FDA approves first pill to help prevent HIV

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the first drug shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection, a milestone in the 30-year battle against the virus that causes AIDS.

The agency approved Gilead Sciences' pill Truvada as a preventive measure for people who are at high risk of acquiring HIV through sexual activity, such as those who have HIV-infected partners.
Public health advocates say the approval could help slow the spread of HIV, which has held steady at about 50,000 new infections per year for the last 15 years. An estimated 1.2 million Americans have HIV, which develops into AIDS unless treated with antiviral drugs. With an estimated 240,000 HIV carriers unaware of their status, doctors and patients say new methods are needed to fight the spread of the virus.
Gilead Sciences Inc. has marketed Truvada since 2004 as a treatment for people who are already infected with the virus.
But starting in 2010, studies showed that the drug could actually prevent people from contracting HIV when used as a precautionary measure. A three-year study found that daily doses cut the risk of infection in healthy gay and bisexual men by 42 percent, when accompanied by condoms and counseling.
Last year another study found that Truvada reduced infection by 75 percent in heterosexual couples in which one partner was infected with HIV and the other was not.
Because Truvada is on the market to manage HIV, some doctors already prescribe it as a preventive measure. FDA approval will allow Gilead Sciences to formally market the drug for that use, which could dramatically increase prescribing.
Truvada's groundbreaking preventive ability has exposed disagreements about managing the disease among those in the HIV community. Groups including the AIDS Healthcare Foundation asked the FDA to reject the new indication, saying it could give patients a false sense of security and reduce the use of condoms, the most reliable preventive measure against HIV.
But FDA scientists said Monday said there was no indication from clinical trials that Truvada users were more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior.
"What we found was that condom use increased over time and sexually transmitted infections either remained at baseline levels or decreased," said Dr. Debra Birnkrant, FDA's director of antiviral products. "So in essence, we don't have any strong evidence that condoms were not used or there was a decrease in condom use."

Bring the Doctor Home: Technology Advances

There are many electronic devices that assist in the Health and Human services field. Clients and patients often want frequent updates on health information, or quick assistance when trying to see the doctor. Many innovations have been patented to assist those in need of greater medical care.
Technologies have also been upgraded to benefit patients. This technology can be accessed through the internet, using a web-cam, through monitors on television screens, and many other ways. This will allow a doctor to see more patients in a shorter period; however, this may take away the jobs of nurses and aids. As a patient this technology is easy, accessible, and overall fast. Taking the time to go to the doctors office in the comfort of your very own home is very appealing. If I were a nurse; however, this could be detrimental to my job if I worked in a doctors office. There are still nurses, aids, LPN's and RN's needed in hospitals and trauma units. If I were a nurse, and I lost my job to virtual house calls, I would take that as my opportunity to work in a facility that could provide a better annual income than working in a doctors office.
When one is suffering from a physical handicap, their means truly are limited. Doctor visits can become more expensive, as a caretaker may have to transport the patient to the doctor or hospital. There are many concerns about medical care, and many aspects that could be compromised if virtual technology were not high priority, secure, and safe guarded with software, or spy ware. Seeing a doctor can be possible from your own home via-web-cam. This also promotes health, as those who are physically handicapped, paraplegic for example, may have compromised immunity.
Viruses and bacteria thrive in doctor's offices. Children are the main culprits in spreading bacteria that can make you ill. Many children to go the doctors office each day which can cause a cesspool of germs for one to contract. If an individual with a compromised immune system were to use virtual house calls as an alternative, they may not get as sick as often. Well-visits would consist of check-up and nothing more. This brings comfort to the patient that they can go to the doctor in the privacy of their own homes.
Virtual house calls could cause legal issues, in that doctors would be able to see patients where ever they chose. This could lead a doctor to visiting with a patient over his lab-top while enjoying dinner with his friends. This breeches HIPAA, which every person who receives medical attention is entitled to. There are many more issues to be considered when using a computer to give medical advice or care
When considering technology and ethical issues that may arise we must consider fraud, theft, system scrambling and viruses that attack a computer's hard drive. Fraud can be more easily committed over the Internet when one does not have to show photo ID, or give social security numbers. Computer and file hacking within an Intranet is a very real occurrence, this could violate patient/client rights as personal information could be altered, breached or deleted. Theft can become an issue if one is able to commit fraud and assume another's identity and gain benefits. This is how theft plays into ethical issues in the technology sector of Health and Human Services. If an individual is able to obtain user name and passwords for an Intranet or Extranet system, this entire system could fail due to scrambling. When a system fails information can potentially be lost. If there is no paper work documenting the information contained in clients files, all patient and client information is lost. There are laws set into place to protect these issues; however, these issues are still occurring in technology. Spyware and virus software may be able to protect your computer; however, sometimes these systems fail and information can be compromised.Technology has been updated to accommodate the world and the speed in which it operates. Everyone can gain from these benefits, as the Internet can bring doctor and patient together. A paraplegic who lives alone will have to make routine doctor visits, this is when virtual house calls are most beneficial. There are some issues and glitches within this system which could compromise patient health and confidentiality. Virtual house calls could also cause nurses who work in doctor's offices to lose their jobs, as they will not be needed in the exam room for assistance. Overall this is a personal choice, and one that has more benefits than detriments.

Device lets disabled control PC with eyes

ENGINEERS say they have built a cheap device that lets disabled people control a computer with just their eyes.
The gadget comprises two video-game cameras, costing less than $A10 apiece, attached outside the line of vision to a pair of ordinary glasses, reported the team from Imperial College London on Friday.
The cameras relay the eye's movements to an ordinary computer, wirelessly or via USB, and use one watt of power, they say in the Journal of Neural Engineering.
In this way, test subjects could control a cursor on a screen just like a computer mouse.
"We have achieved two things: we have built a 3D eye tracking system hundreds of times cheaper than commercial systems and used it to build a real-time brain machine interface," said co-author Aldo Faisal.
"This is frugal innovation; developing smarter software and piggy-backing existing hardware to create devices that can help people worldwide ..."

It also allowed patients to interact more smoothly and more quickly than more expensive technologies that require electrode implants in the brain.
"We demonstrate here that by using mass-produced video game hardware, it is possible to produce an ultra-low-cost binocular eye-tracker with comparable performance to commercial systems, yet 800 times cheaper," the researchers wrote.
The technology offers hope for restoring some level of independence to people who do not have use of their hands.

A screengrab from the YouTube video that shows how the device works by playing a game of Pong on a laptop computer

Other low-cost eye-tracking systems developed in the past had much lower performance, they added, while commercial-grade systems mainly used in research cost more than $A20,000).
To demonstrate their gadget's functionality, the team got subjects to play the video game Pong - using their eyes to bat a ball bouncing around on a computer screen.
Six of the subjects who had never done this before, achieved a "respectable score", said Faisal.
The researchers said they solved the problem of involuntary blinking in controlling the computer.
Many systems use a blink to represent a mouse click, but the team calibrated their system to work on a single-eyed wink instead.
They were also able to calibrate how far into the distance their subjects were looking, holding promise for future applications that may allow people to control an electronic wheelchair simply by looking at where they want to go.