Shot helps women avoid HIV infection
Researchers are stopping a study early after finding that a shot of an experimental medicine every two months worked better than daily pills to help keep women from catching HIV from an infected sex partner.
The news is a boon for AIDS prevention efforts especially in Africa, where the study took place, and where women have few discreet ways of protecting themselves from infection.
Results so far suggest that the drug, cabotegravir, was 89% more effective at preventing HIV infection than Truvada pills, although both reduce that risk.
The results mirror those announced earlier this year from a similar study testing the shots versus the daily pills in gay men.
Cabotegravir is being developed by ViiV Healthcare, which is mostly owned by GlaxoSmithKline, with Pfizer Inc. and Shionogi Limited. The study was sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and ViiV. The drugs were provided by ViiV and Truvada’s maker, Gilead Sciences.
“This is a major, major advance,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease doctor at the NIH. “I don’t think we can overemphasize the importance of this study.
It promises HIV prevention help to young women, “those who need it the most,” he said.
Young women may be twice as likely as men to get HIV in some areas of the world, according to one study leader, Sinead Delany-Moretlwe of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“They need discreet options without having to negotiate with their partners” to use measures such as condoms, said Deborah Waterhouse, of ViiV.
The study involved more than 3,200 participants in seven African countries who were randomly assigned to get either the shots every two months or daily Truvada pills. Independent monitors advised stopping the study after seeing that only 0.21% of women receiving the shots caught the AIDS virus versus 1.79% of women on the pills.
House Democrats:
The chairwoman of House Democrats’ campaign arm said Monday that she won’t seek the post again for the next Congress, days after her party’s unexpected loss of seats in last week’s election triggered recriminations among Democrats.
Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos’ decision to not seek a new term atop the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee comes with party members upset and divided over why that happened. Their candidates widely outraised their Republican rivals in many races, and Bustos’ committee spent aggressively in GOP-held districts around the country in hopes of making their majority even larger.
Both parties and nonpartisan political analysts expected Democrats to pad the size of this year’s majority by perhaps 15 seats. While they are on track to retain House control, seven Democratic incumbents were defeated and they’d ousted no Republican representatives, leaving it all but certain they will have a narrower hold on the chamber.
Even before Bustos’ announcement, several Democrats said privately that she would have little support to retain her post, whichis an elective position chosen by House Democrats. Her tenure included clashes with progressives angry that she moved to protect incumbents — including conservative Democrats — by denying contracts to political consulting firms that helped challengers in party primaries.
Ethiopia-Tigray conflict:
Ethiopia’s air force is “pounding targets with precision,” a military official said Monday, as the federal government continues its offensive against the heavily armed northern region of Tigray and no clear route to peace is seen.
Neighboring Sudan has sent more than 6,000troops to the border, a military official there said, while Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed again sought to calm concerns that the deadly confrontation could slide into civil war and destabilize the strategic Horn of Africa region.
It remains unclear how many people have been killed in the fighting that erupted last week in Tigray as Abiy’s government comes under increasing international pressure to calm tensions. The United Nations and others have warned of a brewing humanitarian disaster affecting up to 9 million people.
Utah mask mandate:
Deeply conservative Utah began a major shift in fighting the coronavirus pandemic Monday, implementing a statewide mask mandate for the first time and planning a dramatic increase in testing.
Republican Gov. Gary Herbert said the timing right after the presidential race was called for Democrat Joe Biden wasn’t political, but rather an essential move to avoid disaster with a surge already threatening to overwhelm hospitals ahead of the holiday season.
“Politics has gotten in the way of doing the right things in the right way,” he said. “Both sides of the aisle have used this as a political tool and message to advocate for their position.”
Biden is imploring people to wear masks, a stark contrast to President Donald Trump largely eschewing them. Trump won the state with 58% of the vote, though Utah Republicans tend to be put off by his brash style.
State authorities have repeatedly prevailed upon people to wear masks, but resisted requiring them even as case counts began breaking records this fall.
Political battle in Peru:
Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra warned opposition lawmakers seeking his ouster Monday that a rash decision to remove him on the basis of unproven corruption allegations could bring grave consequences for the hard-hit nation.
Arriving at Congress wearing a mask with the image of a condor flying over the Andean mountains, the embattled president launched into a speech rejecting any wrongdoing and calling for unity during theCOVID-19 pandemic.
“History and Peruvians will judge our decisions,” he said.
The South American nation has been thrust into yet another chapter of political uncertainty while also grappling with a severe economic downturn and the world’s highest per-capita COVID-19 mortality rate.
Ukraine leader tests positive:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced Monday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus and will be working in self-isolation while being treated.
“There are no lucky people in the world for whom COVID-19 does not pose a threat,” Zelenskiy tweeted.
The 42-year-old Zelenskiy became president in 2019 as a political neophyte, previously known as an actor and comedian.