Mthfr Gene Mutations And Disease Risk
MTHFR gene mutations are linked to many diseases to varying degrees, including heart disease, birth defects, Alzheimer& #39 s, cancer, and hypothyroidism. MTHFR mutationchanges to a gene linked to an increasing number of medical conditions, including thyroid diseasehas become a controversial topic among scientists. While the National Institutes of Health lists five conditions directly linked to
Are Some Regions Of The United States More Impacted By Hiv Than Others
Yes. HIV is largely an urban disease, with most cases occurring in metropolitan areas with 500,000 or more people. The South has the highest number of people living with HIV, but if population size is taken into account, the Northeast has the highest rate of people living with HIV.
*Rates per 100,000 people.
Is Canada Reaching The Global 90
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization have established a global health sector strategy on HIV to help eliminate AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Canada has endorsed this strategy. The strategy can be encapsulated in the phrase 90-90-90 and consists of the following targets for the year 2020:
- 90% of people with HIV know their infection status
- 90% of people diagnosed with HIV receive HIV treatment
- 90% of people taking treatment have an undetectable viral load
Canada is approaching the 90% goal for awareness of HIV status and the 90% goal for treatment and has surpassed the 90% goal for achieving viral suppression. Of the estimated 62,050 people with HIV in Canada in 2018, an estimated:
- 87% were diagnosed and aware they had HIV
- 85% of those who were diagnosed were on treatment
- 94% of those on treatment had achieved viral suppression
This means that 70% of all Canadians with HIV had achieved viral suppression in 2018. If all 90-90-90 measures had been reached, 73% of all Canadians with HIV would have achieved viral suppression.
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Lack Of Access To Diagnosis And Proper Treatment For Opportunistic Infections
In countries where MSF works, diagnostic tools such as the CD4 cell count, which is needed to diagnose advanced HIV disease, are often missing. Tests which provide quick diagnosis of tuberculosis and cryptococcal meningitis, TB-Lam and CrAg LFA, also remain unavailable, particularly in primary healthcare centres where most people go for their healthcare needs.
Many people go first to primary healthcare centres when they feel sick, explains Dr Van Cutsem. If primary care clinics are not equipped and trained to detect advanced HIV, people at risk will remain undetected and untreated they will deteriorate until they are terminally ill. Then some will be referred to hospitals often missing the basic tools to manage them.
People arrive very ill, often with severe opportunistic infections such as tuberculosis when they arrive, sometimes it’s too late to save them.
Rate Of New Infections

Per surveillance reports from UNAIDS, it is estimated that there were 38 million people living with HIV globally as of the end of 2019. Of these, approximately 1.7 million were newly diagnosed.
These remain sobering figures, in part because infection rates are not declining at the pace needed to effectively end the epidemic. In fact, between 2010 and 2019, new infections around the world have decreased by about 23%, but a number of “hotspots” around the world experienced an increase.
In Russia and parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the rate of new infections are reported to be increasing due in part to the lack of access to HIV-specific care and treatment.
Meanwhile, in countries like South Africa, which accounts for 7.5 million of the world’s HIV cases, an estimated 200,000 new infections occurred in 2019 despite impressive declines in the previous decade.
Even in the United States, the annual incidence of infections remained stagnant for many years until the widespread use of pre-exposure prophylaxis and other preventive measures gradually reduced the rate from 50,000 in the early part of the century to just under 40,000 today.
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Mud Bath Therapy For Arthritis
Mud bath therapy may help to relieve arthritis pain. Researchers have considered it for osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis. Mud bath therapy has been used medicinally for thousands of years. Natural treatments like mud therapy aren’t well-studied, so quality research supporting their use is lacking. However, modern research that has been done indicates that mud baths
Hiv/aids In The United States
Rates of HIV Diagnoses in the US, 2017 |
New HIV Infections by Race and Transmission Group |
HIV Diagnosis Trends in the U.S. and Dependent Areas, 20122016 |
The estimated number of U.S. HIV/AIDS Cases, in 2007 by transmission category |
The AIDS epidemic, caused by HIV , found its way to the United States as early as 1960, but was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi’s sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexual men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. Treatment of HIV/AIDS is primarily via a “drug cocktail” of antiretroviral drugs, and education programs to help people avoid infection.
Initially, infected foreign nationals were turned back at the U.S. border to help prevent additional infections. The number of U.S. deaths from AIDS has declined sharply since the early years of the disease’s presentation domestically. In the United States in 2016, 1.1 million people aged over 13 lived with an HIV infection, of whom 14% were unaware of their infection.Gay and bisexual men, African Americans, and Latinos remain disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS in the U.S.
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The Aids Epidemic Arises
Though HIV arrived in the United States around 1970, it didnt come to the publics attention until the early 1980s.
In 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report about five previously healthy homosexual men becoming infected with Pneumocystis pneumonia, which is caused by the normally harmless fungus Pneumocystis jirovecii. This type of pneumonia, the CDC noted, almost never affects people with uncompromised immune systems.
The following year, The New York Times published an alarming article about the new immune system disorder, which, by that time, had affected 335 people, killing 136 of them. Because the disease appeared to affect mostly homosexual men, officials initially called it gay-related immune deficiency, or GRID.
Though the CDC discovered all major routes of the diseases transmissionas well as that female partners of AIDS-positive men could be infectedin 1983, the public considered AIDS a gay disease. It was even called the gay plague for many years after.
In September of 1982, the CDC used the term AIDS to describe the disease for the first time. By the end of the year, AIDS cases were also reported in a number of European countries.
Fight Is Not Over As Aids Deaths Remain High
- A high number of people living with HIV continue to die and the yearly number of AIDS-related deaths is stagnating
- Lack of access to diagnosis and treatment for opportunistic infections such as TB is driving the high number of deaths
- Governments, ministries of health, international agencies and donors must increase funding and efforts to reduce the number of HIV/AIDS deaths
Brussels/Geneva/Johannesburg – Nearly 770,000 people died of HIV worldwide in 2018. These are disturbing figures in the UNAIDS Global Aids Update 2019 released in Eshowe, South Africa. Timely use of effective diagnostic tools and medicines to treat HIV/AIDS could prevent most deaths, and yet the annual number of deaths due to AIDS has declined only minimally since 2014, a cause for concern for Médecins Sans Frontières.
While 2 million more people received antiretroviral therapy in 2018 compared to the year before, more needs to be done to confront the killer infections driving AIDS deaths, starting with tuberculosis and cryptococcal meningitis.
Preventing, detecting and treating advanced HIV and AIDS demands more attention and funding, especially in low coverage settings such as West and Central Africa, and in neglected populations.
The decline in deaths for HIV/AIDS is stagnating
770,000
800,000
840,000
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Men Who Have Sex With Men
Men who have sex with men account for 70% of all new HIV infections in the United States. According to the CDC, there were approximately 8,000 deaths among gay and bisexual men diagnosed with HIV in 2018.
In addition to physiological vulnerabilities to infection , high rates of homophobia and stigmatization drive many MSM to avoid HIV testing, treatment, and care. These factors translate to a higher rate of HIV mortality.
According to a 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health, MSM with HIV are about 160 times more likely to die from an AIDS-related complication than men who exclusively engage in penile-vaginal sex.
Us Response To The Global Epidemic
The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is the U.S. Governments response to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and represents the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history. Through PEPFAR, the U.S. has supported a world safer and more secure from infectious disease threats. It has demonstrably strengthened the global capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to new and existing riskswhich ultimately enhances global health security and protects Americas borders. Among other global results, PEPFAR provided HIV testing services for nearly 50 million people in Fiscal Year 2020 and, as of September 30, 2020, supported lifesaving ART for nearly 18.2 million men, women, and children.
In addition, the National Institutes of Health represents the largest public investment in HIV/AIDS research in the world. NIH is engaged in research around the globe to understand, diagnose, treat, and prevent HIV infection and its many associated conditions, and to find a cure.
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Impact On Communities Of Color
- Racial and ethnic minorities have been disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic, and represent the majority of new HIV diagnoses, people living with HIV disease, and deaths among people with HIV.37,38
- Black and Latino people account for a disproportionate share of new HIV diagnoses, relative to their size in the U.S. population .39,40 Black people also account for more people living with HIV than any other racial group â an estimated 479,300 of the 1.2 million people living with HIV in the U.S. are black.41
- Black people also have the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses, followed by Latino people â in 2019, the rate of new HIV diagnoses per 100,000 for Black people was about 8 times that of white people Latino people had a rate 4 times that of white people.42
- Black people accounted for close to half of deaths among people with an HIV diagnosis in 2019.43,44
- Survival after an AIDS diagnosis is lower for Black people than for most other racial/ethnic groups, and Black people have had the highest age-adjusted death rate due to HIV disease throughout most of the epidemic.45 HIV ranks higher as a cause of death for Black and Latino people, compared with White people.46 Further, HIV was the 6th leading cause of death for Black people ages 25-34 in 2019.47
Who Is At Greater Risk Of Covid

A large study of risk factors for severe COVID-19, OPENSafely, looked at around 40% of GP patients in England before vaccines were available.
The study found that old age was by far the strongest risk factor. People over 80 were at least 20 times more likely to die from COVID-19 compared to people aged 50-59. People under 40 had a greatly reduced risk compared to the 50-59 age group.
An organ transplant raised the risk of death fourfold. A history of any form of blood cancer including cancer of the bone marrow or lymph nodes in the past five years raised the risk of death threefold. Any neurological condition, severe obesity or uncontrolled diabetes doubled the risk of death. Men were twice as likely to die as women.
Other risk factors such as Black or Asian ethnicity, social deprivation, liver disease, stroke, dementia and kidney disease raised the risk of death by between 50 and 75%, as did a severe respiratory disease other than asthma.
Chronic heart disease, controlled diabetes, a cancer diagnosis other than blood cancer more than one year ago, asthma, lupus, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, moderate obesity and smoking each raised the risk of death slightly.
People who have many of these risk factors are at far greater risk of dying from COVID-19 than people who have few risk factors, regardless of HIV status.
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Preventing Hiv Transmission From Pregnant Women To Children
The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS reported that the following sixteen African nations in 2012 “ensure that more than three-quarters of pregnant women living with HIV receive antiretroviral medicine to prevent transmission to their child”: Botswana, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Why Are People On Hiv Treatment Still Dying
Dr. Elvin Geng Explores True Mortality in Zambia
Across provinces in the southern African country of Zambia, it can take hours to reach the closest healthcare facility not a trip that can be done easily or frequently. Early in the AIDS epidemic, clinics were the only place where one could get tested for and ultimately get treatment for HIV.
In recent years, access to HIV testing and education programs in developing countries has expanded into community health fairs, churches and faith groups, and even bars and shops and a positive test result can link an individual to care in a facility closest to them. An emphasis on prevention has reduced transmission in many parts of the world undoubtedly an achievement to be celebrated. But how much do we know about HIV-positive individuals years down the line how long they live on treatment, for example, or what trends emerge in terms of opportunistic and comorbid diseases?
Its a question that had been troubling UCSF physician-researcher Dr. Elvin Geng for years.
In trying to determine meaningful metrics, he asks, Does achieving success in controlling HIV mean no more infections? Or no more deaths?
Though both important, he says, on the surface, these look like similar questions. But in reality, theyre really quite different.
In reality, whether or not people are dying once taking what is understood to be lifesaving treatment is probably the most important question of all. So why dont we know more?
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Which People With Hiv Are At Higher Risk Of Covid
Most studies show that people with HIV who have underlying health conditions such as obesity, diabetes or high blood pressure have a higher risk of severe illness or death than other people with HIV.
A meta-analysis of nine studies looking at the impact of underlying health conditions on COVID-19 outcomes in people with HIV concluded that chronic kidney raised the risk of death or hospitalisation due to COVID-19 nine times, diabetes seven times and hypertension or chronic respiratory disease four times compared to people with HIV who did not have that condition.
A registry of COVID-19 cases in people living with HIV in the United Kingdom found that people who were obese had four times the risk of severe illness compared to people in the normal weight range. Each underlying condition raised the risk of severe illness by 24%.
The UK registry also found that people with a current AIDS-defining illness were three times more likely to suffer severe illness than other people with HIV.
Several studies have shown that a low CD4 cell count increases the risk of severe outcomes, even without underlying health conditions. The UK registry found that people with CD4 counts below 200 had a higher risk of death or prolonged hospitalisation than people with CD4 counts above 200.
There is no strong evidence that any antiretroviral drug protects against COVID-19.
People with viral hepatitis do not appear to be at higher risk of severe illness unless they also have advanced liver cirrhosis.
An Overview Of Mucinous Carcinoma Of The Breast
Mucinous carcinoma is a rare type of invasive breast cancer that causes cancer cells to produce mucus. Learn more about this type of breast cancer. Mucinous breast cancer, also called colloid breast cancer, is a rare kind of invasive ductal breast cancer.& nbsp Like other types of invasive ductal cancer, it starts in a milk duct of the breast and spreads to nearby healthy tissues. With mucinous
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Advice For People Living With Hiv
People who are extremely clinically vulnerable to COVID -19 are no longer advised to stay at home and shield from the risk of infection in England.
If you have a low CD4 count you may wish to take extra precautions against COVID-19 including:
- considering whether you and those you are meeting have been vaccinated â you might want to wait until 14 days after everyoneâs second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine before being in close contact with others
- considering continuing to practice social distancing if that feels right for you and your friends
- asking friends and family to take a rapid lateral flow antigen test before visiting you
- asking home visitors to wear face coverings
- avoiding crowded spaces
BHIVA has issued guidance designed to minimise the number of medical visits for pregnant women with HIV and mothers of newborns.