28 Sep 2009
Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) is an annual national public education campaign designed to help open the eyes of Canadians to the reality of mental illness. Mental Illness Awareness Week seeks to raise awareness of the level of mental illness in Canada; to reduce negative stigma about mental illness amongst the general population and health care professionals; and to promote the positive effects of best practice in prevention, diagnosis and medical treatment.
La Semaine de sensibilisation aux maladies mentales (SSMM) est une campagne d’éducation publique annuelle pancanadienne qui a pour objectif d’ouvrir les yeux des Canadiens sur la réalité de la maladie mentale. Les objectifs de la Semaine de sensibilisation aux maladies mentales consistent à accroître la sensibilisation sur la fréquence de la maladie mentale au Canada, combattre les préjugés défavorables sur la maladie mentale qui ont cours dans le grand public et parmi les professionnels de la santé, et promouvoir les bienfaits des pratiques exemplaires en prévention, diagnostic et traitement médical.
http://miaw.ca
23 Sep 2009
Computer model shows changes in brain mechanisms for cocaine addicts
Published: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 - 14:43 in Psychology & Sociology
About 2 million Americans currently use cocaine for its temporary side-effects of euphoria, which have contributed to making it one of the most dangerous and addictive drugs in the country. Cocaine addiction, which can cause severe biological and behavioral problems, is very difficult to overcome. Now, University of Missouri researchers Ashwin Mohan and Sandeep Pendyam, doctoral students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, are utilizing computational models to study how the brain's chemicals and synaptic mechanisms, or connections between neurons, react to cocaine addiction and what this could mean for future therapies. "With cocaine addiction, addicts don't feel an urge to revolt because there is a strong connection in the brain from the decision-making center to the pleasure center, which overwhelms other normal rewards and is why they keep seeking it," Pendyam said. "By using computational models, we're targeting the connection in the brain that latches onto the pleasure center and the parameters that maintain that process."
23 Sep 2009
Unanimous support for free crack pipes plan
By Philip Round, Comox Valley Echo September 22, 2009
A crack cocaine pipe education and harm reduction program has won the unanimous support of Courtenay councillors.
The program includes stepping up the distribution of free equipment to people smoking crack illegally to try to cut down the spread of diseases.
The idea is being promoted by AIDS Vancouver Island, which last night sent a delegation to the city council to urge written support for the program.
Getting local government backing for what some see as a controversial idea is a requirement of Vancouver Island Health Authority before the local program can tap into further funds.
To emphasize the authority's own support for the idea, VIHA's north island medical health officer, Dr. Charmaine Enns, spoke as part of the delegation.
The others were Heidi Exner, manager of health promotion and community development with AIDS Vancouver Island; and Sara Sullivan, a positive wellness counselor and harm reduction worker with the same organization.
23 Sep 2009
Tobacco and marijuana may reduce levels of atazanavir (Reyataz) in the body, whilst tobacco and alcohol may lower efavirenz (Sustiva or Stocrin) levels in individuals who carry specific genetic variations, according to two posters presented last week at the 49th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in San Francisco.
HIV Weekly, 23 September 2009
Liz Highleyman, Monday, September 21, 2009
15 Sep 2009
Why and What?
Methamphetamine use has increased in rural Ontario and within some urban populations.
Addictions Ontario, in cooperation with the Ontario Federation of Community Mental Health and Addiction Programs, is sponsoring an on-line methamphetamine training course so you can augment your skills in addressing meth use. This course, designed for staff of agencies that are members of Addictions Ontario or the Ontario Federation of Community Mental Health and Addiction Programs, is free thanks to funding from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
Download Flyer [doc]
09 Sep 2009
AIDSmap News Keith Alcorn, Thursday, September 03, 2009
Scientists have identified two new antibodies that appear to neutralise a wide range of HIV types, blocking their potential for infection. The findings, published today in the journal Science, could open up a new avenue for vaccine research based on neutralising antibodies, say the investigators.
A vaccine that could prevent HIV infection by priming the human body to produce antibodies that can neutralise, or block, HIV infection has proved very difficult to develop. Most antibodies produced against HIV fail to block infection because the virus mutates so rapidly. The only vaccine designed to protect against HIV through an antibody response to be tested in large clinical trials, AIDSVAX, failed to show a protective effect.
08 Sep 2009
September 3, 2009, 9:00:00 PM | Gus Cairns
Within a couple of years’ time, we may know if two crucial new HIV prevention approaches will work. If they do, what then? Who will pay for them, who will use them, and will their use have a positive or negative impact on the epidemic? A debate at the International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference in Cape Town in July, sponsored by the IAS and the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) looked at how to prepare for microbicides and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
To remind you, a microbicide is a substance that can be incorporated into a lubricant, gel or barrier such as a diaphragm that will stop HIV transmission during sex. And PrEP is the concept of HIV-negative people taking anti-HIV drugs in advance of sex (or needle-sharing) to prevent HIV.
08 Sep 2009
According to the Centers for Disease Control, during 2005, drug-induced HIV and viral hepatitis combined to kill more than 51,000 people in the United States; during 2006, there was an increased number of deaths from viral hepatitis ("Deaths: Final Data for 2005"; "Deaths: Final Data for 2006”. Because of unsafe needle practices (e.g., needle sharing, the use of broken or dirty needles) and isolation from conventional medical treatment, intravenous and injection drug use puts individuals at risk for all three of these diseases (Fast, Small, Wood, & Kerr, 2008; W. Small, Wood, Lloyd-Smith, Tyndall, & Kerr, 2008). Furthermore, as all communities are inextricably connected, the threat of disease in the IDU community also places the general population at risk for various infections. Some clinicians and researchers are addressing the healthcare needs of intravenous drug users with Supervised Injection Facilities (or Safe Injection Facilities, SIFs), a new and controversial form of low-threshold treatment; this treatment is open to all individuals and does not require abstinence or use of medication (Kerr & Palepu, 2001). In this editorial, we will examine the innovative SIF approach and discuss the general population’s responsibility to the public health and well-being by engaging in harm reduction.
August 28, 2009
Op-Ed/Editorials: Using Innovation to Engage Intravenous Drug Users in Harm Reduction
Ingrid Maurice
Research Coordinator
Division On Addictions, Cambridge Health Alliance
Contributors
Heather Gray
Research Associate
Division On Addictions, Cambridge Health Alliance
Debi LaPlante
Associate Director
Division On Addictions, Cambridge Health Alliance
Howard Shaffer
Director
Division On Addictions, Cambridge Health Alliance
26 Aug 2009
CATIE News - HIV on the rise again in high-income countries
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, gay and bisexual men – who are sometimes referred to as men who have sex with men (MSM) – were the main risk group affected by AIDS when it first appeared. Today, in Australia, Canada and the United States, these men continue to be the risk group most commonly diagnosed with HIV infection.
In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, gay community groups organized and conducted educational efforts resulting in safer-sex programs. These activities highlighted the danger of the riskiest activity—unprotected anal intercourse. As a result, HIV infection rates slowed in the 1990s, at least among some gay and bisexual men in the United States and perhaps other high-income countries.
26 Aug 2009
Last Updated: 2009-08-25 15:25:15 -0400 (Reuters Health)
By Rod Nickel
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - AIDS is spreading faster among Canada's aboriginal people than in the general population, and a strong cultural stigma and links to rising drug use make the problem difficult to solve.
One health official compared it last week to the AIDS epidemic in Africa and warned that up to 30 percent of the aboriginal population in the western province of Saskatchewan could die of AIDS within a decade.
Saskatchewan's top health official dismissed that prediction, but said the rapid spread of AIDS in the native population is a growing concern.
OHSUTP
