Welcome to HIV Weekly, a new, weekly email bulletin that will provide people with, or affected by, HIV a concise, plain English digest of a selection of the very latest HIV news.

This new digest puts the latest HIV news stories into their context to equip you with the knowledge to understand what the latest research might mean for your HIV treatment and care.

Information on the latest NAM treatment information resources and those produced by other key organisations such as the UK Coalition and THT are also included.

HIV Weekly is edited by Michael Carter, NAM's patient information and news editor.

An HIV Weekly archive will be provided online.

Anti-HIV treatment

Discrimination from healthcare workers

Over a quarter of HIV-positive Americans think that they have been discriminated against by doctors, nurses or another healthcare workers because they have HIV, a study has found. The study involved almost 2,500 people receiving HIV care in the late 1990s and found that 26% thought that they had received less favourable treatment from healthcare staff because they had HIV.

“Fear of discrimination keep some HIV-infected patients from disclosing their infection to clinicians (doctors) which could compromise receipt of appropriate care”, the study’s authors write.

In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act provides valuable protection to people with HIV from the moment of their diagnosis.

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (normally just called, TB) is the leading cause of death amongst people with HIV worldwide. In the UK, it is one of the most common AIDS-defining illnesses.

Between 16 – 19^th October, delegates from around the world gathered in Paris for 36^th Union World Conference on Lung Health. A lot of new information about TB and HIV was presented. Most of the information presented to the conference mainly concerned poorer countries which do not have the kind of access the UK does to anti-HIV drugs.

However, a study conducted by the Health Protection Agency in the UK showed that cases of highly infectious TB have increased by a third in the UK since 1999. TB can be completely cured with the right antibiotic treatment, but this study also found that the amount of drug-resistant TB in the UK has increased in recent years. In 2003, 7% of all TB cases involved resistance to isoniazid, a key drug in TB treatment.

Complementary, herbal and alternative treatments