Small progress on HIV, big change in UN policy

the United Nations Last summer, 1.1 million to 1.8 million number of people living with HIV in 2021, It was “painful” news And some point out that the response to the AIDS pandemic has been stalled by the global crisis.

Today when the United Nations HIV and AIDS Program released an estimate for 2022 – between 1 million and 1.7 million I had much more hopedeclared that there is “a clear path to ending AIDS” by the 2030 target date.

Still, some progress is expected in 2022 falls far short of the UN’s goalsIt aims to reduce the number of new infections with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to 500,000 by 2020 and 200,000 by 2030.

This year, in releasing its latest figures, UNAIDS took a long-term view, making the situation even brighter.

In 2010, the number of people living with HIV was estimated at 1.6 million to 2.8 million.

Regional benefits: New HIV infections and AIDS deaths have fallen by more than half since 2010 in eastern and southern Africa, the world’s most HIV-affected regions.

Similar trends were observed in Western and Central Africa.

The decline in new HIV infections was slower in North America, Central and Western Europe, the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific, ranging from 23% to 14% respectively.

Backsliding: However, since 2010, other regions have also seen sharp increases in new HIV infections, with the highest increase of 61% in the Middle East and North Africa. According to UNAIDS, the region has the lowest viral infection rates in the world, but also the lowest levels of treatment, with only 50% of people living with HIV receiving treatment.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia have also nearly doubled the number of new cases compared to just a decade ago. UNAIDS said this was due to a “difficult legal environment, human rights abuses and military conflicts.” The region is also the only region in the world to see an increase in AIDS-related deaths, a 46 percent increase since 2010. The region includes Russia and Ukraine, where the groups most affected by HIV are gay men and illicit drug injecters.

New HIV infections also increased in Latin America, but only by 8% compared to other regions that recorded increases. According to UNAIDS, this is due to slow progress in preventing infections in the region. Based on partial data from the region, gay men and transgender people tend to be most affected by the virus.

On Capitol Hill: House appropriators Wednesday passed a bill that would reinforce the president’s emergency AIDS relief plan, but public health advocates fear politics could threaten future funding.

A five-year reauthorization of the program is scheduled for this year, It is doubtful Following Rep. Chris Smith, RN.J., expressing concern that the Biden administration is using PEPFAR to support abortion rights groups in developing countries.

Here we explore the ideas and innovators shaping healthcare.

Federal Trade Commission teeth reportedly investigating OpenAI, developer of ChatGPT, talks about whether ChatGPT “is putting individuals’ reputations and data at risk.”

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today our pulse check podcast, Monica Bertagnoli to head the National Institutes of Health as Katherine Ellen Foley and Adam Canklin and Senator Bernie Sanders (Iconic, Vermont) unhappy with the Biden administration’s efforts to lower drug prices He explained why he was withholding the nomination.

Artificial intelligence is They typically get approval from the Food and Drug Administration and are finding their way into healthcare, but regulation has lagged behind.

In this environment, some device makers are marketing their technology differently than approved by government agencies, new research reveals. New York University researchers present At JAMA Network Open.

The researchers surveyed medical device applications approved by the FDA between November 2021 and March 2022 because they are similar to those on the FDA’s list of AI-enabled devices.

The results showed that 4 out of 5 matches the FDA Clearance Summary in marketing materials that characterize whether the device uses AI.

However, nearly 13% of device manufacturers advertised their products as relying on AI, even though the FDA clearance summaries did not actually mention the use of AI.

The remaining 7% of manufacturers use marketing terms like ‘smart’ and ‘predictive’, suggesting they may also incorporate artificial intelligence.

Why it matters: Researchers argue that any discrepancy between licensing and marketing could pose a consumer safety risk.

They said “outdated” FDA guidance may have played a role, as did a lack of agency resources.

“The purpose of this study is not to suggest that developers are creating and selling insecure or untrustworthy devices, but rather to suggest that there is a need for research on this subject and more on marketing software-intensive devices. It was to demonstrate the need for uniform guidelines,” the researchers wrote.

Move more carefully Traveling from hospital to home can result in savings and increased patient comfort.

But Stephen Dorner, chief innovation and clinical officer of the home health care program at Brigham, Massachusetts Commander-in-Chief, believes the amount of care that can be moved at this time is limited.

The hospital was one of the first to adopt hospital-to-home care since the program began in 2016.

Based on that experience, Dorner estimates that the total amount of care for all patients that can be moved to home is 10%.

This falls short of many expectations and could be a blow to lawmakers Those who believe that moving care to their home is a possible solution Because of Medicare solvency issues.

even so: Doerner predicts that the percentage could eventually approach 40 due to advances in technology and the certainty of reimbursement.

But an experiment to transition to home health care, which has grown to nearly 300 hospitals in 37 states after the COVID-19 outbreak, will face a headwind if Congress allows waivers issued during the pandemic to expire at the end of 2024. may face.

These waivers set comparable Medicare reimbursement rates for care provided at home.

“The market is probably wanting more certainty about what will happen on January 1, 2025, before the tech explosion actually happens,” Donner said.