Focus of the month

ReaDigest HIV/AIDS

Vo l u m e 1 , I s s u e 1 1 0 o f Oc t2 0 0 9
ReaMetrix is committed
to becoming the leading
provider of high quality
research and diagnostic
assay. We believe Novel CD4 enumeration reagent:
Indian resources bring For accessible ‘n’ affordable HIV/AIDS management
significant value to
identifying and The HIV/AIDS management in- settings. CE marked, Convenient and sim-
addressing the health volves diagnosis of immune status The unique and novel feature of plified workflow, Decentralized
care needs of the of an individual using CD4 enumera- the Dry Tri T-STAT is that it staining of sample, No cold chain
developing world.
tion test followed by prescription facilitates decentralized staining for storage and transport, Sta-
To know more about us of appropriate Anti Retroviral of patient blood. Reagents do not ble at temperatures up to 40oC
please visit Therapy (ART). Early and timely require cold-chain and can be and Affordability– significantly
www.reametrix.com diagnosis of immune status helps shipped to the point of sample brings down the cost of CD4
millions of people by not just allow- collection with testing to 1/3 of the current
Contact us
ing an appropriate ART but also by minimal effort. methodologies.
ReaMetrix India Pvt. significantly reducing the cost and The blood samples
Ltd, 50 B, 2nd Phase,
time of treatment. can be stained and
TVS Cross, Peenya
Industrial Area, Peenya
The most widely used methodology fixed after which
Bangalore- 560 058 to accurately measure CD4 counts
is by flow cytometry. The following Picture showing Dry
India. Dr. Sujay Prasad,
Tri T STAT in a
factors in currently used method-
Phone: +91 80 2837 unitized format Director,
8693 ologies affect the affordability and
accessibility of CD4 testing; need Anand Diagnostics says
Fax : +91 80 4117 2451
for a cold chain during shipment and the samples can be shipped to “ReaMetrix help us in
storage of flow reagents, aging of centralized testing centers for keeping our commitment
patient blood samples due to delay analysis. The advantage is that the in offering tests at
in transport to centralized testing delivered sample is already proc- affordable costs
centers and the need for skilled essed and ready to be run on the especially HIV. Earlier
technical expertise (as the use of machine. External studies pub- we were providing this
PTO existing liquid reagent involves sev- lished in peer-reviewed journals (HIV) test for Rs2000,
eral manual pipetting steps that have shown that stained samples as the cost of the
to find
usually lead to erroneous result). are stable for up to 8 days with no reagent was high. But
HAART– as The Dry Tri T-STAT developed by change in CD4 counts. now with help of
prevention? ReaMetrix addresses the unmet The salient features of Dry Tri T- ReaMetrix we offer this
needs of sample processing, storage STAT are; high accuracy and re- test for Rs250”.
Do you know?
and shipment in infrastructure-poor producibility, US FDA cleared and
Toons for
thought
Test your MQ* Industry New(s)
Brain Gym PIMA analyzer is a new
1. When was the first AIDS epidemic discovered?
tool in the management
2. What is the symbol for showing solidarity with AIDS of HIV patients.
affected people? CD4 count can be ob-
To know the answers for
‘Test your MQ’ and ‘Brain 3. Which cancer is developed due to an HIV infection? tained in 20 minutes
Gym’, log onto with a single finger
4. Which region of the world has highest number of
prick.
readigest.reametrix.com AIDS patients?
Its battery operated, portable and robust.
right now and win excit- 5. Which of the following celebrities died of AIDS?
ing prizes if you are For more info: http://www.pimatest.com/en/
amongst the first ten. A. Kurt Cobain B. Freddie Mercury
page-daccueil.html
C. John Lennon D. Fred Astaire
*Medical Quotient

1

HAART as Prevention: A New Paradigm?
“ART is good, not only for treatment, but also for preventing HIV transmission
Excerpts from a study summary by Reuben Granich, M.D., M.P.H. © IAS Conference, Cape
town.
HAART (Highly Active Anti Retro
Viral Therapy) as prevention is a
theoretical model that shows
that if people are tested for
HIV, on average, once per year,
and ART [antiretroviral therapy]
is started immediately, a 95%
reduction in incidence of new HIV
cases would be seen in 10 years.
The end of 2007 reported, 2.7
million new infections a year, and
6.7 million people who need treat-
ment.
The discussed model used a com-
bined prevention approach that
would not only include ART, but
also many other interventions
(like couple's counseling and male
circumcision, for example) to get
ahead of the epidemic, and pre-
vent transmission. Patients who
started ART earlier between 200
and 350 CD4 counts had signifi-
cantly fewer deaths and fewer
cases of TB when compared with
those that had deferred treat-
ment to less than 200 or an AIDS
defining illness. Starting ART
2 We welcome your feedback, write to us at readigest@reametrix.com
Toons for Thought
earlier would shift the risk of TB to
a much lower level. However if we
consider that people will live for
tens of years on ART then starting
2-4 years earlier appears much
shorter. The model also showed the
benefit of HIV prevention for a
theoretical scenario involving a CD4
count of less than 350.
People are starting to realize that
HIV treatment is not only about
saving people's life, which is impor-
tant, and keeping them out of the
hospital, which is, of course, criti-
cal, and allowing them to live a pro-
ductive and longer life; but it's also
about preventing transmission to
others.
For a detail read go to
http://www.thebody.com/
content/confs/ias2009/
art52828.html?ts=pf Do you know?
• 650 Link ART Centers Planned under
NAPC - III. Presently there are 68.
Reuben Granich, M.D., M.P.H., medical • There are eight state centers where sec-
officer for the World Health Organiza- ond line ART is available in India, previously
tion (WHO)'s HIV/AIDS Department only two were available.
For more information visit www.hivaidsonline.in
Across
1. Orange dye– a nucleic acid stain
Brain Gym 3. A flurochrome abbreviation
5. Stimulates Antibody production
7. An enzyme inhibited by Elvitegravir (GS9137)
9. Abbreviation for a HIV drug
10. His equation shows the relation of temperature dependence
and the rate of a chemical reaction (A=RT)
Down
2. A HIV protease inhibitor
4. An enzyme in HIV with an –ase amiss
6. HIV belongs to this family
8. Word ending with ‘fluid’- the liquid stream in flow cytometer
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