using a molecular precursor as a starting point is a bit like reading a book from the middle chapters to its conclusion. Ideally, the entire process would start with simple sugars — or chapter 1 — rather than precursors to complete the entire chemical pathway that the marijuana plant does naturally. However, scientists believe they’ll get to that point and scale up production for industrial use in the near future, the New York Times reports. The team published its work with the yeast strain that produces THC in the journal Biotechnology Letters. They also created a separate strain that produces cannabidiol, but those data are yet to be published. Marijuana is chock full of molecular compounds that are fascinating to scientists. Synthetic THC is already available in pill form and it is used to ease nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, or stimulate the appetites of people with H.I.V. or other infections. Cannabidiol, a compound that is not psychoactive, has shown potential to reduce the frequency of seizures in epileptic individuals. Yeast factories could help scale up production of these chemicals not just for therapy, but for research too. Producing marijuana’s constituent compounds in vast quantities would give researchers a supply of marijuana’s myriad chemicals to better understand how, or if, they work as advertised. Still, at the moment, the plant is far more efficient than the yeast — modern marijuana strains can contain more than 30 percent THC by dry weight. So there’s still a long way to go before THC-producing yeast change the landscape of cannabis research. Researchers will likely need to splice many more genes into species of yeast to complete the entire chemical reaction in a single strain. But at the rate that genetically-modified yeast research is advancing, it may not be a long wait. culled from science for the curious Discover.

Drones could speed up HIV tests in remote areas.

Malawi has started a test program that uses drones to improve access to HIV testing for babies. There are various factors such as poor roads and high transport costs, in remote areas that often result in delays in testing. This can prevent access to vital anti retroviral treatment early. Ten percent of Malawians suffer from HIV - one of the highest rates of the deadly condition in the world. Malawi has started testing the use of drones to speed up the time it takes to test infants living in rural areas for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The United Nations' (UN) children's agency UNICEF has partnered with US-based drone company Matternet to develop a program in which Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) pick up sample batches from local health centers and deliver them to specialist laboratories. There are only eight such laboratories across the country, which has a population of more than 16 million. Currently motorbike couriers are used to transport samples across often poorly-maintained roads. UNICEF and Matternet believe deliveries could be made more efficiently by air. The testing program is currently using simulated samples. The first successful test flight recently completed a 10 kilometer route from a community health center to the Kamuzu Central Hospital laboratory in the capital Lilongwe. UAVs have been used in the past for surveillance and assessments of disasters, but this is believed to be the first use of the technology on the continent for the improvement of HIV services. "There are many delays in the continuum of getting HIV positive children on treatment, they need to come in early for testing, ideally before two months, between six and eight weeks, their tests, the dry bloodspots need to get from the health facilities to one of the eight laboratories nationwide," said Judith Sherman, head of Unicef Malawi's HIV and Aids program. The plan is eventually for UAVs to be operated by health workers by virtue of a password and a GPS signal on their mobile phone. A simple swipe of a button will make the vehicle airborne. Each drone costs $7,000 USD but minimal battery charging costs make them cheaper over time than diesel fueled motorbikes. In 2014, about 40,000 children in Malawi were born to HIV positive mothers, according to UNICEF. Every year around 10,000 children die of the virus, a number the agency says could be tackled by early diagnosis and quality medical care. An estimated one million Malawians were living with HIV in 2013 and 48,000 died from HIV-related illnesses in the same year. A young child may be infected by their HIV-positive mother during pregnancy or breast-feeding, but drug treatment can reduce the risk of transmission. UNICEF estimates that if the flights are cost-effective the drones would be able to carry up to 250 tests at once. read more here;http://in.reuters.com/article/us-malawi-hiv-drones

Colorado hospital sued over exposure to disease from ex-surgical technician.

A Colorado hospital has been sued by three former surgery patients who say they were among nearly 3,000 people possibly exposed to a blood-borne disease carried by a drug-addicted former medical technician, court records showed on Tuesday. The Swedish Medical Center in suburban Denver is accused of negligence in its hiring and supervision of a surgical technologist who was caught trying to switch a syringe containing the powerful opiate fentanyl citrate with another substance during a patient’s surgery in January. The technician, Rocky Allen, 28, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver last month on one count of tampering with a consumer product and one count of obtaining a controlled substance by deceit, both felonies. The civil complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, said federal authorities in the criminal case testified at a criminal hearing last month that Allen is a carrier of an unspecified “blood-borne pathogen.” The incident prompted the hospital to notify some 2,900 patients who underwent surgery at the facility from August 2015 to January 2016 during Allen’s employment to be screened for HIV, and hepatitis B and C. The three patients suing underwent surgery during that time frame and are seeking monetary damages for emotional distress. Read more at http://newsdaily.com/2016/03/colorado-hospital-sued-over-exposure-to-disease-from-ex-surgical-tech/#t1FagQ3xblyXSisC.99

HIV-POSITIVE PATIENTS AND HEALING POWER OF DOGS.

. Dogs have been identified as possessing healing powers, with most involved in assisted therapy.Dogs like most pets bring healing and love to their owners,thats why most doctors now advocate that patients with heart issues, and high blood pressure get dogs.Dog are also useful as diabetic alert agents,in patients with diabetes because they can actually detect a change in blood glucose level making them a life saver .Dogs have also found to be of help to people battling with post traumatic stress disorder. A new study shows how dogs are healing HIV positive patients; watch it here;http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/f2c007ba8cff46789e09cbf6ac9790b3.htm